Oscar: I haven’t hurt him yet. Everyone keep your panties on.
Moses: Speaking of panties. Want to search Gabe’s hiding places while you’re in there?
Theodore: Isobel isn’t ready, Kalen.
Kalen （admin）： I know.
Elijah: You could get her ready.
Kalen （admin）： I know.
Niko: But you won’t, right?
Kalen （admin）： I need to get a better gauge of where she stands with all of this. She already asked me to be her sponsor.
Kilian: Don’t push her.
Kilian navigated out of the chat and flopped back onto the couch, staring at the shadowed patterns on the roof. Isobel was in good hands with Kalen, and they all knew it, but there were parts of the club that even Kalen couldn’t protect her from.
Things were getting more complicated … but a weight had just been lifted off his chest.
He didn’t usually keep secrets from them for so long, but he had thought it would be better if all their focus was on protecting Isobel.
He should have realised they already knew.
Isobel woke up an hour before her alarm was set to go off, her mind buzzing. She checked her phone just to make sure nothing terrible had happened while she slept, and then she snuck into Kilian’s bathroom to get ready for the day. She was halfway out of the dorm before she paused, remembering that Mikel had ordered them to go everywhere in pairs or groups.
Thankfully, Elijah also seemed to be an early riser. He padded out of his room in rumpled sweats and mussed hair, heading toward the stairs leading up to the kitchen before he turned, pinning her with a look, his nose twitching.
He assessed her quickly, before mumbling, “Give me a minute,” and disappearing back into his room.
He re-emerged dressed for dance practice, his bag slung over his arm, and met her at the door. “Where to this early? You don’t have practise for an hour.”
“I thought I’d check on Sophia and Luis.”
“All right.” He pushed the door open, holding it and nodding for her to go first.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked as they reached the stairs.
She felt awkward trying to make small talk with him, but he didn’t seem to suffer from the same problem. He peppered her with polite, surface questions until they reached the chapel, where they both stopped short inside the doorway. The Guardian, Maya, was vacuuming around the dais, an old set of headphones strapped to her head, her foot tapping absently. She stopped when she saw them, shifting the headphones to her neck and turning off the vacuum.
“Carter,” she said, her tone surprised. Her steady, gold-ringed, mahogany gaze moved to Elijah. “Reed, is it? I apologise, my son is a big fan, but I don’t keep up with the show much.”
Elijah only reclined his head a little in acknowledgement.
“Maya Rosales.” She wound up the vacuum cord and strode over, sticking her hand out to Elijah.
“A pleasure,” he said, pretending not to notice her hand. “I’ve heard … things.”
“A sceptic, huh?” She chuckled, amused by his cool reception, before turning her attention back to Isobel. “What brings you here this morning? Have any other artefacts appeared?” Her eyes darted right to Isobel’s chest, even though the chain was hidden by her over-large shirt.
“Nothing since Sophia and Luis last updated you,” Isobel answered blandly.
“I am a Guardian, Carter.” Maya’s lips thinned. “My children might have a knack for Gifted occult, but they don’t have my years of experience. Of course they consulted me.”
“And what do you have to say?” Isobel asked, crossing her arms.
The woman had only been polite to her, but it made Isobel extremely uncomfortable that Maya and her children were walking around with the knowledge that both of Isobel’s eyes had changed.
After Eve …
She stiffened, forcing the thoughts out of her mind to concentrate on Maya, who was pushing out little currents of anxiety to tease into Isobel’s chest. It felt different to when Isobel’s father bulldozed over her with his emotions, or when the Dorm A Alphas sent their emotions colliding against her body. This was softer, subtler, as though Maya was as practised as Isobel at keeping her emotions under lock and key.
Maybe she was.
Her entire occupation was maintaining a dead religion and a group of gods that most Gifted had long forgotten. She likely had to suffer just as much ridicule as Isobel did for being a Sigma.
“I think that the gods don’t bother with curses,” Maya answered. “But there is one god who must maintain the balance when the other gods go overboard with their gifts.”
Isobel nodded, trying to recall the name of the god Sophia and Luis had shown her.
“Stygian,” Maya supplied.
“Right.” Isobel glanced around the chapel, but it wasn’t like any of the shadows were about to shift away from the wall and turn into robed, celestial beings. It was just a chapel. Not even a very elaborate one, considering it belonged to Ironside. “The mysterious god.”
“The Duskfall Warden,” Maya corrected. “The Gifted don’t have a ‘god of mystery,’ just as we don’t have a ‘goddess of love,’ or a ‘god of the seas.’ Our gods aren’t so simple as that, with only one segment of the world they are relegated to. The Duskfall Warden is named for the fact that he guards the space between light and dark. Sometimes, even the space between life and death. Without him, we have no balance.”
Isobel wanted to bite her tongue, but the words spilled out anyway. “You call this world balanced?”
“The gods don’t exist to serve us, Carter. We exist to serve them. They give us our abilities, our gifted blood, and in return, we are supposed to keep their temples and follow their edicts.”
“I’m curious,” Elijah spoke up suddenly, his voice calm and soft—definitely not as riled up as Isobel felt. “The chain you took from Isobel—has it shown any signs of sentience?”
“None at all,” Maya answered immediately. “It was not intended for me.”
“Have you studied it further?” Elijah pressed.
“Of course.” Maya looked him over a little more thoroughly, arching a thin, elegant brow. “It’s identical to Aphelina’s chain. I’ve cross-referenced it across every picture I could find, and all the written accounts of bonded people receiving Aphelina’s chain in the past.”
“It can be gifted to more than one person at the same time?” Elijah’s expression was almost bored, but he spoke quickly, his tone bordering on sharp.
“It would seem so.” Maya brushed some cleaning dust from her faded, button-down shirt. “The chain always disappears after some time, but it has never fused itself to a person’s body. Not in any record I can find.”
“Did you find any records of the chain being cut or deformed?” Elijah barely paused to digest Maya’s words.
“No—” Maya admitted, but Elijah was already speaking again.
“What was so distinctive about the chain that you’re so sure it’s the same as those mentioned in your records?”
“It’s not a metal of this world.” Maya looked amused now.
“And how did you test that?” Elijah’s disappointment reached out to Isobel, like he had already concluded that Maya couldn’t possibly verify what she was saying.