“I’m sorry. I was passing in the hallway, and I couldn’t help overhearing,” I said. “I’m sorry your mom is—”
“Don’t even.” Callista let out a skeptical noise. “I’m not going to tell you where the Black Claw is. I’m not even going to tell you if I’m involved. My mom is being overdramatic, as always.”
“What if I want to find them, and join them?”
Callista let out a laugh. “Join them? As if. I know you have a problem with the cult, Ethan. You spent years as the Phantom tracking them down. The only reason you’d want to find them is so you can wipe them out, like you tried before.”
“But I know what it’s like now. I just discovered I have Unseelie blood,” I confessed to her.
This was a huge risk. I didn’t know Callista. She could turn me in. But I had to take a chance.
Her eyebrow raised. “You, an Unseelie?
“Yes. It comes from my mother’s side.” I took a deep breath. “I was against the Unseelie before. But I’m realizing dark magic isn’t all bad. There’s use in Unseelie magic. The Black Claw is the only group in the city fighting for Unseelie rights, and that includes people like me. I could be one of you.”
Callista’s eyes widened slightly, before she said, “It doesn’t matter. You can’t be trusted.”
Callista hurried off. I scowled and headed down the other way. Callista had something to do with all of this, I was sure of it. How deep she was in, I couldn’t be certain.
The Black Claw had all but vanished like smoke. There were no signs of their existence, no remnants of dark rituals or sacrifices like there’d been before, no murders, not even any strange abductions. It was like the cult had vanished off the face of the planet, and it was maddening. After following them and tracking them down for years, I’d never ceased to find a clue on where they might be hiding. Since the Slaughter of the Innocents, we hadn’t seen a trace of them— not in months. Alexei was doing his best to use his resources, but his former friends didn’t seem to have any idea where the cult may have gone, either.
Perhaps Elijah was helping them. Or perhaps he’d told them to lie low for awhile, to wait for some sinister purpose of his. Were they preparing to harvest Emma’s blood to raise Droga, and were merely waiting for the perfect time to strike? We still didn’t know the day of this ritual, and that worried me.
Whatever the case, we weren’t progressing in finding the griffin stone. It was making Emma’s depression even worse. If she couldn’t skate anymore, she wanted to throw her whole heart into finding the stones, but as of right now, there was nothing to do. She all but felt useless, and had told me so.
I longed to rectify it, and didn’t know how. Where did these people go? They had to besomewherein Dolinska. They wouldn’t leave. The answer seemed close by, and yet, tantalizingly out of our reach.
I entered Emma’s dorm room without knocking. She was lying on her bed, reading a book. Tygrys hovered nearby and turned pages for her. He purred, and his antennae moved as he flew over the words. It seemed he was paying more attention to the book than she was.
Emma looked up. Her eyes flashed to my hockey bag, and looked away.
A fresh wave of sadness rolled over me. I always felt guilty whenever I went to the rink now. It didn’t seem fair that I was still able to do what I loved, and Emma wasn’t. She’d shoved her skates to the back of her closet, as if she couldn’t bear to look at them.
“Callista has something to do with the Black Claw,” I told Emma as I set my bag down. “I heard her arguing in the hallway with Professor Hemlock about it. I’m sure she’s a part of the cult.”
Emma’s look was contemplative. “We should have her followed. It’s the only way we can be absolutely sure.”
I nodded. I was thinking the same thing.
Emma remained silent. She’d hardly said a word since we’d gotten back from Russia. I sat down beside her.
The quietness between us was palpable. What did you say to someone whose world had been torn apart? Her heart was broken, and I had no fathomable way of putting the pieces back together.
“How’s your knee doing?” I asked. The brace was off, which meant it had to be getting better.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.” Emma threw the book aside, and crossed her arms. She was pouting.
It’d be downright cute if I wasn’t so frustrated. “I’m just trying to check up on you.”
“Don’t.”
Her temper wasn’t helping me to control mine. “I know how you feel—”
“No, you don’t,” she spat. “I know you can understand what it’s like for me to struggle to walk again, but youdon’tknow what it is to become a completely different person overnight.”
“Can’t I?” I raged. “I’ve lost myself time and time again, Emma, from the day I lost my father to the day I gave up being the Phantom. I’ve had to reinvent who I was, and you can do the same. Do you know how it felt losing the crown when we lost the Contest? What it felt like in court when Ilostmy title? I’ve gone from prince, to vigilante, and then to nothing. None of that was easy!”
“I’m not saying it was!” Emma grabbed at her hair. “But you’re stronger than I am. You know how to do this. I don’t. I literally need to rebuild who I am from scratch!”
