Isaac had surrounded himself with special people from the start, I realized, each with his or her own talent. He’d been putting this team together for a long time now. He’d been preparing all along to take up the fight, even if he didn’t know it.
Philip found an exit off the access road that brought us onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, where we merged with traffic heading downtown. I was starting to feel much better, almost fully recovered. Even my bones hurt less. The sun wasn’t up yet, but it was getting close as the black sky brightened toward gray. The headlights of oncoming traffic speared through the dark and reflected off Philip’s mirrored shades.
“Can you see in the dark with those glasses on?” I asked.
“I’m a vampire,” he said. “I can see in the dark with a blindfold on.”
“Do you ever take them off?”
He turned to me with a slight grin. I could see the tips of his fangs. “Trust me,” he said, “you wouldn’t want me to.”
Something in the tone of his voice told me to drop the subject.
He continued, picking up the thread of our conversation, “Isaac didn’t just send me to get you because you were in danger. He needs you, Trent. Just like he needs the rest of us. It’s all-hands-on-deck time. The question is, are you going to be a man and step up, or are you going to keep running?”
I sighed and looked out the window. “All I ever wanted was to find out who I am and where I came from. I snuck into a warehouse to steal a box because I thought it would get me the answers I needed, but instead it turned my world upside down. Made me question everything I thought was true. As if that wasn’t enough, now you’re asking me to help stop an unkillable million-year-old creature from waking up and destroying everything?”
“Welcome to New York,” Philip said. “You didn’t say no, so I take it you’re in?”
Outside the window, I saw the passing lights of the city. How much longer would those lights burn if Stryge got loose? How many thousands, millions of people would die? I already had too many deaths on my shoulders. “Fine,” I said. “I’m in.”
He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and tossed it to me. It was identical to the one Isaac had given me. “Isaac’s number is in the contacts. Call him and put it on speakerphone. We need to know what our next move is.”
Once again, Isaac’s number was the only one programmed into the contacts. I put it on speaker and hit the send button. A moment later Isaac’s voice filled the inside of the Escalade.
“Philip, tell me you found him.” He sounded harried, like he’d had a long night. That made two of us.
“It’s me, Isaac, I’m here,” I said.
“Trent! Thank God you’re all right.” He actually sounded relieved. That surprised me. I still wasn’t used to people giving a damn.
I filled him in as quickly as I could on everything that had happened since we last spoke: Reve Azrael’s ambush in the cemetery; the Black Knight’s plan to steal Stryge’s power, and mine; and the brewing gargoyle rebellion. He wanted to know if I was okay, and I told him I was fine, but that the Black Knight was pissed. “Right now, I bet every gargoyle in the Tri-State area is out looking for me,” I said. “Once the sun comes up it’ll buy us some time, but right now I’m more worried about Reve Azrael. She’s a lot harder to shake. She could be tailing me as we speak, or she could already be with Stryge’s body. Either way, I don’t like it. Tell me you found something useful in the books.”
“Nothing,” he said. “Unfortunately, the conspiracy to keep the location of Stryge’s body a secret was executed perfectly. We have a couple more shelves of books to look through, but I’m not feeling hopeful.”
“Reve Azrael isn’t the only one who knows where Stryge’s body is,” I said. “It stands to reason the Black Knight knows, too, or he wouldn’t be planning to steal Stryge’s power.”
“Are you suggesting we ask the Black Knight?”
“Actually, I was thinking maybe we should just hang back and let them kill each other.”
Isaac laughed, but it sounded weary, exhausted. “Believe me, I’m tempted, but it’s way too dangerous. Still, I think you’re on to something. The gargoyle that helped you…”
“Jibril-khan,” I said.
“Funny, it never occurred to me that gargoyles would have names. I always thought of them as animals,” Isaac said.
“You and everyone else. But they’re not. They’re a lot more complicated than anyone gave them credit for.”
“Gargoyles have a centuries-long lifespan,” he said. “Jibril-khan told you he was alive back when Stryge was king, right? Which means he was probably at the battle where Willem Van Lente defeated Stryge.”
“Along with who knows how many other gargoyles still alive today,” I said. “That’s how the Black Knight knows where Stryge’s body is. Oh shit, it just occurred to me. I bet that’s how Reve Azrael knows, too. She probably killed an older gargoyle and plundered its memories for the location.”
“Did Jibril-khan say anything about where the battle was or what happened to Stryge’s body? Think back. Anything could be a clue. Anything at all.”
“I didn’t exactly have time to ask,” I said. “Wait, there was something. Jibril-khan mentioned oracles, and a prophecy about an immortal storm. Gregor said the same thing. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
“I don’t know what an immortal storm is,” Isaac said, “but the oracles…” He paused. I could practically hear him stroking his beard in thought.
“They must know something. So where do we find them?”
“Whoa, hold on,” Philip interrupted. “I’m not going anywhere near the damn oracles!”
“Philip’s right, I can’t let you do this,” Isaac said. “If it’s going to be anyone, it should be me.”
“Forget it.” I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “It’s just after six a.m. We have five hours until the equinox. Five hours before Stryge wakes up and everyone dies. You need to stay where you are and keep looking through those books. Leave the oracles to us.”
“Oh, hell no,” Philip said, shaking his head adamantly. “You want to see the oracles, you’re on your own.”
“Fine,” I said. “Just point the way.”
“Trent, listen to me,” Isaac said. “The oracles aren’t human, not even remotely.”
“So what are they?”
“They’re…” He paused, trying to find the right word. “They’re unknowable. They’re beyond our understanding. They have their own ways of doing things, their own rules about who they’ll see and who they won’t—”
“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I don’t give a damn about rules,” I said. “Like it or not I’m going, and one way or another I’ll get an answer out of them.”
“Trent, you’ll be in way over your head—” I heard a muffled voice interrupt him on the other end of the line. Isaac sighed and said, “Fine, here, maybe you can talk some sense into him.” He passed the phone to someone, and then Bethany’s voice came on the line.
“I thought I heard someone being stubborn and exasperating. I should have known it was you. So, are you still in one piece?”
I smiled at the sound of her voice. I couldn’t help it. It was an involuntary reaction. Philip caught me smiling, shook his head, and groaned.