I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. “There is no me and Ciaran.”

  “What are you talking about? You two have been a thing forever.”

  Huh? My brows furrowed in confusion. My immediate response was to ask what the hell she was talking about, but something about this rang true in a deeper part of my mind. I looked down at the ground trying to figure out why I could possibly have such an asinine notion in the recess of my brain.

  Not for the first time, I came upon what I could only describe as a block—a solid door without a handle or any windows.

  If I could break it down, I knew I would find things my brain had sealed away. But why and what those things were? I wasn’t sure if I was ready to remember.

  For a while now there were a few things I hadn’t been able to conjure up when I tried. Moments I felt like were forgotten but couldn’t explain why. This had all started before Goetia but now I was wondering if it all tied together somehow. Where did that place Ciaran, though? When in the past would I have encountered the Belair’s beloved prodigy?

  “Why did you say that?” I asked Grace.

  “Say what?”

  “That he and I have been a thing forever.”

  “Because…” Her face rearranged, taking on the same confused look I’m sure mine just had.

  “I don’t know. I guess I just feel like we’ve known them for longer than we have.”

  Them?

  So, it wasn’t just Ciaran then. Chewing the inside of my lower lip, I checked behind us, sensing whoever was following had gotten closer. Grace looked too, hazel eyes sweeping across buildings and darkened crevices.

  “Why haven’t they come out yet when we know they’re there?”

  “Trying to keep up some suspense for the cameras?” I guessed.

  “That’s stupid.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I laughed.

  She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. I studied her for a few seconds, beginning to sense something was off. I didn’t see anything; I just had a feeling.

  I opened my mouth to ask, pausing when I heard a familiar set of voices coming from ahead. I slightly turned and strained to listen. “Did you hear that?”

  “Yeah,” Grace murmured.

  I crept forward, hoping I wasn’t becoming delusional on top of everything else.

  “I’m telling you that’s what it meant,” Mel’s irritated voice snaked around the corner we were approaching seconds before she did. Dion and the brown-haired man from Vesania were right at her back.

  “That’s what, what meant?” I asked, not missing a beat.

  She faltered for a split second, obviously not expecting to see us.

  “There’s--.”

  “Where’s Mo?” Dion interjected, stepping out from behind her.

  Grace looked at him and frowned. “She isn’t with you?”

  I checked my expression before it could give away my surprise at her question.

  “No! She took off with you two,” he insisted.

  “Lower your voice,” Mel hissed. “We didn’t see her but for a second after Jason took an arrow to the face. That girl was so out of it she could’ve run off anywhere.”

  “She really wasn’t with you?” he asked again, looking at me directly.

  I was well and prepared to tell him his girl had been snatched away by some masked goons. Grace must have come to a different conclusion in her mind for why that would be a bad idea. I didn’t want to lie to him, but Grace and Mel had my loyalty before anyone else.

  “I’m sorry,” I consoled. “Could she have fallen behind?”

  “Why would she follow me or go her own way and not say something?”

  “Helios does that. It makes you act irrationally,” the brown -haired man spoke up. His dark eyes met mine and he further explained.

  “It’s a drug developed by the I-S. All those people you saw at Vesania? They played this game before too, after they got that. It fucked them up really bad.” He tapped the side of his head to emphasize his point.

  Dion shut his eyes for a minute, exhaling a heavy breath. “She’ll be okay. Morrigan’s smart. Maybe she’s waiting for us at Legion’s Buff.”

  Wow. It was true what they said. Love makes one blind. No way would someone as smart as Dion call Morrigan intelligent otherwise. Or maybe she really was screwed up from whatever this Helios drug was. Regardless, she was gone either way, and we needed to keep moving before we wound up joining her.

  “Legion’s Buff?” I questioned.

  “We found a map back there.” Mel hitched a finger over her shoulder.

  “Wherever we need to go is supposed to be that way,” she pointed past me this time, in the general direction Grace and I had just come from.

  “Are you sure?” Grace asked. “I didn’t see anything with that name back there.”

  “You didn’t know what it was called so you wouldn’t have been looking for it.”

  “Touché.”

  “We can double back and everything but we’re pretty sure we’ve been being followed,” I warned.

  “Let them follow then. They’ll just end up like everyone else that tried to take us out,” Mel touted confidently, sidling past Grace and me to take the lead.

  The man with brown hair? His name was Chip. I’m sure that was a nickname or an alias versus his actual government identity, but that’s how he introduced himself.

  And as it turned out, I’d already seen this Legion’s Buff place before. So had Dion. It was the exact same building we’d witnessed a woman begging for her life in, which meant we’d essentially gone in a giant circle.

  Like the Devil’s Inn, the lower half of the tall building didn’t reflect what was inside.

  Once the others were filled in on our earlier endeavor, Mel decided she had to be the first to enter.

  She pulled open the solid glass door and peered in before stepping over the threshold. It had to be some lucky fucking fluke that I was standing so close, or her head would’ve been decapitated. It was the metal that flashed in my peripheral that alerted me to the person waiting just inside the doorway.

