Chapter 23 — Regrouping

  Rachel knelt beside Will. She tried to make him more comfortable, but her hands were shaking so much that he groaned in pain. Ryan was on the phone with the mayor. They were arguing over calling in another helicopter from Olympia to lift Will out. After Ryan started swearing loudly into the phone, Rachel grabbed it out of his hands.

  "Listen, you little sh—" Rowan was saying.

  "Rowan," she interrupted, and even to herself, her voice sounded haunted and broken.

  "Rachel? What's going on? Ryan said something happened to Will—"

  "Call a helicopter."

  "...Rachel, we can't just call another helicopter. One was bad enough. If we call in two, there's going to be a real investigation. We're going to have problems, really fast."

  "Call a helicopter."

  "Are you okay? I'm going to head over there."

  "Call a helicopter."

  Rachel hung up before he could speak another word. She dropped the phone to the ground and pressed her face up against Will's. He groaned. She recoiled, afraid she'd caused him more pain.

  "Is someone coming?" Ryan asked.

  "I don't know," she murmured.

  "What's going on?" Natalie asked, poking her head through the door. "Oh my god."

  "Kid, watch the door. Don't let anyone in without asking, got it?" Ryan snapped.

  "What happened to him?"

  "Omega hurt him. Now watch the fucking door."

  "Fine." Natalie disappeared again.

  "Are you happy now?" Rachel said quietly.

  "Am I what?" Ryan asked.

  She ignored him. "Now he's attacking anyone he wants. I think your rules are gone. Is this what you wanted?"

  "No," came the expected whisper.

  "Who the hell are you talking to?" Ryan asked.

  "Would you just show yourself so I don't have to explain?" Rachel asked wearily.

  Beverly faded into existence just beside the couch. She was looking out the window, deliberately anywhere but at them, but Rachel could see she was clearly upset. "How could you ask that? Of course I'm not happy."

  "Holy shit," Ryan murmured. Rachel ignored him.

  "How can I stop him?" she asked.

  "I don't know," Beverly answered simply. "I never could."

  "So I should just give up?" Rachel asked, fury rising in her voice. "I shouldn't even try?"

  "I don't know," she whispered, too low for Ryan to hear. "Jackson and I were… close. You're asking me to help you kill someone I still care about. It's insane. I don't know."

  "If I try, he'll come back and kill Will. But if I don't, he'll kill everyone else. Am I just supposed to stop trying?"

  "Fuck that," snapped Ryan. He sat down next to Rachel and looked her in the eye. "Of course you should try to stop him. What are you supposed to do, just roll over and die? He's not shy about killing. He knows if he killed Will, you'd come after him ten times harder than usual. So he blindsides you. He fucks Will up, but leaves him alive. Now you're distracted, 'cause Will's in pain and suffering. You're split in half."

  Ryan pulled her to her feet. She recoiled from his rough grasp, but something about Ryan's angry intensity—something she normally found ridiculous—was compelling her to attention.

  "Time to double down. He's on the run. He tried to fuck you over. Now you focus and you go fuck him back. I'll take care of Will. Fucking murder him, Rachel."

  Rachel's mind snapped back into place. She forgot about how tired she was. Not just because of Ryan's words, but because she'd remembered something more important about the night. She had somewhere to be. She couldn't rest yet.

  She leaned down and kissed Will on the forehead. "I have to go," she whispered, hoping he could hear. Rachel stood up, once again towering over the room.

  "What's next?" Ryan asked impatiently.

  "I need to go have a conversation with Robert Harrison."

  "Why do you want to talk to that asshole?"

  "Because I'm going to use him to get to Omega."

  Rachel started walking out the door. She had to trust Ryan would take care of Will for her, because she didn't have time to take care of him right now. As she walked, she reached for the connection between them and plucked it. She knew Will would feel it, even in his current state. Rachel just had to hope he'd understand that she couldn't be there for him. Not that night.

  "How the fuck does that work? And how are you even going to get him to cooperate?" Ryan shouted after her.

  Rachel ignored him. She emerged back into the night time chill.

  Natalie stirred next to the door. "Are we going out?" the girl asked, gently rubbing her wolf awake. Its eyes snapped open, and it yawned before getting to its feet.

  Rachel nodded. With Omega now roaming the streets freely, she wasn't going a single step without Natalie at her side. She stooped down and helped Natalie to her feet. The younger girl climbed back onto Gwen with less grace than before, but in only a few moments she was ready to set out. Rachel lead Natalie and her wolf out into the streets of Rallsburg once again, off to confront the man who had betrayed them all.

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  Jackie wasn't at the sheriff's station when they arrived.

  It was the one illuminated building in the entire town, a beacon drawing them in. Rachel walked in without a second glance, striding right up to Preston at the desk. The deputy jumped to attention when she burst through the doors.

  "Rachel! I heard what happened over the radio. Is everyone okay?"

  "Where's Robert?" she asked, in the most even tone she could manage.

  "I uhh… in the cells. Wh— What the hell?" Natalie and Gwen had just come in the door behind Rachel. Preston literally jumped in shock. "Son of a bitch! Is that a wolf?"

