Page 19 of Fire Bird

“Kayla?” I call out. Tanner looks at me like I’m crazy, but I ignore him. “It’s Sam and Tanner. We need to talk to you.”

There’s silence, then a floorboard creaks and she appears in the doorway. “You tracked me here?” she asks, even though she must already know the answer.

“Like I said, we need to talk to you.”

Kayla’s eyes flash toward Tanner. “Oh good,” she snarls. “You brought the empath.”

“I could have killed you, but I didn’t. I think that deserves a few minutes of your time,” I tell her, perching on the edge of a cluttered kitchen table.

“Whose house is this?” Tanner asks. His face has darkened, and he’s looking around at the walls as if they’re haunted. For him, they probably are; Tanner senses the ghosts of emotions like I sense the ghosts of smells.

“No idea.” Kayla folds her arms. “Found it like this. Figured I might as well use it.” She looks down at her fingernails as if she’s horribly bored by the conversation already. “You said you want to talk, so talk, then get out. Because last time we spoke, you were telling me you never wanted to see me again.”

“Nico is dead because of Ragnor.” I stride closer. “He betrayed you and your son, then he rejected you.”

Kayla’s entire face becomes pinched as she says, “He did not reject me. I left.”

“I can smell it on you,” I growl, wrinkling my nose. “The stench hovers round you like flies.”

I feel Tanner shoot me a look that says, Aren’t we supposed to be getting her on side? But I ignore him.

“He rejected you long before Nico died. He chose Elena. My mother.”

“Sam…” Tanner warns.

“All of this—everyone’s pain—mine, yours, Nico’s, my mother’s. It’s all because of him. Are you really telling me you don’t want to see him punished for what he did?” I square my shoulders and move so I’m standing within an inch of her face. Her scar is deep, pale, and pinched at either end. “It was his blade that pierced Nico’s flesh.”

“Because he jumped in front of you,” Kayla cries.

“And do you think Ragnor felt bad? Did he try to save Nico? He could have, but he didn’t. All he cared about was—” I swallow down what I’m about to say. I can’t talk about what he did to my mother or think about her body lying in his arms.

“Enough,” Kayla growls. “I don’t want to hear her name. Just tell me what you want.”

Tanner holds my elbow and steps forward. “We want to kill Ragnor, and we want you to help us.”

12

LUTHER

“You’re sure we need to go back?” Kole asks as we follow the stream that winds from the falls to the cabin.

“If Kayla refuses to help us, we need a back-up plan.”

“You have a bunch of grenades hidden back here?” Kole growls. Somehow, even when he’s sarcastic, he manages to sound like he’s pissed off.

“No, but I have my laptop and a Wi-Fi connection.” A branch catches on my hoodie and causes a thread to ping free from the dark gray fabric.

Kole waits for me to explain how either of those things can help us.

“We need to figure out how to defeat Eve.”

Kole’s jaw twitches. “She’s powerful. Nothing we’ve tried so far has worked.”

“But why is she so powerful?”

“She’s taken a lot of F.H.B.,” Kole says darkly. “Could be a part of it.”

I shake my head. “There’s a reason Ragnor chose her. Do you remember her from your time with them? Was she around back then?”