Slayer(72)

She smiles warmly at Leo. “Why don’t you two go train, work out some of Nina’s stress. I’ll get to work on the demon questions. If Honora is involved in something this big, I’ll find answers. I still have a few Watcher tricks up my sleeves.”

Leo nods curtly. I follow him out, feeling lighter than I have since the first hellhound attacked. I shouldn’t have been trying to do this on my own. I was making a classic Buffy mistake. Not trusting my Watchers. Not using them. How could I have fallen into it so easily? I have Leo, and, even better, I have Eve. She’ll take care of things, because that’s what Watchers do. That’s what mothers do.

As if on cue, my mother bursts out of her room. She startles when she sees us, holding her large tote bag to her chest like she thinks we’ll try to take it.

“Nina!” she says. “Leo?”

I want to ask her about Doug. What she knew. But I also want to ask how she is, to try and express how sorry I am about losing Bradford, a man she must have loved dearly even if I never really saw that side of their relationship. But my mother speaks first.

“I’m glad I ran into you. I have an assignment for you.”

“What?” My chest flutters with surprise and excitement.

“Not you. Leo.”

I deflate, but she doesn’t notice or doesn’t care.

“There’s a Slayer in Dublin. I have reason to believe she’s in trouble.” My mother reaches into her suit jacket and retrieves a small address book. She flips through it—I see dozens of entries—until she finds the page she’s looking for. She does still have a list of Slayers that she’s keeping to herself. She rips the page free and hands it to Leo.

“Cosmina,” Leo says. Then he course corrects. We shouldn’t recognize her name, as far as my mother is concerned. “That’s the Slayer?”

If my mother knows about Cosmina, does she know what we did? No. There’s no way. We’d be in so much trouble if she had any idea.

But why this sudden desire to send Leo to meet Cosmina? Why now, when we’ve avoided Slayers for two years?

Actually, Eve mentioned something about a Slayer in Costa Rica. That was how they found each other again. But that Slayer was already dead. Maybe my mom has been contacting Slayers for a long time and hiding it. But I don’t know why she would do that either.

I always thought she hated Slayers. But her mother was one. And I’m one now too. I suspect it’s a lot more complicated than I’ve ever understood.

“Yes,” my mother says, answering Leo’s question. “Cosmina Enescu. That’s her address. I’d like you to go immediately.” She’s snatching up Leo. He’s not hers. He’s mine. My Watcher. She doesn’t get to be part of this.

Besides, how is my mother handing out assignments right now? It’s only been hours since Bradford’s death. What have they done with the body? Anything? What are they going to do? Shouldn’t my mom be dealing with that instead?

“Are you sad?” I blurt.

“What?” She raises her eyebrows.

“About Bradford Smythe! He raised you. And now he’s dead.”

“He didn’t raise me.” She stops, something stricken finally breaking through on her face. “The whole community did. It’s complicated.”

“Why, because he was your mother’s Watcher?”

She freezes. Leo stares down at the slip of paper like it’s filled with text he’s suddenly compelled to read. I can’t believe I’m doing this in front of him.

Actually, his presence is why I finally feel able to do this. He makes me stronger. Braver. I refuse to back down or explain myself. “If I don’t understand, it’s only because you never talk to me. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me your mother was a Slayer.”

Emotions battle across her features, and then finally her tight, distant expression returns. “Because it doesn’t matter. Leo, please let me know as soon as you find Cosmina. Invite her to the castle, if she’ll come.”

“What?” I shout.

They both turn to me, surprised. Eve opens her door and peers out into the hallway.

“You can’t invite her here! We don’t know anything about her! You’re the one who’s always going on about secrecy and how we can’t work with Slayers because we can’t trust them to keep our secrets safe!”

“Dublin has gotten dangerous, Nina. Would you rather me leave Cosmina vulnerable and alone?”

“Yes!” I stop, take a deep breath. “No. But, gods, are you really so desperate to replace me that you’ll find the nearest Slayer and bring her in instead?”

“That’s not what this is about.”

“That’s exactly what this is about! Well, guess what, Mom? Producing another Slayer won’t change anything. I was already Chosen. Past tense. It’s done. You might hate it, you might hate me, but like you said: It doesn’t matter.” I turn on my heel and stomp out of the fancy residence wing.

I almost run into Artemis in the main hall. Her face is flushed, sweat on her forehead. “No sign of the demon. Or Honora.”

Rhys walks past us, chipper and oblivious. “Come on,” he says. “We’re going to be late for class.”

Class? It feels almost laughable right now to behave like students when we’re already deep into real-world scenarios. “Where’s Cillian?” I ask Rhys. “He’s okay?”