Page 68 of Remnants
“Why?” Aiden asks. “Who is Royce? How and why is he so close to Charles?”
Reid grimaces. “He’s no one. Supposedly after his wife died, he learned about his gift but fucked up bringing her back. Then he went nuts testing his gift on entire graveyards of people to get it right, and he’s been obsessed playing with his puppets ever since. Of course, he was arrested for grave robbing with some wild reports no one believed. Someone with connections to GE and involved in his case reached out to Charles about it. They faked his death, and now Charles helps supply and cover up bodies for Royce to play with. So long as Royce does as Charles says, he’ll get to do what he loves without anyone trying to stop him.”
“Creep,” Dane mutters.
“There are a couple rumors I overheard about him, but I don’t know if any are true. One is that he sleeps next to his dead wife and plans to figure out a way to find and bring her soul back. He’s also been alive for over a hundred years and survives by eating souls.”
I tighten Aiden’s jacket around me to stave off another chill.
“Anything else?” Aiden prompts, and I chime in with a question of my own.
“Is there a way to break out of his control once he has you?”
Reid shakes his head, his face solemn. “Once he’s got you, that’s it. Unless someone picks you up and takes you far enough away from him, and he doesn’t follow. And before he has you kill that person.”
Swallowing that uncomfortable imagery, I nod.
“I think that’s plenty for now.” Aiden stands, and the rest of us shift to do the same. “You still need to rest. When Cassandra’s given the green light, we’ll take you to meet another half-sibling and see if there’s anything more between the two of you we can use to help us win against GE.”
Reid’s brows knit in confusion. “Another half-sibling?”
“Harvey. He was spying on the Guild and sending information to Charles,” Aiden replies, but there’s no moment of recognition of his name. “The one who came on missions and could become invisible. He and fourteen other invisible siblings spied on Charles’s Board members and electees, ten of whom we now need to rescue.”
His gaze swings to mine. “Does he know about you?”
“Yeah. Apparently, he knew who I was the moment we met.”
Reid’s face tightens further. “Where is he?”
Aiden fixes his tie. “He’s somewhere safe, for now, and he’s not going anywhere. He’s planning on helping us.”
“If he was a spy for Charles, you can’t trust anything he says,” Reid argues, his eyes still on me.
“Well, you can hear him out yourself in a day or so. That is, if you’re intending to stick around this time,” Aiden adds.
Reid turns to Aiden. “I have to get Tinsley back. I can’t wait for your big fight. She won’t last there long on her own.”
“You dropped everything to help us get Raegan back on multipleoccasions,” Aiden says, then tilts his head forward in affirmation. “Helping get Tinsley back is the least we can do.”
Relief eases the tension in Reid’s face as he blows out a breath. “I can—”
The lights cut out, and all the machines in the infirmary suddenly become still and quiet.
Jackson is the one to say what we’re all thinking.
“They’re here.”
Chapter nineteen
Dane
Ittakesaminutefor my eyes to adjust, the city lights through the floor-to-ceiling windows offering a dim, but manageable glow for us to see by. The power outage is the signal given by my virus that Vera tried to touch something in the network, causing everything to reboot and power to turn off until it’s back online. My heart thunders in my chest, racing at the knowledge that Vera is here.
It doesn’t matter, I remind myself firmly. I’m not trying to win her over or keep her here this time. And after we take care of Royce, she might…
“Everyone to their positions, like we discussed,” Aiden orders, fixing his jacket back on.
I scrub my face to get my head together. I can’t get distracted.
