Betrayal - By Lee Nichols Page 0,35

easy answers, Emma. He’s groping in the dark for power, while we stumble around blindly after him.”

I let out a sigh. “We really have to go back to the mausoleum?”

“After I finish researching it, yes.”

“And what about the siren? I tried looking it up but I didn’t find much. I thought I heard a weird humming noise at the playground. Could that have something to do with the siren?”

“A humming noise, huh?” Simon mused. “In Greek mythology the sirens are enchantresses, bird-women who lived on these islands called Sirenum scopuli. They lured sailors to their deaths with songs of irresistible beauty.”

“If you tell me we’re fighting a bunch of Greek myths, I am going to scream.”

He half laughed. “That’s just the origin. There are whispers of a creature in the Beyond with the same power, but she’s a myth, just like the bird-women. The humming is probably just due to stress. I’m more concerned about finding Neos’s final resting spot. I’m not aware of any connection between him and any burial ground other than that mausoleum.”

We talked for a while about Neos. Then Simon launched into a lecture about his theory of ghasts—which wasn’t even all that boring. He’d make a good professor someday. Then he stopped and looked at me. “May I see your ring?”

I hesitated a moment before pulling the chain from inside my shirt.

Simon reached a finger out tentatively and touched the ring. Then he shook his head. “I can’t feel any power. Does it really turn you into a ghost?”

I nodded. “But I don’t like using it much.”

“It’s embedded with the other Emma’s powers. It’s not unlike the dagger. How is your training going?”

“You know better than anyone—you just spent three hours kicking my butt.”

“I mean, with the dagger.”

“Um. You wanna spar?”

“Not me,” he said. “Your … friend.”

“Oh.” He knew about the Rake. “I haven’t shown it to him yet.”

“Well, you should. Learn to use it before your life depends on it. Before all our lives depend on it.”

Upstairs in my bedroom, I pulled Emma’s dagger from the drawer, where it was buried under my T-shirts. The hilt felt cold and heavy, and I almost hid it away immediately. I didn’t want to face this—another weapon, more killing.

But no matter how scared I was of Neos, or worried that I’d inevitably become cold-blooded, like that Emma in the tapestry, I had to do this. There was no one else who could finish Neos, no one strong enough to protect Natalie and the others, and avenge Martha’s and Coby’s deaths. And it was the only way Bennett and I could ever be together.

So I grabbed the dagger and wandered downstairs. I stood quietly in the center of the ballroom, not bothering to summon the Rake. I knew the power in Emma’s dagger would draw him. It only took a moment for him to materialize. He strode across the parquet floor, looking pleased to see me. Then his expression changed.

Oh, my dear child, he said, with such emotion that tears sprang to my eyes. I didn’t expect sympathy from him.

I’m okay, I said. Though I wasn’t. I’m just ready for a vacation, a few days to pretend I’m an ordinary girl.

I wish I could fight him for you, Emma. But you’re the only one who’s strong enough.

I know. I just wish the Knell took care of this, instead of getting their asses kicked. Why can’t they just dispatch some assassin to track down Neos?

His eyebrow arched mockingly, but his expression remained kind.

And I realized: Oh. They think I’m their assassin. I showed the Rake the dagger. In that case, I definitely need you to teach me how to use this.

Any problems retrieving it?

The ghasts were meaner than I expected, I said. And I kind of froze up.

That happens. You’re young.

I guess. I looked at the dagger’s lethal blade. And later, when I grabbed the knife, I flashed on Emma’s memory of killing a man. I mean, a living man. She was vicious. I don’t want to be like—

She was fighting for her life, he said.

I know, but—

You would do the same. You must do the same. Your qualms speak well of you—but you are not simply an ordinary girl. You are Emma Vaile. Never forget that.

Yeah, like anyone’s gonna let me forg—

He slashed at me with his rapier, and I jerked backward, raising the dagger to ward off the blow.

Would you stop doing that? I said.

Your grip is wrong.

That’s how Emma held it, I told him.

You’re stronger than