Chapter 69 THE TRAITOR
CHAPTER 069: THE TRAITOR
The room where the murder happened is now a place where everyone is accusing each other.
Council members have closed all the doors and windows. They are using magic to keep everyone inside. The students are standing together in groups. They look really scared. The teachers are trying to keep them calm. They look scared too.
Commander Frost says, "No one can leave until we find out who killed Elder Grayson." His voice is loud and clear.
I am still looking at Elder Graysons body. Corvus. Stands beside me. He looks at the wound on Graysons neck. He does not touch it.
"He knew the person who killed him " Corvus says quietly. "He did not try to defend himself. He would not have let someone he did not know get this close to him."
"This means that someone here is the killer " Alaric says. He is looking at the faces of the people around us trying to see if anyone looks guilty.
"Everyone is a suspect " Elder Sage says. She is standing in the middle of the hallway and her magic is shining like heat. "Even. Your friends, Miss Moonwhisper."
Kieran. Stands beside me. "We were all together in the training room " he says. "We have an alibi."
"That is convenient " Elder Sage says.
"It is called an alibi " Kieran says.
"Or maybe you are all lying " Elder Sage says.
I do not pay attention to them. I go closer to Graysons body. There is something about the blood that does not look right. It is not the blood that came out of his neck but something else.
"Corvus " I say. "He wrote something."
Everyone becomes quiet.
I kneel down. Look at the letters that Grayson wrote on the floor with his blood. It is one word: INSIDE.
"What does it mean?" Cassian asks.
"Is it inside something or someone?" Zev asks quietly.
Oracle Mira. Stands beside us. Her eyes are white. She looks like she is seeing something that we cannot see.
"Everyone move back " she says.
We all move back. Even the Council members give her space.
She stands over Graysons body and her hands are outstretched. The air around her becomes thick. Time seems to slow down.
When she gasps and moves back Morgana catches her.
"What did you see?" Commander Frost asks.
Miras voice is shaking. "The traitor is not working for the Covenant. The traitor is one of the Covenant. One of them is already here inside someone. They have been here for weeks."
The hallway becomes noisy.
"That is impossible " Elder Sage says. "The seals would have stopped them."
"One of them got through " Mira says. "Before the seals became weak. Maybe decades ago. They have been. Planning."
"How do we find them?" I ask.
"They will show themselves when they feel threatened " Mira says. "When you get close to the truth. You have to use yourself as bait, Phoenix. They will come for you."
Kieran says, "No way. We are not going to use you as bait."
"Do we have a choice?" I ask. I look around at the faces of my friends. They do not trust each other anymore. "We need to find out who the traitor is before they kill someone."
It takes us an hour to set up a plan. I go to Graysons room. Pretend to find some evidence. I make sure that everyone sees me looking at something and getting excited. I run to tell Corvus. Soon everyone knows that I have found something.
Someone knows that I am onto them.
I wait in my room with the door open. The boys are hiding nearby ready to help me. Luna is on the roof above my window. Morgana is in the shadows near the hallway.
At one AM my door opens. Magistrate Thorne walks in like he owns the place. His eyes are black. They look wrong.
"You should be more careful what you discover, Miss Moonwhisper " he says.
His voice is wrong too. It sounds like there are voices behind his voice.
"You are not Thorne " I say.
"I am and I am not " he says. "This body belongs to your Magistrate. I have been controlling it for months. He has been screaming inside here the time."
The boys burst into my room. Kieran comes through the door Alaric comes through the window Cassian appears in flames and Zev walks through the wall like it is made of air.
Thorne does not even flinch.
"Predictable " he says. "The protective mates rushing to save their beloved. How boring."
"Who are you?" I demand.
"I am Malachus " he says. "I am the first of the Covenant. I have been walking in your world for months making sure that you do not stop us. I have been watching the Phoenix up close."
"You have been sabotaging us from inside the Council " Corvus says.
"Obviously " Malachus says. "I have been delaying investigations misdirecting resources keeping you focused on threats that do not matter while the real work continues. It has been easy. You trust your leaders completely."
Kieran attacks him without warning. Malachus catches him. Throws him through my wall into the hallway.
Alaric moves next. Malachus is faster. He catches Alaric. Lifts him off the ground with one hand.
