Chosen - Kiersten White Page 0,8
hellgod level. Maybe. I can’t be certain. But I think Sean is connected. You remember his tea?”
They have a supply of some of his more potent drugs, but it’s dwindling. Artemis counts it every day, watching as her only access to the type of power she needs disappears. It fills her with as much terror as anticipating a life as an accountant. She wants the strength to help, to protect Honora, to fight evil, to be more than herself. And without Sean’s drugs, she’s back to the Artemis who wasn’t good enough. “Yeah, I remember his tea.”
“There was a symbol on it. You know the one?”
Artemis does. She glances over at the nightstand where one of his branded packages sits. Now that she thinks about it, she’s seen it before. Somewhere. Where?
Imogen keeps talking. “I thought it was just his brand, but it’s been bugging me. I think it’s connected to something bigger. And I …” She pauses, and the phone is muffled as her tone changes and she answers someone in chipper tones. “Sorry. Gotta go. Nice talking to you, Liesa. I’m definitely interested in keeping chickens. I’ll be in touch with more questions.” The line goes dead.
Artemis holds the phone, staring down at it as she tries to process the conversation. Imogen was always on the sidelines. But they had been united by being shuffled by the Watchers to the worst jobs in the castle, Imogen tainted by her mother’s choices and Artemis apparently deemed simply not good enough.
She was better than everyone in that whole damn castle. Even if the Watchers were still at full force, she’d be better than all of them.
The library! She’d seen the symbol in the library, when she had to label and catalog every single book instead of studying them like Rhys, all because she’d failed a single test.
Screw stability. Screw accounting. Artemis is a Watcher, the only real one left, and if there’s a new creeping menace out there, she’ll figure it out and deal with it herself. “Call Sean.” She tosses the phone to a surprised Honora. “Tell him we want to come work for him.”
Honora twists her lips. “You sure? I was on my way out before the whole remora fiasco anyway. Not wild about the people he’s working with now. Dodgy religious zealots.”
Bingo. Artemis can’t help the surge of excitement she feels. Because where there are zealots, there’s power to be worshipped. And where there’s power, there’s potential. She doesn’t know what yet. Maybe they’ll kill whatever it is and be done with it. But if Sean can figure out a way to take what makes demons strong and synthesize it, how much more power is there to squeeze from a potential god?
Artemis leans closer. “We work for him to work against him. Just like old times for you, right?”
Honora flinches. She doesn’t talk about her time spent undercover in a demon-worshipping cult. They wrote each other constant letters back then, but Honora never, ever gave details on what she was doing. Artemis feels bad for bringing it up. She shouldn’t push this. But she needs it. She needs something.
She reaches out and strokes Honora’s hair, resting her hand on the back of Honora’s neck. “This is our job, Nor. You and me. We’re the only real Watchers left. And if something is happening, who else is going to look into it? Should we call Buffy?”
Honora snorts. “She’s as likely to shag a hellgod as kill one. Right, then. Can’t enroll until the next semester anyway. As long as we’re doing this together. You got my back, Moon?”
Honora plays it tough, but the tentative look in her eyes hits Artemis where it counts. She and Honora belong together. Nina never understood their bond, because Nina had someone looking out for her, someone protecting her. Artemis doesn’t bother to fight the wave of bitterness that after everything she did to be the strongest, the smartest, the best, Nina was chosen. That Artemis was left missing the sister she thought she had. The one who needed her.
Honora knows what it is to never be enough, to fight and fight with no one in her corner. They’re each other’s corners now. Artemis takes Honora’s hand in her own, locking eyes. “Always.”
4
BY THE TIME I GET back to the castle, it’s dark.
Rhys and Cillian will be cocooned in Rhys’s room—Cillian watching something on his battered laptop, happy to be anywhere but his empty cottage; Rhys researching, adding to his demon encyclopedia.
Jade will