  I used both hands and shoved Mel from behind, sending her flying forward. At the same time, I jumped backward to avoid the blade as it came back at me, air whizzing from the force of the swing. Dion grabbed hold of me from behind and all but lifted me out of harm’s way. As we stumbled outside, the complex’s door started to shut.

  Grace ran for it, grabbing hold of the handle before it could close.

  No one was going to risk Mel being locked inside with some machete wielding savage.

  “No!” I yelled as the man aimed for Grace next.

  Mel ran up and shoved him. When he whirled on her again, me and Dion jumped him from behind. He grabbed one side and I took another, working together to take him down. Grace came fully inside and worked with Mel to pry the machete from his hand. It hit the ground with a clatter, the guy fighting like mad to get us off him.

  Gracelyn grabbed the large weapon off the floor and wrapped both her hands around its thick handle.

  “Watch yourselves,” she warned.

  Mel scampered out of the way and Dion and I leaned as far back as we could, maintaining our hold on the man’s arms. Winding up like she used to for softball, Grace swung.

  The machete cut through the man’s neck like it would have Mel’s. His head flopped to the right, blood spurting everywhere. Grace swung again, a determined “oomph,” coming from her mouth this time. The machete’s blade met with what was left of the man’s attached flesh and tendons, sending his head skimming across the black marble flooring.

  Dion and I released his now headless corpse, watching as it continued to twitch, slumping to the ground. Blood pooled around our boots, appearing darker than it was due to the shade of the floor. Wiping my cheek, with the side of my arm, I glanced over at Mel and Grace.

  “Are you two, okay?”

  “Am I okay? I just cut someone’s head off! I haven’t felt this good since we got here,” Grace exclaimed triumphantly.

  “Is she always like this?” Dion asked me, his voice low.

  He was staring at her like she was insane. I didn’t think it was that bad, but it was weird seeing her so excited about something like this. Grace was the lover of our trio—the gentle one.

  “Maybe you should put that machete down now,” Mel suggested slowly.

  “What? No way! It’s about time we had a weapon of our own. This bad boy is mine.”

  “It’s the Helios.”

  We all looked towards the far side of the room to where our tagalong was standing. I’d nearly forgotten this guy was with us.

  “Thanks for all the help,” Dion stated with heavy sarcasm.

  “The girls had it under control…almost like they’ve done this before.”

  I could hear the accusation in his tone. I didn’t care all that much, though. He clearly wasn’t going to do shit about it.

  “You said this was Helios,” I urged him to continue.

  “She must have just gotten it before you guys came.”

  “Mo wasn’t acting like that and you said she had it too,” Dion pointed out.

  “There’s different doses and not everyone reacts to it the same. They have to it in their brains already, man.”

  “Have what?” Mel asked this time.

  “Whatever just made her do that.”

  “Hey, her is right here guys.” Grace waved a hand in the air to indicate herself. “I promise I’m fine. I didn’t do anything none of you wouldn’t have done. Well, aside from the obvious,” she directed back at him.

  He sighed and clasped his hands together behind his head. “When the drug starts to wear off, you’ll see.”

  There was a heavy silence that filled the room for a moment. I couldn’t outright say the guy was full of shit because I knew absolutely nothing about this drug he’d been referring to.

  I didn’t know Grace had been given a drug. She hadn’t mentioned this at all and apart from her being kind of quiet she seemed fine. For her to hide it meant she herself was worried. That was the only time we kept things to ourselves. I looked up at the high-rise ceiling and rapidly tried to sort out my thoughts. There was so much going on I didn’t know where to begin.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked, still staring at the dimmed receding lights.

  “The map only told us where to go.” Mel answered.

  Right. It was up to us to figure out the rest. I sucked in a breath, then slowly let it back out. Turning in the direction the head had went, I started walking towards it.

  “What are you doing?” Dion asked.

  “We need to search this area, maybe start with the wall of mailboxes over there, but first I’m going to see who’s under this mask.”

  I went up to the severed head and rotated it with my boot before crouching down to see it up close.

  “So, you’re just going to touch it?” Dion asked, his voice pitching.

  “You watched her dig inside a man’s chest cavity after cutting him open. Touching a severed head is child’s play,” Mel responded defensively on my behalf.

  “Yeah. It’s just a head,” I stated, skimming my fingers over the mask. “Did you notice the lights stopped glowing?”

  “Maybe that happens when they die.” Grace offered as an explanation.

  I hummed beneath my breath and lifted the mask up. I had to blink twice the moment I saw the face. There was no way this could be real. Right?

  “What is it?” Mel asked.

  “Who is it?” Grace corrected her.

  “It’s…Troy?” It wasn’t meant to be a question, but I still couldn’t be sure.

  I didn’t want to be right.

  “Troy?” Mel parroted.

  “Not Troy Sainte,” Grace echoed, coming over to see for herself.

  “Sainte? As in the kid who partied with us after high-school?” Mel clarified, coming to join us. “Woah. That’s definitely Troy,” she confirmed the second she saw his face.

  “Why was he trying to kill us? I thought we were friends,” Grace said softly.

  “Uh, I know him too. Knew…” Dion confessed.

