Just as predicted, they send their best man to collect the artifact, so you send your best man to stop them. You know it’ll result in violence, but that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Once the Bachmans are attacked, you can blame the House of David. You can tell Orion all about Seditio then, how they fight against the tyranny of the House. That boy wants to be a hero so badly, you’re all but certain he’ll beg to join. Then you can tell him everything, including who you are and how you really feel about him.

  But nothing ever goes according to plan, does it? Still, how could you have known? How could you have predicted that Orion would have a bastard brother who just happened to be the House of David’s own Grim Reaper? Eden fucking Dowler snatches your precious Orion right out from under you, and suddenly, the only person you ever really loved has joined forces with your enemy.

  Mother always said, “When the plot thickens, you just have to add a little water and sieve it.” What she meant by that was you counter by adding the elements that serve you and removing those that don’t. What serves you is chaos. The more destruction this war between secret organizations causes, the more likely Orion is to hate the House of David just as much as he hates Seditio. The elements that don’t serve you are Orion’s friends and family. So, you have to sieve them out.

  His friends are all liars anyway. They’re so obviously using him for his money. They don’t care about him at all, the little shits. It’s easy to kill them in the end. Remy dies by your own hands, quick and easy. Unfortunately, you have to hand Jacob over to Whiteface, who isn’t likely to be as quick about it.

  The Bachman family is little more than an anchor for Orion. Any time he comes close to finally figuring himself out, his fucking mother is sure to put him back in line. She’s always a sobering force, his mother. So, you order Whiteface to frighten Orion into severing his relationship with his family. Threaten them. Make Orion see the danger they’re in, so he never speaks to them again. You even plan to be there for the event, just to supervise and make sure it goes according to plan. But once again, it doesn’t, and you can’t stop it without revealing yourself.

  It’s too soon. Orion’s metamorphosis is not complete. He needs to kill, to really, truly kill, not just feel responsible for some stupid Athenian’s death. You need to see him slit a throat and smile. Then and only then will he be aged enough, ready to really see himself, and therefore, ready to see you. Maybe, if he sees what he is and learns to accept it, he’ll accept and love you like your own family never could. It’s worth a shot anyway, isn’t it?

  I’m going to tell you what matters in this world, so listen up. Religious artifacts, gods and cults, microorganisms and quantum entanglement? Fuck all of it. All that matters is authenticity. Be who you are, and if someone can love you like that, you’ve got everything you need, baby. That’s the truth. Don’t deny it. We monsters need acceptance too, don’t we? We’re people too. Was I wrong to use two powerful organizations for my own ends? Is anyone wrong to use the tools they have to accomplish their goals? They were going to fight each other anyway. I may as well get something good out of it.

  Oh, Orion. I’m so sorry I brought your family to Paris. I only wanted them out of your life, but their deaths won’t be in vain. I swear it. They gave you your first kill and then every kill after that. They brought out the real you, which was all they were really good for anyway. I hope the gift I’ve given you will make up for everything I had to take.

  Power is what you wanted, and now, power is what you’ll have. If you come back to me, I’ll let you share the reins of Seditio. If only you knew how far-reaching it really is. We have members in every country, wealthy members, people who offer everything they have to stop the House of David from policing religions and hoarding miracles.

  When you told me about the Finger of God, I could hardly believe it. So that’s why the Judges are impossible to defeat. They discovered a true miracle, and instead of sharing it, they decided to use it to cling to power. When I think about what that miracle could have done for me growing up, how it might have saved the ones I loved from my own blood.

  The House of David hardly deserves to have that kind of power, but you do. You do. That’s why I took the Finger of God fragment from that Judge. That’s why I lured you back to Dublin, where you were finally going to meet the real me. I didn’t really leave when you finally fought your asshole brother. How could I? I had to make sure, even if you lost, that you’d win in the end. I couldn’t lose you. I’d spent too much time and too many resources bringing your true potential out, molding you into the kind of person I knew you could be.

  I slit your skin and put that fragment in you just before you breathed your last breath. Your heartbeat was faint but still there. I swear it was. It had to be. I’m not letting go of you, Orion. Your brother may have killed you, but I have given you life. At least, I hope I did. Will that be enough to earn your forgiveness? Maybe I didn’t let you die the way you wanted to. But I’m going to help you live the way you’re destined to. Now you have real power, and no one, no one, will ever take it from you again.

  In life, we all have to find our truth. You still need to figure yours out, but I want to be there when you do.

  Love,

  Your Mary

  * * *

  I bought The Opener for nostalgia’s sake, and I still keep Orion’s body in the wine cellar. I don’t know why. Maybe I just want to be there when he finally wakes up… if he finally wakes up. I even left him a letter, just in case. My plan is to offer him a choice. Stay in Mobile and live a normal life, or come away with me. We could be together, and with the Finger of God, maybe he’d be protected from my curse. He could run Seditio with me, travel the world, and fight the House of David. It’d be so much more fun with a partner, and I know Orion would be perfect for it. Much better than that idiot Caldwell.

  I’m not afraid of Eden anymore. Weeks after I buy the bar, he even comes in as a customer. At first, I’m sure he means to kill me, and I’m ready to fight back. The gun I have under the counter will be easy to aim at his head. But he doesn’t really seem to care that I’m right in front of him. I think he’s more broken than Orion is. I think he wants to die. Who’s looking after him, I wonder. I guess my sweet O is lucky to have a friend like me.

