The third floor was silent, so they went straight to the fourth.

It wouldn’t have made sense to parade through the third floor, anyway. Her job was to bring Soma’s Vessel to the containment on the fourth floor. Dallying out in the open, even if there was no one around, would have looked odd on security footage and been a surefire way of running the plan.

So, up the stairs they went ignoring floor three all the way up to the designated location. Mira ran arm in arm with Jovie, trampling up the steps like they were nothing more than a herd of horses corralled into a pen—which, in some way, Mira figured they were. At least, Jovie was. And she was going to be the one to hand her over.

Mira came to an abrupt halt at the landing of the floor, just in front of the door. Her hand was on the doorknob and her mind was made up, but she couldn’t will herself through the motions of going through to the other side.

Jovie tugged on her arm. “Something wrong?”

Everything, Mira wanted to say.

“I don’t know how I feel about handing you over,” she said instead. Yes, it was part of the plan and it was something all of them agreed on. It still didn’t change the fact that it put Mira’s stomach into knots knowing that she was delivering Jovie right into the open palms of the enemy. Not only did she hate the idea of giving the Cardinals exactly what—or rather who—they wanted, the fact that it was a human exchange sat uncomfortably in her gut.

The Scepter nudged Mira lightly in the ribs. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine. We all agreed to it, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, I just … It’s one thing to make the plan. It’s different now that we’re executing the plan.”

Jovie bobbed her head once, then slipped her arm free of Mira’s hold and clapped her lightly on the shoulders. She hadn’t meant to flinch and she expected some kind of small laugh at her display of cowardice or her hesitancy. Mira was relieved to see that there was none of that in the Scepter’s fogged white eyes. Only understanding.

“You are not the villain here.” The words were spoken with such confidence and a softness to them that made Mira chew on the inside of her lip to keep her guilt back. “Just because you’re playing the role of one, it doesn’t make you one. We have a goal. This is just a means to an end.”

“You’re positive?”

“Positive. I can still reach for Soma’s power if I need it. Whatever they dish out to me, I’ll make sure they hurt worse than I do.”

Mira smiled a little, ignoring the taste of blood on her tongue.

“Let’s get going,” Jovie continued, reaching to hold the handle with her and without a word, pushed down to open the latch and lightly shove open the door.

The fourth floor was much like the others before it. Harsh bright lights illuminated the halls, the beams practically bouncing off of the white linoleum tiles and the walls, painted a dull gray, seemed to go on forever. She didn’t know if it was because there was no one around or if it was because something had been done to the rooms specifically to keep the noise at bay, but it was eerily quiet here in a way that made the hair on her arms stand up.

It reminded her a lot of being in a hospital at night, when the patients were asleep and silent with the smell of death around each and every corner. The thought nearly made her gag, but she straightened up and looked down the hall just as Jovie nudged her forward down the hallway ahead.

“Somewhere down that hall,” she said, matching her steps with Mira’s, “are two people. The electrical appliances are messing with my readings, though.”

“Can you get anything else on them?” asked Mira.

“Nope. Yours also makes it hard to piece out their location considering how close you are to me.” Self-conscious, Mira took a small step away from the Scepter, who smiled a little bit. “You don’t have to move, Mirabel.”

“I don’t, but maybe it would make your job easier.”

Jovie rolled her eyes, pointing down the hall with a finger hooked to the right. “There. The two of them are down that way. You’re good with the plan, right?”

“No, but I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

The Scepter didn’t reply, just waved Mira forward in an almost mocking manner, though Mira assumed it was supposed to be a joke to break the tension. It didn’t work and she fought to keep herself together. Any small slip up in her words would cause the plan to fail. So, Mira pretended like she was still in Elnoire and rolled her neck. She loosened her shoulders, straightened her posture and sauntered around the corner with Jovie in tow.

In front of a large set of double doors that looked like an entrance to a large auditorium were two, tall men. At a glance, she thought they might have been sleeping—one of them had his eyes closed while the other was staring straight ahead, still like a statue and just as rigid. He was older, probably just younger than her father, with short, slicked back, black hair and cold blue eyes that never moved from their spot staring at the adjacent wall. His hands were in the pockets of his deep maroon jacket and his chin was tipped up in a way that cast a shadow along his neck.

