Chapter 43

MAEVE

Vamps pass where we stand,and a tall guy walks towards us. Instantly, Jamie"s hand slips into mine. Young and beautiful looking, he"d captivate the human Maeve from the past, but here that beauty"s eaten away by his sour energy. He pauses to rake a disinterested look between the two of us, although lingering more on my face.

The sleek-haired girl beside him regards us with scorn. "The witches are over there," she says.

"What"s left of them, anyway," adds her companion.

His sardonic grin unnerves me as they pass. Almost everybody in this room is hemia. Why?

I subtly watch the pair walk away into the darkened tunnel.

"What did the vamp mean?" asks Jamie.

"There"re only four witches in the room," I reply. "I spotted them standing away from the other recruits."

"I hope Tobias gets something from that guy"s mind and quickly," Jamie says, looking to where I tip my head to indicate the witches.

Although Tobias painted a picture of the army Natalie spoke about, I couldn"t picture large numbers crammed into the catacombs. Then I walked in and discovered the vastness of this disorientating and disturbing subterranean world. I"d imagined a dozen or two, but the supes in this room aren"t even the full number.

Which part of the catacombs does the tunnel beside us lead to? Another living area? I"d counted on our group only facing recruits in the main room. How many more fill the Dominion labyrinth?

"Let"s talk to the witches," I say, and Jamie"s eyes go wide. "We should intermingle, not hang around on the edges, suspiciously. Art didn"t recognise any of us, even now he"s seen the guys up close."

"I"m completely stunned that nobody knows who we are," says Jamie. "It"s crazy that Gabriella doesn"t have a most wanted, especially as we"re intending to kill her."

"Gabriella doesn"t want to admit a weakness," I say. "That"s why she isn"t telling her lower-level people about us." I turn to the side slightly as another couple of hemia pass. "If Gabriella only possesses limited blood, she"d waste that if her new followers died—because they would if she pitted them against us. Gabriella needs plenty of recruits for this ritual."

Why? For protection? As part of the ritual—sacrifices or something worse? Is there something worse?

"But Gabriella knows that Dorian"s found and killed kids she"s recruited, and that he"d tell us," says Jamie. "That we"d search for more and stop her plans."

"Tobias insists he"s not walking out of the catacombs until we"ve discovered what this ritual is, or when and where," I say in determination, even though my stomach flutters with doubt.

He won"t get that information easily if the recruits don"t know. Does Art?

As I shift my attention to the room, Andrei catches my eye. He"s difficult to see beneath the hood, but I"m disturbed by his stillness and focus on me above all else. Why isn"t he with Tobias?

I"d take Jamie"s hand, but few around us touch, as if nobody wants to demonstrate that they"re connected. The "every person for themselves" aura dominates—something not useful for an army.

Arethey an army or something else?

We approach the witches grouped in the corner—two guys and two girls. My nerves unfurl when I don"t recognise any of them. Not all supe kids attend Nightworld academies, and the ones that the Confederacy exclude make good prospects for the Dominion. But why so few witches when they"re central to the Dominion, even now after all the Blackwoods died? I bite my lip. One of two reasons: witches dissuade others from joining or there"s something different about the witch kids who the Dominion single out and recruit.

I linger next to Jamie, eyes down and playing with my nails as a nervous new girl, not wanting to meet anybody"s eyes yet. Even when keeping myself at a distance, I"m hyperconscious someone will recognise me.

As Jamie introduces himself as Adam, and me as Nicole, I gauge their mental strength. Witches are more likely to detect a mind invasion, and I pull back straightaway. Each of the witch"s potency hits me after just one brush of their mind.

These kids huddle together, alert against everybody, not only us. Finding answers won"t be easy with mental shields like theirs. Still, if nobody knows "Maeve", they"ll only notice a witch with a stronger aura than most, and a mental barrier to match—the type that the Dominion would recruit.

One of the group sits on the floor, a girl with curly hair and freckled cheeks who watches silently, knees drawn tightly to her chest. Another girl with straight brown hair and a pretty face stands beside her, hands in the pockets of her green cargo pants.

Are any of them Confederacy? I glance around. Is anybody in here a spy besides us?

"You"ll regret joining," says a short, stocky guy, without sharing his name. "If you can leave, go now."

