But someone else was.
Out of the corner of his eye, Baz saw that same strange man watching him. And he was coming straight toward him.
With a grunt, Baz moved toward the line of cabs. Someone grabbed him roughly by the arm, but it wasn’t the man stalking him.
“You and I aren’t done, Timespinner,” Virgil Dade said in a menacing tone. He was alone, Artem and the Regulators nowhere in sight. The Reaper dragged Baz toward a car with tinted windows that hinted at money, pulling the back door open for him and gesturing inside. “Time we had a little chat.”
Baz gulped—and got in, settling on the smooth leather upholstery. Virgil slammed the door after him and got in on the other side. As the driver pulled away from the train station, Baz threw a nervous glance out the back window. The strange man was still standing there, watching their car driving away.
Virgil punched him on the shoulder, abandoning the hostile mask as a lazy smile split his face. “How’ve you been, Brysden?”
Baz rubbed at his shoulder. “I’ve been better.” He winced as he breathed in painfully. “I think yourfriendbruised my ribs.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Virgil’s face scrunched up with genuine consternation. “Can’t you do your freaky time shit to reverse the damage?”
Why had the thought not crossed Baz’s mind? “Yeah, maybe later.” He didn’t want to experiment with his magic here, in a moving car, in front of Virgil and this driver he didn’t know. “Don’t you think it’s a bit risky, being seen getting in a car together?”
“What, you don’t think I played my part well? And you! The fear in your eyes! Face as white as a sheet!” Virgil laughed. “Tides, it’s like you thought I was actually going to hurt you.”
“I thought a Regulator was following me,” Baz muttered defensively. “He was on my train. Might have seen through…” He cut himself off, giving a furtive look to the driver.
“Relax, we can talk plainly in here,” Virgil said. “Hector’s my private driver. Won’t say a word.”
Baz still lowered his voice. “Whoever was following me might have seen through Jae’s plan.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Artem doesn’t seem to suspect, at least.”
Baz forced a tight smile at the reassurance in Virgil’s voice. He trusted Virgil implicitly—had to, considering Virgil was their eyes and ears within the Selenic Order.
It was one of the first things Baz had thought of after what hadtranspired at Dovermere, to get those of the Selenic Order who’d been in the caves on their side. Virgil hadn’t wanted to hear anything at first, too broken up over Keiran’s and Lizaveta’s deaths to care, too torn over what to believe. It was Nisha Zenara who’d come around first. She’d wanted to trust Baz, and perhaps it was easier for her to do so than the others because of how close she’d been to Romie. When Baz told her the whole truth—about Artem, Keiran, and the silver blood they took from Eclipse-born—the revulsion on her face could not have been feigned.
“I swear we didn’t know about the blood,” Nisha had said to him, and Baz believed her. “Artem and Keiran were the ones to develop this new type of synth. If I had known they were made with stolen Eclipse blood…”
She’d vowed then and there to do everything in her power to help them take the Order and the Institute down. Virgil had soon followed suit after Nisha showed him what proof they had. Since then the two of them had been playing double agents within the Selenic Order. With Keiran gone, Nisha had been appointed as the new leader of the Order’s current cohort, and Virgil had stepped up as Artem’s confidant, his right-hand man, bonding with him over the deaths of Keiran and Lizaveta. Using that bond to gain Artem’s trust.
The rest of the Order’s current cohort of students was kept in the dark as to what Nisha and Virgil were doing with Baz; the fewer people who knew the truth, they agreed, the better.
“Listen,” Virgil said now with uncharacteristic somberness. “Somethingdidhappen back there, though.”
Dread filled him at those words. “What?”
“The Regulators got wind of a high-profile fugitive setting foot in Threnody. Apparently they’ve just captured an Eclipse-born—a Reanimator called Freyia Lündt.”
Relief flooded through Baz. For a second, he’d thought Virgilwould tell him something happened to Theodore and Kai—that the Regulators found them at the lighthouse, despite how careful they’d been. But his relief was short-lived as Jae flashed in his mind. Jae—who’d been on their way to meet up with Freyia today.
If Jae had been caught with Freyia, if their involvement with the Eclipse-born came to light…
“Shit,” Baz muttered in defeat.
“Shit indeed.” Virgil ran a hand over his short-clipped hair. “You saw how Artem was when he got the news back there. He was almost…gleefulabout it. He didn’t tell me what he’s planning, but I know the Order’s up to something, and I think the Reanimator is the piece of the puzzle they’ve been waiting for.”
“What would they need a Reanimator for?”
“I don’t know. From what I overheard, it didn’t sound like they were planning on branding her with the seal. At least not yet. Which I’m thinking means they’re planning on studying her or something.”
Baz swore as it all came together in his mind. “They’re going to use her against us.”
The Regulators would indeed study her. They’d push to see how her magic had been influenced after she’d Collapsed, and they’d use their findings to fit their own agenda. To show the world that it was the Shadow’s curse that made her kill all those people and do such unspeakable things to their corpses. They’d say,Look, this is why the Unhallowed Seal is so important. If she’d been branded, she’d never have committed such crimes.
