Danny stuck his hands in his pockets and scowled at the floor, as if he’d seen this coming and had done everything he could to stop it, but it still happened anyway.
I knew we were all devastated by what had happened at the camps, but this was something different. The moment he saw me enter, Chancey sprinted toward me, reaching out his hands to plead.
“Ava, you gotta stop it,” Chancey begged. “Eddie told us everything. The guy’s lost his mind!”
“What?” I hardly got the word out before a group of people surrounded me. Everyone was talking all at once, and it was hard to understand.
“He’s a complete nutso!” Ivy ranted. “I can get behind a lot of things, but this is totally fucked.”
“I thought we were hisfriends,” Kallie said bitterly. “He betrayed us.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, feeling overwhelmed. I shrank under the demands of them all, starting to drown. Apparently, Eddie had told them something about Charlie, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
“He’s not letting any of us in,” Marcus said. “You need to talk to him.”
My friends spoke over one another. The noise got louder and louder. I couldn’t make out any words, just sounds, and they melded with the voices in my head until I wasn’t sure who was saying what. I felt suffocated, until I threw my hands up and said, “All right! I’ll talk to him.”
Whatever this was about, I would get to the bottom of it. I wheeled myself forward, and my friends stepped aside.
Charlie had locked the door, but I knocked loudly and said, “Charlie? It’s me.”
The door unlocked. I held my breath as I went inside. Oberi shut the door behind us, closing me in.
Charlie stood in our room. His hands were clasped behind his back, like he was waiting for me. He moved forward to lock the door again, even though I hadn’t asked him to.
I wasn’t sure what this was about. But clearly this was going to be an important conversation.
Charlie beckoned me forward. “Come with me.”
I wasn’t going to be summoned like some kind of pet. Yet still, I followed, Oberi padding behind me with his hair standing on end.
My stomach knotted into pits of nausea. I was terrified of whatever impending bomb he was going to drop on me, because obviously it wasn’t good.
Charlie went to the balcony, and I knew it wasn’t an option not to follow. The November breeze blew my hair back as we stood on the balcony that overlooked the city. Charlie put his hands on the railing and asked, “Ava, what do you see down there?”
“I see what I always see,” I responded. What was he trying to say?
“Potential,” he responded. “Wasted potential, not harnessed by my father, not being used for anything except to lie in wait for the Warden to come here and ruin it all. It’s potential that’ll be ruined unless I harness it.”
I was already expecting the worst. “And how do you intend to do that?”
He didn’t answer right away. He bounced in place nervously, his jaw hardening before he rounded on me.
“I waited to tell you, because I couldn’t stand the thought of you being disappointed in me,” Charlie started. “But I’ve realized this is something that needs to be done.”
“Whatneeds to be done?” I demanded, grabbing his arm. “Charlie, tell me!”
“The Warden needs to be beaten. We’ve given him too much time to get stronger,” Charlie stated. “The more time we give him, the more power he’s going to amass, which means we can’t give him any more. We need to do what we can to intercede himnow, so I had to take drastic action.”
“Drastic— we already have the power to beat the Warden! We’re demigods!” I objected.
“Pidge, my grandfather cut his head off and it didn’tdoanything,” Charlie said roughly. “We’re way out of our league unless we start taking control.”
“So we can’t decapitate him, or blow a hole in him, or rip his magic out of him. We’ll just have to get creative.”
“Ava, you witnessed the kind of power he has. The only reason he hasn’t come here already and destroyed the city is because he can’t get past the shield you put up. That’s our only hope right now, and it’s not going to last. The Warden’s got big guns, and he’s going to use those big guns to break your shield eventually.”
“Thosebig gunsof his aren’t enough to bring down our wards,” I countered. “He’s got a lot of magical power, but that doesn’t mean he can get past me. I’m strong enough to hold him off.”
