“What’s going on?” he asked, right to be concerned. “We can talk,” he said, casting Privacy, looking around at the city street where we were comfortably hidden in the bustle of a fast-paced weekday morning. “What are you thinking?”
“Do you think Jaxan’s the Shadowrealm?” I asked suddenly. It was the first thing I thought of that wasn’thim. “Do you hear his footsteps in the shadows?”
Leland’s fingers twitched on the black tabletop. “No.”
“No, you don’t hear them? Or no, it isn’t him?”
“It’s not Jaxan,” he said, his eyes serious. “I asked after the Blacklight. He said it wasn’t him.”
“But there are loopholes around your gift,” I said. “Maybe what he said wastechnicallytrue, but maybe that’s because it’s athem. If Jaxan works with other people, if there’s agroup, he could say it wasn’t him, and it would still sound like the truth, wouldn’t it?”
“I asked if he was involved. He isn’t.” Leland closed himself off, clearly not wanting to talk about this, which, unfortunately for him, only made me want to find out why.
How could he be so sure? Jaxan was a master manipulator, Leland had said it himself. Yet Leland really believed Jaxan had nothing to do with it. Did that mean he knew who did?
“Leland, Ihearhim. It’shisshadows. It has to be him.”
Leland Vanished our empty smoothie cups from the table then cast Privacy again as my eyes tracked a convent of clouds peacefully floating over distant red mountains.
“It doesn’t,” he said. “It doesn’t even have to be a Dark Witch.”He loosed a breath. “A good Illusionist could copy Jaxan’s Shadowcurrent, and no one would know the difference. A good Mentalist could convince you you’re seeing things you aren’t with a Mind Trick. It isn’t him.”
“It can’t be a light witch,” I argued. “There would be spelltracks and the Echelons would know who it is.”
“Dark Witches are hired all the time to erase them.”
“Then what light witch?” I asked, though my stomach, turning queasy, seemed to know already.
The note.The Aspirants will be freed when you leaveEverden.
Deep down, I knew who wanted me gone. Who never wanted me here in the first place.
Still, I asked, “What light witch would do this?”
“Ember.”
“I want you to say it.”
“Taking Sevens,” he started, “is purposeful. She wants discontent. She wants Everden to believe the Allwitches are enlisting Sevens and assembling in Alchemia. She wants the realm focused on how to prevent another war with them to distract from the fact that the Echelons are no longer serving us well.” After a pause, he said, “After the Blacklight, after the tavern, did you have a headache? That’s a Mentalist.”
I racked my brain, trying to remember what I’d felt after the Blacklight. Shock, mostly. Then I’d gone home with Skye and sat on the floor for a few hours, my head pounding between my hands. After the tavern was the same. My head had hurt so bad, I didn’t even try to fall asleep.
“She wants you gone, she knows you’re afraid of Jaxan, and she started the Anti-Human Initiative and told Farrah to frame you in the papers, so no one takes your side on this. Someone’s opening a portal in those shadows, and she’s in a secret relationship with a Quantum Witch. And what she did to yourdad . . .”
“What do you meanwhat she didto my dad?” I asked, my teeth clenching. But I knew. I’d known it since I’d read about the Ring of Greatest Fear inThe Blackburn Artifacts.
“Ember. I know you don’t want to believe she would do this . . .” He wouldn’t finish, always cautious when speaking to me about Helen, perhaps because the result of attempting it was often me shutting down.
“How long have you known this?” I asked.
“Not long,” he said. “I’m still looking into it.”
“Still looking into it?” I was trying not to be mad about the fact he’d hidden this from me. I knew Leland, I knew he had reasons for everything, but how could he not tell me? “What more answers do we need? You have to report her. The Echelons won’t listen to me, but if you say it, maybe you can bring back Trist and Belinda without me having to leave Everden. She can’t just — ” My throat ached, and it hurt to breathe. “Helen should be stopped.”
“I can’t,” Leland said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how many Echelons are in on it, and Jaxan ordered me to leave it alone.”
“So don’t listen. Everden doesn’t want this — ”
“Ember.” He looked at his forearm laying heavily on the table. “One of these Deals is to follow orders. These are my options. Jaxan or death. I have to listen to him.”