  Natalie patted Gwen's ears as the wolf growled audibly. Preston started fumbling for his gun.

  "Don't," Rachel said firmly. Preston faltered, uncertain, but he stopped trying to get his gun out of his holster. "Natalie will be staying in here with you while I question Robert." Rachel walked over to the door that lead to the holding cells, then turned to Natalie. "No one goes in, okay?"

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  "Okay," she agreed. She leaned down and said something to Gwen, in a half-lilting voice with words Rachel couldn't understand. The wolf strolled in front of the door and sat down, ready to leap at anything that dared approach.

  Preston was still watching it fearfully. "Rachel, I can't let you do that."

  "Stop me, then," she replied wearily. Preston looked at her, then at the wolf that was eyeing him hungrily. Without a word, he sat back down in his chair.

  Natalie laid back down again, head buried in soft grey fur, and closed her eyes. Rachel felt a twinge of jealousy that she had that ability, to just curl up on top of something that clearly loved her and fall asleep with complete trust in Gwen to keep her safe. Rachel wanted nothing more than to do that herself.

  She turned and walked into the small cell block. There was so little crime in Rallsburg, Robert was the only occupant. He looked exactly the same as she'd seen him only an hour ago back up in the forest. He was deprived of his axe and his gun, of course, but otherwise he was dressed exactly the same. It made it all the easier to remember exactly what he'd been doing that night—and what he deserved.

  "What are you going to do to him?" came a whisper at her side.

  Rachel wasn't even surprised by it anymore. She'd already gotten used to Beverly hanging around her at all times, a bitter companion resenting her every move. Rachel wondered how far she could push before Beverly would actually act against her. The girl seemed very passive, and Rachel doubted Beverly would ever really interfere unless she made a move against her brother.

  Rachel reached into her bag, feeling down for a very particular row of pouches in its depths. Each pouch contained a stash of gemstones, sorted by type and quality. She knew exactly where each one was and could reach them all in an instant. It was every gemstone she'd managed to get her hands on—whether that was gifts, donations, purchases, or just tearing apart old jewelry and decorations. She'd amassed a sizeable pile of them, and had practiced enough to be well-versed in using each and every one.

  "Whatever it takes," she replied.

  Robert looked up, startled by the sudden noise. "What do you want?" he growled.

  Rachel didn't answer. She picked up a chair from the corner and set it just outside the bars. With a flick of her wrist and a well-targeted slice of magic, the camera in the corner fell off its mount to the concrete floor. It shattered. Another flick, and the door swung shut with a slam. It took a fair-sized stone and a kick in the gut for her, but it was worth it.

  Robert stood up very quickly. He backed up against the wall. He acted tough, but his eyes told another story. He was scared. "You wouldn't. You don't have the guts to pull this shit."

  "You're going to tell me everything you know, Robert," said Rachel. She was doing her best to control her tone, but the rage boiling underneath her skin was palpable.

  "Like hell. This shit from the girl who had her own special space in the lost and found," Robert sneered.

  Rachel was done tolerating him. She snatched up a golden citrine orb from her bag and shattered it in an instant. Her mental grasp flew outward, seizing the bench Robert was sitting on.

  She hurled it into the air. Robert pitched forward head first onto the cold cell floor. The sneer vanished from his face an instant before he plowed into the concrete. The bench fell back on top of him with a painful thud.

  "Fuck you, bitch," Robert grunted into the stone floor. He pulled himself back to his feet. His nose was bleeding, adding to the other cuts and burns he'd gotten from Cinza's people.

  "You have no friends left, Robert," she continued, with a dull ache in her head from the effort of flipping the bench. "The entire town just showed you that. Help us, and maybe you get out of this alive."

  "Or I just sit tight 'til he kills every last one of you." He spat out another globule of blood onto the concrete. "I can wait."

  "Why?"

  "Why what?"

  "Why are you doing this?" she asked, her voice catching. Rachel hadn't meant to let her emotions into the picture, but Robert was getting to her. "What did we do to you?"

  "Nothin'. It's what you did to that poor girl. That shit has to be answered for."

  Rachel wished she'd had the foresight to bring John Bell with her. She could use someone with Knowledge magic to help tease out real answers from him. Unless…

  "Can you tell when someone is lying?" she whispered. It was so low, she barely heard it herself, but she doubted that would be a problem for Beverly.

  "Not anyone."

  "But you could tell if he was?"

  "...Yes."

  "The hell are you doin'?" Robert asked suspiciously.

  "I won't help you if you hurt him again," Beverly added.

  Rachel cursed under her breath, but had to accept it. In truth she was actually a bit relieved. Flipping the bench, even with the assistance of her best citrine, had been strenuous enough—and she wasn't exactly inclined towards violence in the first place. She'd always prefer negotiation to the direct approach.

  Rachel spoke up, addressing Robert again. "I will know if you're lying, so be honest and we won't have to make this hard."

  "Bullshit."

  "Robert, did you forget what I can do?" Rachel asked, and she flickered a ball of flame into the air between them for a moment. His eyes locked onto it in fear. It puffed out harmlessly.

  "Ask, then. Don't mean I gotta answer."