Beside him, the younger, dozing man, couldn’t have been much older than her or Joive. He had light ginger curls that fell in front of his freckled face. His side profile screamed “young and new,” and Mira wondered, absently, if he was just new to the job or if one of his previous assignments left him without sleep to be taking a nap in front of, arguably, the most important room for the Cardinals.

“Stop there, miss,” said the older man, who finally looked in their direction with a scowl on his face. Wrinkles creased the corners of his eyes and lips and Mira thought he could do with frowning less. “This is a no access zone. And I don’t see a badge on you for you to be wandering around like a lost goat. Go back to the lower levels…”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The man trailed off, his gaze drifting over to Jovie who was shooting the world’s most venomous glare in the Cardinal’s direction. He looked like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and Mira didn’t know whether to be offended by the fact that the man assumed she wouldn’t have been able to contain a highly powered Scepter. “High Heavens,” he whistled, looking Jovie up and down in an appraising kind of way that made the Scepter flinch.

Mira couldn’t blame her, but now was hardly the time for her to break her cover, even if all she wanted at the moment was to send a fist into the man’s jaw. She frowned. “What?” she said. “Surprised you got beaten to the punch by a newbie?”

“Perhaps,” said the guard. “I expected Soma’s Vessel to be feistier. Put up more of a fight. Maybe that’ll change later.” Then he turned to Mira and made a motion with his hand to wave her away, as if she were just some kind of fly he could move by swatting at her. “Scram, runt,” he said. “We can take the Vessel from here.”

Mira sidestepped as the man reached to grab Jovie by the arm. Absolutely not. “Not so fast. I was the one who came with her. Don’t you think I should be the one to bring her in?”

“I’ll admit, it isn’t easy to bring a Scepter in willingly—let alone a Spectacle’s Vessel. You got guts, girl, but you don’t have the experience working with them that we do.” The man nudged his companion awake. The younger boy muttered something under his breath that sounded almost like a curse. “Don’t be difficult.”

“I’ll stop being difficult when you agree to my terms. I have every right to know what goes on behind those doors considering the situation right now. Whatever you plan on doing to her, I deserve to be there when it happens.”

“Ronin,” said the younger boy, “stop being an ass. The girl’s got a point. How many others had been sent to nab the Vessel and die on the scene?”

Ronin gnawed on his bottom lip. He considered the other guard’s question and, in the space of the silence, Mira cast a small side glance at Jovie, who quickly shrugged. Mira found herself standing a little straighter at the compliment, even though she knew the truth of it.

“Fine,” said Ronin with a deep groan. “She comes with us. But we handle the Vessel. I won’t let a newbie fuck this up for us. Toby, get the other side, will you?”

Mira forced herself to let go of Jovie’s elbow as the two men flanked her on either side and scanned the doors open with their badges. The locks opened with a high pitched beep and doors hissed as they slid open.

“Follow behind,” said Toby, his messy pale curls covering his eyes. Through his hair, Mira thought she spotted white in one of his eyes. “Keep your hands off the tech.”

She obliged the Cardinal’s request, lingering behind them and following them into the room. Smoke from the top of the doorway hit her as she walked in and Mira waved the fog away, coughing a little. Dewdrops settled on her skin and she thought it was a little excessive to have to be sterilized when she walked in, but when she got a glimpse at the room and what was in the room, it made a horrifying amount of sense.

Mira thought she was in an operating room with how blindingly white it was. What looked like operating tables were cast aside in a section all their own, separated only by tall, black dividers. Tools she couldn’t name were scattered on trays and, chained to the sides of the tables, were restraints at the head and foot of the platform that twisted Mira’s stomach. She felt lightheaded just seeing it all, but nothing made her feel more faint than the voices that began shouting further in the room.

“Celez Vesza!” screamed a young girl, no more than fifteen or sixteen, hands splayed against a clear sheet of plexiglass that kept her contained.

