Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(91)

His screams rattled the walls as the wolves tore apart his flesh.

No. I looked away, my heart rattling, my body limp and heavy as his screams joined that of the crowd. And through it all I could hear Saul’s promise. It was unmistakable. “You’ll see. In seven days, we’ll come. And death will follow.”





22



“LOOK, I DON’T BLOODY KNOW what happened, Henry. Just try to spin this.” Lake paused. “I don’t care if you don’t work for the other girls; the press is killing us. Do something, yeah?”

In our hotel room, she wasn’t the only one yelling into her phone. Belle was by the heavy, drawn window curtains shouting angrily at Brendan on the other end of the line. Chae Rin sat with her feet on the couch and her knees to her chest, picking the skin on her lips distractedly. Next to her, Ha Rin watched the news with bloodshot eyes, listening limply to terrified pundits collectively implode while they tried to make sense of what had just happened.

What was there to make sense of? John Walsh, a Canadian premier, had just been torn to shreds, his death streamed internationally. There was no news of any city’s antiphantom defense systems being compromised, so Saul must have taken him to a Dead Zone. It had already been declared an act of terrorism. And while it was happening, the four Effigies whose duty it was to protect the world had been standing onstage at a teen awards show, collecting a spray-painted trophy for being role models. The headlines wrote themselves.

I was pacing back and forth by the door, unable to calm myself. Natalya’s voice had receded back into my mind, but I was still disturbed, still on edge, which is why I jumped at the sound of a few swift knocks at the door.

“It’s me,” came Uncle Nathan’s voice from the other side of the door. I let him in.

“What are you doing here?” I shut the door fast as he stalked inside with his laptop underneath his arm. “Nobody can see you here.”

“It’s okay—nobody saw me.” He set his laptop down on the table a few feet away from the minifridge. The sounds of pundits screaming over one another drew his attention, and after mere seconds of watching the television, he shook his head. “This is bad. Very bad.”

“You saw it, right?” I said.

“Yeah. I don’t drink much, but I definitely felt like knocking back a couple of those complimentary mini-scotches in the fridge.”

“Seven days,” I said.

“Seven days. Giving a timeline only ramps up global hysteria, fear, and anger. Anger at the Sect.” He looked at me with worried eyes. “At you.”

Belle clicked off her phone. “The top officials from the Sect are already planning on conferencing with the world’s leaders. But many of them are refusing to meet. They’re furious.”

“We should have done something.” Chae Rin gripped her knees, her chin pressed against them. Then, lifting her head, she glared at Belle. “We should have done something.”

“Done what?” Belle shot back. “We couldn’t do anything from where we were.”

“Exactly!” Chae Rin jumped to her feet, staying rooted to the spot only because her sister had climbed up after her and grabbed her arm to calm her. “We’re Effigies, damn it. We’re supposed to be out there fighting, not playing dress-up like clowns on TV. We’re not supposed to be looking pretty. We’re supposed to be making people feel safe. That’s what I . . .” She looked back at her sister before lowering her head. “Saul told the world he was an Effigy. I can’t even imagine what my parents think right now. What must be going through their heads.”

“I’m sure they’re all right,” Ha Rin said. “Well . . .” She paused.

Chae Rin became anxious, her lips parting as she looked back at her sister. “Well, what?”

“No,” Ha Rin said. “It’s nothing. I—”

“They’re slaughtering us out there and there’s barely anything my agent and my marketing team can even do about it.” Lake groaned, pressing her phone against her head as she walked over to the table. “What the hell are we supposed to do? How do we get Saul?”

“Brendan wants us to return to the London facility immediately,” said Belle.

“No!” Uncle Nathan stepped forward, waving his hand in protest. “No, no, no. Don’t do that. Trust me.”

“Why?” I asked.

He answered by pulling up a chair, plunking himself down, and lifting up his laptop screen. “Uh,” he said, turning to peek over at Ha Rin. “This is kind of sensitive.”

Chae Rin sat up quickly and tapped her sister’s shoulder, taking the hint. “Unnie, I’m glad you’re here, but, uh, I hope you don’t mind.” And she pressed her hands over her sister’s ears. “It’s for your own protection.”

“Okay.” Ha Rin let out an incredulous laugh as her sister kept her head facing forward. “This isn’t weird at all.”

I came around Uncle Nathan’s shoulder as he plugged in the flash drive. “Did you find something?” Belle and Lake gathered around me.

“I’ve only been able to get through the first few layers of defense on this thing,” Uncle Nathan said. A series of clicks on his keyboard brought up a black screen, but soon several dark, metallic-green letters appeared at the top left-hand corner.