Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(76)
“It’s done,” she said.
Rowan and Tristan escorted her back down to the bailey where the rest of her mechanics were waiting. They stood arranged in front of her pyre, which they’d built right in the middle of the bailey. The pyre was splintered and thorny, and the stake stood tall in the center, its chains dangling. A thrill ran through her, equal parts fear and hunger.
Can you jump this many? The question came from Rowan, but she knew her whole coven was thinking it. She didn’t answer because she didn’t know.
Lily climbed the pyre, pulled the chains through her shackles herself, and locked them with a small snick. The new additions to her army watched. An anxious susurration rose from their ranks.
“Light it,” she said.
CHAPTER
11
Toshi and Ivan were in their wordless flow, silently agreeing that the latest virus they had concocted to wipe out the Hive had to be scrapped because it would most likely kill everyone in the city along with the Hive, when Grace walked into the lab.
She looked at the petri dish, took its contents apart with a glance, and then looked up at Toshi and Ivan with eyebrows raised.
“I hope that’s not going around,” she said, alarmed.
“It’s just a sample. There’s no host,” Ivan replied with a small shake of his head.
“Good.” Grace smiled and looked between the two of them like they were her dear friends. “You two have been busy lately, although I can’t quite tell with what.”
Toshi didn’t react. He’d gotten good at burying his feelings over the past week and a half. If he felt anxious that Grace was actually here in the lab to see what they’d been up to, he quickly snuffed it. Whether she was physically in the room or not, it made no difference. She was always watching, which was why Toshi and Ivan hadn’t even attempted to become stone kin. It was a good thing they knew each other well enough not to need mindspeak in order to read each other’s minds. Toshi glanced at Ivan, who was even better at appearing calm. But then again, he’d had almost two hundred years of experience hiding his emotions from Grace and the Hive.
“We’ve been updating the inoculation roster. Would you like us to walk you through the new diseases we’ve identified?” Ivan asked, with an ever so slightly belabored breath to indicate how tedious that would be for all of them.
“The flu is doing something interesting,” Toshi added with a listless shrug.
Grace declined their unappealing offer by wrinkling her nose. She started wandering around the lab, peering into jars and touching instruments. “It’s been a while since you’ve been down here,” she said to Toshi. When she turned to face him, she gave him a glassy-eyed smile. “I wonder what prompted you to become so hands-on again?”
Toshi knew there was no point trying to act too innocent. She knew something was going on, but had decided that finding out what they were doing was more important than stopping them. For now, anyway.
“Just looking for meaning in my life now that I’ve discovered everything I’ve ever thought to be true was built on a giant lie,” he rattled off as if it were of no consequence. She laughed aloud at his audacity. “What are you doing down here?” he asked in return.
“Alright. No more dancing around it, then.” She stopped her wandering and faced them. “I want to know if your renewed interest in the lab has anything to do with how Lily and her coven disappeared into thin air.”
“You’re really obsessed with that, aren’t you?” Toshi asked, not having to fake his surprise.
Grace’s eyes flashed with anger. “My scouts can’t find her. There’s no trail, no scent markers. Nothing. I’ve sent half the Hive clear into Pack territory, and there’s no sign of her.”
“I don’t see what you expect us to do about that,” Ivan said irritably. “We deal in real materials in the lab, not hocus-pocus. Toshi and I can’t help you if she’s been”—Ivan waved his hands about, searching for the appropriately derisive expression—“spirited away.” “Spirited away.” Grace laughed at the foolishness of that under her breath, and then caught herself. “Spirit walking.” Her smirk dissolved and her eyes moved about restlessly. “Maybe she wasn’t lying about the shaman.”
Toshi hadn’t entirely understood what Lily was talking about when she was pleading for her sister’s life in the redwood grove, but he did know that she had been about to tell Grace how she could be in two places at once. She’d talked about spirit walking and a shaman, and Grace had dismissed it out of hand. It seemed she was changing her mind about that now. Dread roiled in his stomach. The last thing Grace needed was more power.
Grace started heading for the door, already forgetting about Toshi and Ivan now that she had new quarry.
“Where are you going?” Toshi asked. “Grace!” he called out as the door shut behind her.
Lily’s spirit flew up and out of her tortured flesh. Down below, she saw herself writhing in flames. Out and beyond, she saw that the overworld had taken on the shapes of vast swaths of forest and rolling hills.
Lillian was out there somewhere, waiting for her. That wasn’t Lily’s first stop. She had to find Alaric and her braves. She turned away from Lillian’s faint call.
Lily scanned the virgin tracts of land for a beacon. As her body burned she felt it tugging on her spirit, like a child pulling on a balloon. But she was calm here. Patient. She couldn’t jump without some kind of tie to the land she was going to jump to. She needed the vibration of the land in order to unlock the key to that particular place in the same way she needed the vibration of someone’s mind inside their willstone in order to claim them.