"Why would we do that?" asks Jamie. "I aspire to be part of the new future."

The girl on the floor snorts to herself but says nothing.

"How many witches do you see around you?" asks the girl beside her softly, then before he can answer she adds, "Not many."

"Do you want to leave?" I break my silence. All are pale; tense and edgy. The witches" barriers aren"t only in their minds, or magical. They"ve closed out those around them. "Do the vamps attack you?"

"Not yet," mutters the second guy, athletic build with tight black curls. "But the witches I met when I arrived disappeared. Bonehead over there taunts us that they died, and Dominion use their bodies for something else. And that we"re next."

My mouth parches and I look to "Bonehead", the vamp who passed us earlier who's now back and sitting across the room. Watching. "He might be lying," says Jamie.

"Yeah? The witches that the leaders take never return," says the girl on the floor.

"How long have you been here? What"s happening?" I ask. I"m keeping my distance, but each time I speak, their attention draws my way.

"Couple of days. And you know why we"re here. The blood," says the curly-haired guy.

"And I told you we took a risk, Carter," says the girl against the wall. "The blood comes from vamps."

"I"m not taking the blood," whispers the girl on the floor. "I"ve strong magic. They can use me for that instead. You should offer the same, Carter."

"And maybe that"s why AJ and Della never returned. Not because they took the blood, but because they refused." The stocky guy rubs his mouth as he looks around. "We don"t know what the fuck happened to the pair or if the same thing happened to other witches before them."

"Like I said," says the standing girl. "There"re few witches here. We expected more."

"I swear the recruiters use mind magic on witches because I had doubts about joining. Yet I"m here and can"t remember agreeing," says the other girl. "Did that happen to you two?"

"These two came with the Dominion reps and the dragon." Carter gestures towards the door Tobias and Ash are behind. "No way can they leave now."

What is Gabriella aiming to do? Create a world controlled by vamps?

"Do the hemia bother you?" asks Jamie.

""Bother us"." The girl leaning against the wall makes a derisive noise. "Vamps aren"t allowed to touch witches. Not publicly. But the ones with the blood—they"ve less control. I don"t feel safe."

I dart another look around to the bored looking recruits. I sense the First"s presence in some of their heartbeats, but not as many as I expected. "People in this room have the blood? How many?"

"A handful," says Carter.

"What"s in the blood?" I ask. "Nobody told us."

The athletic guy shrugs. "Some say it"s blood from the original vamp families mixed with illegal magic."

"Too much for witches to handle, that"s what it is," says Carter. "And Melissa is right—I don"t remember agreeing, and I want out too."

A shiver trips along my spine. Mind controlled into joining?

"Are you all the same type of witch?" asks Jamie. "Elemental or something else?"

The group exchange glances, a silent discussion on what to tell us. "Dual. Elemental and mental," says Melissa. "What are you?"

She looks directly at me, suspicion filling her features.

Dual.Rarer. Not as rare as Eloise, the Trinity witch who"s now a vampire hybrid, but witches who"re treated differently by the Confederacy: automatic entry into the academies, their magic encouraged and honed.

Once they graduate, are these witches recruited like the Ravenhold volunteers? Is Gabriella catching them before the Confederacy do? Either way, the people with us are valuable assets to both sides.

"What are you?" repeats Melissa.

"I"m an ex-Nightworld student. Mental magic. I"m here because the Confederacy let us down, and my friends died at the academy," I reply.

The sitting girl sneers. "Yeah, thought your guy sounded posh. Don"t think that your privilege will count for anything in this place, Adam."

But Melissa now stares at me, slanting her head before subtly moving closer. I take a step back and Jamie blocks her. "There"s something weird about Nicole," she says, eyes narrowing.

"I"ve potent magic. That"s all. So does he." I gesture at Jamie. "He practices psychometry."

"Are you saying you"re single school magic?" asks the stocky guy. "All witch recruits are dual magic users. What makes you special?"

"Are we given a shifter to kill, or do we hunt them?" asks Jamie and I half-choke at his direct question.

The focus on me swerves. "Kill?" The girl on the floor gawks. "Someone told you to kill a shifter?"

"Any opponent," he continues nonchalantly. "In order to prove ourselves and get the blood."