Cassians fire engulfs them. Malachus walks through it like it is nothing.
"You cannot win this fight " he says.
I let my power loose. Silver fire explodes from my hands. It hits Malachus with a lot of force.
He. Drops Alaric.
"There you are " he says, sounding happy. "The real Phoenix. Not the scared girl,. The weapon."
We. Our powers are equal. Every attack I make he counters. Every defense he makes I burn through. The room around us is. Magic is tearing through the walls and floor.
Then he stops fighting. He just. Stands there with Thornes body smoking and damaged.
"I am not here to kill you Phoenix " he says, laughing. "I am here to deliver a message."
"What message?" I ask, my silver fire crackling around my fists.
"Caius has found the seal " he says. "By tomorrow two seals will be broken. By the end of the week all seven seals will be broken.. Then we will rise."
"I will stop you " I say.
"You will try " he says. ". You cannot stop fate. You were created to free us. Your existence makes sure that we will return."
"That is backward " I say. "The first Phoenix locked you away."
"To protect you " he says. "She did not lock us away to save the world. She locked us away because we would have destroyed you. Your power was a threat to us. So she imprisoned us until you were born again until you were strong enough to face us."
His words are like ice water.
"You are lying " I say.
"Am I?" he asks. "Ask yourself Phoenix. Why do you exist? Why now? Why are you a Phoenix when none have existed for thousands of years? She built a cage of time and death for you. She let you die and be reborn until you became what she needed. A weapon strong to break our prison."
"Stop talking " Kieran says, getting up from the floor.
"The truth hurts, does it not wolf?" Malachus says. "Your precious Phoenix is not the hero. She is the key to the apocalypse."
He jumps out of the window. By the time we get there he is gone. Thornes body is lying in the courtyard three floors below. He is dead. The possession is over.
There is silence in what's left of my room.
"He is lying " Luna says from the doorway. "He has to be lying."
"Why?" I ask. "Why does he have to be lying? Everything he said makes sense."
"Because we do not believe in fate " Alaric says. His throat is. His voice is rough. "We believe in choice."
"Do we?" I ask. "Have I made any choices or have I just been following a script that was written thousands of years ago?"
Commander Frost appears in my destroyed doorway. "Pack your things " he says. "You leave in thirty minutes. We will hold the academy long as we can."
We start gathering our supplies.
I am putting weapons in a bag when Luna comes to me. Her face is pale.
"I just got a message " she says, her phone shaking in her hand. "The Northern Pack is, under attack. Magnus is dying. They are asking me to come."
My stomach drops. "Your pack " I say.
"My Alpha " she says. "My family.. You are my sister. I do not want to leave you to face this "
I tell her she should go.
She says she should stay.
Then she says "Luna—"
But I stop her. "Do not make me choose between my family and you. Do not do that to me." She grabs my shoulders.
I look at Luna. I really look at her. My twin sister, who I just found and I might lose before we ever really got to be sisters.
I say to Luna "If you do not go and Magnus dies you will never forgive yourself.. Save your pack. I will be here when you get back."
Luna asks me "You promise?"
I say to Luna "I promise."
Luna hugs me hard that my ribs hurt. Then she is gone changing into a wolf and running into the night.
I watch Luna go and try not to feel like I just said goodbye to Luna for the time.
Kieran asks me from behind "Are you ready?"
I say, "No. Let us go anyway."
We meet at the gates. There are six of us now of seven. The hole that Lunas absence creates feels very big.
Corvus hands me a compass that glows a bit. "It will point you toward the seal. Stop Caius before he breaks another one."
I ask Corvus ". If we cannot?"
Corvus does not answer. We both know what happens if we fail to stop Caius.
The gates open.
We step through into the dark.
Behind us the academy closes itself. Ahead there is night and somewhere in it a killer with orders from beings that should not exist.
The compass needle moves around points in a direction.
North. Always north, where the worst things are.
Zev asks, "Does anyone else feel like we are walking into a trap?"
Cassian agrees, "This is definitely a trap."
Kieran says, "Good, at least we know what to expect."
We walk into the night.
I keep thinking about what Malachus said to me. "You were created to free us."
What if Malachus is right?
What if I am not the hero. The thing that ends everything?