All parties stopped to observe the contained Scepter. Her white eyes were wide and her voice was muffled and faint. She had the hollowed out look of a person who had been left without food or had been sick for a long time. When she struck the barrier keeping her in the cell, it made no sound.

Considering how close they all were, Mira wondered how sound canceling the chamber was and how loud the girl had to have been screaming for the words to just barely make it through.

Jovie stayed put, her attention fixated on the girl beyond the wall. She refused to move despite the jostling of the Cardinals on either side. The Scepter stared in shock with her mouth partly open, but didn’t answer the girl’s pleas.

A few others began to stand, pressing themselves against the glass and Mira was horrified to see the range. Some were young children not even in the double digits. Others were teens, a few young adults. A scary number of older people—decades older than her or Magic’s parents—were also stuck in the containment. They crowded the glass, pressing into each other, smacking on the walls.

“Celez Vesza!” shrieked the girl again, and it occurred to Mira then that the other Scepter was crying. Light caught on the shiny trail streaking her pale and gaunt face as she slammed her fist against the glass a second time. Red was beginning to bloom on her knuckles and when her attempt was futile, she pressed her palm against the divider. “Assit! Assit, persa!”

“Dolena,” whispered Jovie before allowing herself to be shoved by the Cardinals to keep walking. Mira gave one last look at the frenzied girl, the captive. She kept her eyes there long enough to watch her drop to her knees and audibly scream before guiltily trailing after Jovie.

The Cardinals stopped short in front of a larger, wider cell. Toby shifted his weight, hand sliding up to Jovie’s shoulder, resting on it in a way that made it seem like he was offering her a word of condolence, leaning into her space to whisper into her ear. It skeeved Mira out, standing where she was, unable to even separate the men from her. Ronin leaned over to the side, snatching a band of metal from the table, screeching along the surface. He handled it in his palms, clicking buttons along its sides. Both ends snapped open and shut like a pair of hungry mouths.

“Keep her steady, Toby,” crooned Ronin, twisting a dial that caused the silver to hum.

Mira felt a chill down her spine, hair on her arms and neck rising. “What’s that for?”

Toby looked back over his shoulder and the grin that split his face in half made Mira feel like she was sitting in a horror film. Not young and clueless like she thought. Young and eager. And a traitor to those exactly like himself.

“You should never trust a Scepter,” said the young man. “Especially one with such potential.”

Mira couldn’t see Jovie’s face, but she didn’t have to in order to hear the scorn in it. “You should take it as a mercy,” hissed the Scepter, “that I have such wonderful restraint.”

Toby made an exaggerated pout. “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll break that soon enough.”

Ronin turned and clamped the metal around Jovie’s wrist. The hums grew louder and the Scepter let out an ear-piercing shriek, one knee buckling. She dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks, arms still held up by Ronin’s grip on her forearms.

“Not so high and mighty now, are you, Celez Vesza?” said the older man. “Not to worry. Your pet will follow soon enough. We’ve set everything up to prepare for this day.” He motioned with his head in the direction of the chamber and Toby hoisted Jovie up to her feet and shoved her in its direction. She toppled to the ground on her side, her hands flexed, muscles shaking even through the fabrics of her coat. A tracery of blueish black lines crawled through her skin, which began to darken into the lightest shade of deep purple.

Again Mira was reminded of the Maidenwoods. Of the demon that made itself a home there.

You had a floater in your eye. Like a purple snake.

Whatever those cuffs were made of wasn’t cipher. It was something else.

Eventually Jovie sat up on her knees, teeth bared. She looked like she was trying to speak, but whatever pain she was experiencing kept her jaw locked in place. Toby approached her, tipped Jovie’s head up by her chin as though he were assessing the damage so far. Mira didn’t know exactly what the younger guard was looking for, but when he didn’t seem to find what he wanted, he fidgeted with something on the cuffs again and Jovie screamed again.

Ronin looked over to Mira, and she must have been making some kind of face, because he laughed and walked over, clapping a hand on the back of her neck, fingers digging into her collarbone.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head,” he said. “We’re just returning the favor to our favorite, little menace.”