  "Fine." Rachel paused. "You were told where to find the bodies."

  "No shit, you said that earlier. It's still not true."

  "Lie," Beverly whispered.

  "I know you did, Robert, and that means you've seen them. You've seen what our enemy is capable of. Are you really aligning yourself with someone like that?"

  "'cept he didn't do that. You fuckers did. He's just cleaning up the mess. Making sure you don't kill any other children."

  "True. As far as he knows," Beverly whispered.

  "Is it true, though?" Rachel asked under her breath.

  "...I don't know. It might be. I never went to see it."

  Rachel hesitated. They'd been assuming all along that Omega had killed the three in the trailer. If he wasn't responsible—

  "They killed themselves," Rachel realized aloud.

  "What?" Robert asked.

  Rachel saw no need to conceal the information. "There's a law of magic that you can't actually affect someone else directly. We assumed Omega had killed them because it somehow broke that law. But if they killed themselves, that would explain their bodies, and the damage to the trailer. It wasn't a murder. It was an accident."

  "...You're sayin' that much blood, all those burns and that poor little girl was a goddamn accident?"

  "Yes. Although I wouldn't put it past Omega if he'd been capable. He's shown he's more than willing."

  "To kill fuckin' kids?"

  "He killed an innocent tonight, if we're going by your standards. He's expanded his targets to more than just awakened. I think Rallsburg in general has been written off as a lost cause."

  "I guess you're gonna say he closed off the roads and the train too, did he?" Robert asked, but less skeptically than she expected.

  "Yes. I doubt any of us could cause a landslide like that, unless we were all working together. It had to have been him."

  "And he killed Henry, did he?"

  "Think about it, Robert," Rachel sighed. "Why would Cinza kill him? He didn't threaten them at all. On top of that, think about his body." He grimaced, but she pressed on. "It was broken and practically bent in half. Do you really think Cinza could do that? Or any of her followers?"

  "Y'all have fucking magic, how am I supposed to know?"

  "I just explained why we couldn't. There's only one thing that could, and that's Omega's golems."

  "The fuck is a golem?"

  "Something he can summon. A mindless, faceless man with the strength of a giant."

  "...And all on fire?" Robert asked warily.

  Rachel was surprised. "Yes. You've seen them?"

  "Those monsters are his?"

  "Yes, they are. We need to stop him, because he wants to kill all of us. You're on the kill list too now. He wants to wipe out magic entirely, and you know too much. If you want to live, you're on our side."

  "I've never met the guy."

  "Truth," Beverly whispered.

  Rachel was dismayed. Robert was supposed to be their inside man. "But then, who told you… Brian."

  Robert shook his head. "Nope."

  "Lie."

  She didn't need Beverly's word. It was plain on his face. Rachel stood up again. "Robert, I told you. I know when you're lying. You were meeting with Brian. He told you where the bodies were, and their time of death."

  "So what?" He was on the defensive again. Protecting his friend. Rachel had to tear Brian down.

  "Robert, you shouldn't be protecting him. Brian abandoned his daughter to help a madman commit genocide. He's the one controlling the golems. I've seen him at it. Are you going to help him, when he's currently trying to kill us all?"

  "He's just trying to help his daughter," Robert answered, but he sounded unsure.

  Rachel shook her head. "His daughter is one of us. You just saw her tonight putting out the fires. Omega will kill them both when he's done, and there's nothing Brian could do to stop him. And you helped him do it."

  The fire of the crusade was finally leaving Robert's eyes. Remorse filled his thick bearded face. "...the fuck did I do?" he mumbled to himself, barely paying attention to Rachel anymore.

  Rachel gave him a minute to think and stew himself into a deeper pit. She turned away, so that her whispers to Beverly would go unseen. A vague plan was beginning to form in her mind, but it was predicated on having immediate and viable information. "What do you have in the way of Knowledge spells?"

  "I can't track him," Beverly whispered, answering her before she'd even asked.

  "Nothing at all?"

  "Anyone who awakened naturally. Natalie, Kendra, Jackson, so on. I can feel it when magic is being used, and how strong, but if it's one of them I can't tell who's using it. So long as he keeps quiet I have no idea where he is. And you know how fast he can move."

  "So if he casts something, you could tell me where he is?"

  "Maybe. I've tried to use that before. But every time he does something, he runs. I can never catch up, if it was even the right person."

  "You can teleport."

  "Doesn't help if he's not there anymore."

  Rachel frowned. "So we can't go to him. We have to make him come to us." Beverly didn't answer, so she turned back to Robert. The man was staring at the floor in disgrace. "Robert."

  "What do you want?" he answered in a debilitated voice.

  "Do you meet with Brian regularly?"

  "...Yeah."

  "Do you contact him, or is it scheduled?"

  "We planned 'em out, yeah."

  So we can lure at least one of them. Rachel could work with that. "Will you help us?"

  "...Don't kill 'im."

  "What?"

  "If I help you, you don't kill Brian. Arrest him or whatever, but he lives."

  Rachel nodded. She could agree to that. She didn't think she could ever look Natalie in the eye again if her father died. "Done."

  Robert nodded grimly. "I'll help you."