"Whoa." Carter blinks. "Who told you that?"

"Fuck," mutters the other guy and pushes a hand through his hair. "This is insane. What are we doing here?"

"I can't kill," rasps out Melissa.

Yet you chose to join an army. Or did you?

As the conversation continues, a creeping dread fills me. Is the Dominion usingwitches against their own instead of shifters this time? With Anastasia and the Blackwoods out of the picture, the main witch influence over the Dominion ended, too.

"Something"s off. Why the questions?" Carter shoves Jamie to one side to examine me closer, and as Jamie slices him a pissed off look, I grab his arm, squeezing a warning to stay calm.

The witch doesn"t reach out to me physically, but attempts to seize my mind. I fight against laughing at Carter"s unsubtle try and slam up a wall to reflect his forceful assault against me.

The sitting girl stands, and my pulse picks up as the group surround us. Would these witches embrace us for solidarity or attack us for our differences?

"Are you Confed?" she asks, too loudly as a hemia group on the floor stop chatting, looking up, card game paused.

"No. We want the bastards taken down as much as you do." I open my mind enough for them to glimpse that truth, but nothing more.

"Hey, witchy girl," calls a guy from the floor, tapping his hand of cards against his long chin. Everybody ignores them. "Blondie."

Fuck. Now what?

He"s exactly the type of hemia that targets humans—good-looking guy with an easy-going smile and mesmerising green eyes. His resemblance to actors who play vamps in TV shows would make his activities laughably easy. How many humans has he killed? How many would he kill if the First or the Dominion revealed the supernatural world?

Side by side, Jamie"s body touches me, and I link fingers, reassuring myself that nothing in this place neutralises magic as his locks with mine.

"Are you pissed off with hemia, and that"s why you joined?" he asks me. "Didn"t like your sister choosing one of us?"

I frown, genuinely confused. "I don"t have a sister."

A straggly haired guy beside him ignores me and laughs. "Did your family hate the hemia wiping out her magic?"

"At least she only lost her magic and not her life," says the first guy. "Have Mummy and Daddy sent you to find her?"

"I don"t have a sister," I repeat.

He springs to his feet, the vamp taller than the witches, and I clench my teeth against another person attempting to intimidate us. "A girl who looks like you hung around a few days ago. Weird girl."

"A nut job," pipes up another. "Wouldn"t speak to others, and if anyone approached her—witch or hemia—she clawed their faces. Strong mental barrier, too."

"The Dominion recruiting psychos makes sense," says Jamie with a hint of unhelpful scorn. "Just saying."

"Yeah, well, nobody liked the loner who wasn"t a team player," says the vamp, and nods at me. "Your sister disappeared. Sometimes recruits do if they"re not worthy."

Her description. The oxygen in the stifling space grows thinner. "What was this girl"s name?"

He shrugs and looks at his friend. "She never told us. I only heard Art use her name once. Mary?"

"Mary?" I swallow hard. "Or Maeve? Blonde hair, slightly shorter than me?"

Jamie jerks, hand tightening further and magic surges from him.

"You"re looking for a recruit called Maeve? If the blonde weirdo was her, she"ll be on the lists—crossed out," the guy continues.

The room lurches. What game is the First playing now?

"Excuse me," I say and blindly push my way towards the notices the vamp pointed at, breaking Jamie"s hold.

I run my shaking finger along the names, and the mustiness in the catacombs fades towards an acrid smell, and a bitterness in my mouth as I land on a name, thankful for Jamie"s presence beside me again.

Maeve Erste

Not Winterfall

Not Blackwood.

Or even Foster

"Never heard of that witch name. No phone coverage down here," mutters Jamie. "Or I could search."

"Coincidence? Or do you think the First came here?" I can hardly get the words past my dry lips.

"What the kids said about the girl sounds like she could be the First. The creature would want to keep a distance because even if the recruits don"t know what the First is, they"d know something wasn"t right about the girl"s aura." He squeezes my hand again. "Any other Maeves on the list? Or Mary?"

I carefully run through every name. No. Nor is there a line inked through Maeve Erste.

"Jamie," I whisper, as I pull him out of earshot. "What if the First came to the catacombs and never left?"