  “How?” I asked him, dropping the head, and standing up.

  “The same way you guys did. I went to his parties.”

  He just confirmed he belonged to one of the founding families. I’d planned to find out why he was here sooner or later, but I didn’t think it would be because of a decapitated head.

  “What family are you from?” Mel questioned, her thoughts in sync with mine.

  “Furcas,” he replied without needing to ask what she meant.

  This wasn’t a name I was familiar with, but I also didn’t know every single one of the founding families. If Dion had gone to Sainte’s parties, though, they had to be around the same age. That or someone else Dion was close to brought him along like my sister used to do with us.

  This was too much for me to deal with right now and I could tell by Dion’s expression he’d pieced a few things together from this entire exchange. I wasn’t ready for all his questions either.

  “Let’s just do whatever it is we came here for,” I commanded.

  “Where do we start?” Grace asked. “You wanted to look through those mailboxes, right? They take a key and there’s at least a hundred or so.”

  “They’re numbered,” I replied, walking over to the brick wall that housed the glossy white boxes.

  “Okay, and?” Mel replied.

  “We don’t need to search all of them we just need to find the right one.”

  “If it’s number based then it’s probably six-one-six again,” she summarized.

  “What do you mean again?” Grace asked.

  “It’s been a common denominator around the city,” Dion explained to her.

  She mumbled something to herself that we couldn’t hear. I was going to leave her in her own world for now. My eyes swept over all the mailboxes and I shook my head.

  “There is no six-one…,” I trailed off and looked back at Dion.

  “Earlier, when we saw that woman, you mentioned she was in the sixth row or something. Do you remember?”

  “Yeah! Six down and six over.”

  I counted from the top and then went over six to the right. The box I ended up on was locked tight and labeled with a name I couldn’t pronounce.

  “It’s not opening.”

  “Try down six, sixth row, first box,” Dion said.

  I began again and did as he said. This time the box I stopped at had a name I recognized from the maps.

  Azrael.

  Not thinking too deeply about it, I popped the mailbox open and retrieved a key that was inside. A small paper tag was attached to it with the number sixteen.

  “What’s that?” Grace asked, peering around me.

  “A key. Where do ya’ll think apartment sixteen is?”

  “On the sixth floor,” the tagalong replied from his corner.

  Well, that made sense.

  “Let’s get up there then.”

  I stepped away from the mailboxes and made my way towards the rear of the lobby where an access door sat.

  “You don’t want to take the elevators?” Mel asked, gesturing in the direction of the shiny metal doors.

  “And alert anyone who might be in here what floor we’re going to?”

  “Good point.”

  “Are you coming…?” Dion called back to the guy in the corner, hinting for his name.

  I’d planned on leaving him right where he was. He wasn’t going to be much help to us hiding with his balls tucked up inside his stomach. I pushed open the access door, stepping into a stairwell almost as nice as the building’s lobby. Looking up, I counted how many sets were between us and floor six.

  “You want me to go first?” Grace asked.

  “No.” Mel and I said in unison.

  Before any of them could take it upon themselves to move ahead of me, I hurried up the stairs. The building was completely silent apart from the noises we were making.

  I held onto the rail and hoisted myself along. I swear the higher we got the more my bodies soreness set in. By the time we got to level six I was ready to drop down and army crawl the rest of the way to the apartment.

  “Are you okay?” Mel asked softly, placing a hand on my back.

  “Yeah, just sore.”

  I pulled open the door leading to the hallway we needed to be in, making sure there weren’t any more machete’s flying my way before I went through. Seeing all those closed doors apartment was daunting. At any second, they could start opening. In a complex this high up and only two ways back down, we would be shit out of luck.

  Hurrying through the hall, I silently counted off the door numbers as we went. Apartment sixteen was exactly where it should’ve been. The sixth door on the left. I inserted the key and let us inside, cautiously entering a foyer of sorts.

  The overall theme matched the rest of the buildings, emanating luxury and elegance. Marble flooring continued throughout. An open concept floorplan gave full view of the black and white kitchen and leather furniture in the living area.

  “You said someone died in here?” Grace asked, stepping around me so that she could see better.

  “I’m pretty sure.” I walked deeper into the apartment, passing by a half-bathroom.

  I looked around but saw no sign that would confirm what Dion and I saw. The blood that had been on the window was now gone and there wasn’t a body in sight.

  As the last person entered behind us, the door shut, setting off a chain reaction.

  A thick, black curtain slid across a track, and covered the main windows of the apartment. Simultaneously, a television clicked on the word LIVE blinking in the upper corner of the screen.

  “Fun houses. Brazen Bulls. Crazy Clowns! Carnival Diablos has something to satisfy everyone inside the Devil’s Playground. Place a wager or come for the show alone, no matter what you decide it’s guaranteed you’ll have the best night of your life.

  The camera panned across what looked like a typical amusement park until you took in what was happening in the background. When the broadcast ended, the television changed inputs and a message appeared.

  The windows are covered, the door is armed. Obscurity is tonight’s specialty, but for now you’ll be safe until the timer rests at zero.