  Eden sits at the bar and says, “You stole his body.”

  “You can’t steal what was already yours,” I reply. “Were you going to kill me, or do you plan to order a drink? We close in five minutes.”

  “I am not that guy anymore. I don’t kill just to kill. Let’s call tonight a ceasefire,” he says. “Pour.”

  It’s an odd kind of truce, but we both seem to understand it. I take my hand off the gun because there’s no doubt in my mind he isn’t going to strike. He seems different. Not the same Grim Reaper I’m accustomed to. He gulps down his wine and holds out his glass for another pour. I’m happy to oblige as long as he’s happy to pay.

  He says, “Two of your men approached me on my last mission in this town. They called themselves Drone and Fall.”

  “Neither of them were mine. No one owns anyone in Seditio. We’re all our own people.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Sure, sure. You keep telling yourself that. Anyway, they came to me asking for help in overthrowing you. I thought you should know that, although I assume the double agent you sent to us is dead now. Your people don’t trust you, Mary.”

  “Nor should they.” I grin at him and pour his third glass. “I’d be disappointed if they did. I’m not a very trustworthy person. Only an idiot would put their faith in me.”

  “An idiot like Orion?” he says.

  That stings a bit, but I brush it off. You can’t expect a new archnemesis to respect you the same way an established enemy would. “Orion trusted you too,” I say with a smile, “and you killed him.”

  He downs his third glass and glares at me. “We’re both responsible for his death. It took two of us to break him. I only put him out of his misery.”

  “Sure, sure,” I echo his words. “You keep telling yourself that. I see you’re well on your way to recovery, anyway. You were crying like a fucking baby outside that house after you killed him. I saw you.”

  “I loved him,” he says, drawing little patterns on the bar with the tip of his finger. “I killed him because it was best for him.”

  “You don’t know that.” I shrug. “Apathy just makes me bored. Don’t you think it’s far more interesting to cut down people you care about? Such a delicious ache it leaves behind. It’s almost like hell.”

  “Feels like home, does it?” he says with the faintest snarl.

  “If you only knew how right you were.” I smile sweetly back at him. I won’t let his bullshit get to me, not ever again. Because I have something he’ll never have. My treasure is right under our feet, and he doesn’t even know it. “Anyway, if you had a point, you’d better come to it quick. I’m locking up, and I want you gone before I open the safe.”

  “Next time we meet, I plan to bring you in,” he says. “That’s the first thing you should know. The second thing is people in your own organization are plotting against you. Now that you no longer have your guard dog, you’ll be far more vulnerable. The third thing is the House of David is compromised. I know it, and several more of our members know it. I suspect you know it too. Both our organizations are corrupt. Both are responsible for Orion’s death. If you bring down your house, I’ll bring down mine. That’s the only deal I’m willing to make.”

  “Ooooh,” I sing the word like a playground taunt. “Someone’s throwing a big ass tantrum, isn’t he? Here’s the thing.” I lean against the bar on my elbows and look up at him. “The only one who killed that boy was you. You held the weapon. You swung it at his chest. You killed him. Don’t expect me to play your little share-the-blame game. My conscience isn’t so easy to manipulate. And don’t expect me to get all self-destructively paranoid just because you suggested Seditio may have traitors in our midst. I always expect my people to be traitors. That’s the nature of Seditio. You can’t sow chaos where it already exists, ya dork.”

  “So, it’s war you’re after,” he murmurs into his glass.

  “No, Eden. The goal was never war. You should know that by now. We want freedom. We want nothing less than the complete destruction of the House of David and every tyrant that rises up and dares to tell people who they’re allowed to worship. No one rules over man but God. That’s the point; Seditio won’t stop until it’s also the truth. You can cut me down if you want, but it’ll make no difference. We’re a creature with thousands of heads, little man. Cut one off, and what difference will it make? Someone else will just take my place. Maybe someone worse.”

  “If that’s even possible.” He laughs bitterly. “And now you have a Finger of God fragment.” He swallows the last of his wine, stands, and buttons his coat against the coming cold. “I wonder who you’ll give it to.”

  “You don’t think I’d keep it for myself?”

  He shakes his head. “You don’t care about your own survival as much as you care about winning. You’ll give it to whoever is most likely to help you win.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” I open the door for him, and he steps out into the rain. “It’s not about winning.”

  He turns to face me, raindrops running in little rivulets down his cheeks. “So correct me.”

  I don’t know how to explain it to him, so I just quote my father’s favorite verse, the one he had plastered onto the wall next to our front door. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build… It’s winter, Eden, and you know what that means. Time to die, uproot, kill, and tear down. Time to start fresh. When something can’t be fixed, it’s best to burn it to the ground. You may want to snuff out the fires you find, but I think, at this point, our best bet is to pour gasoline on all of them.”

  I close the door on him while he’s still staring back at me. I flip the Open sign to Closed, let out a deep breath, and rest my forehead against the door. Then I burst out laughing because, of all things, Eden didn’t pay his bill, and I didn’t notice. He didn’t even tip me. What a day. There’s nothing better than coming so close to death and walking away again. The adrenaline rush isn’t something I take for granted. But it can’t compare to the rush I feel when I hear footsteps on the cellar stairs and a familiar, raspy voice.

  “Mary?”

  THE END

 

 

  Q.K. Petty, True Winter (A Series of Four Seasons Book 1)

 

 

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