“It wasn’t just me,” Cass said. “Gamble and her team were firing from the building.”
“No,” Lil said, shaking her head. “That was before your team made it to the door.”
Cass thought back to the moments before she first heard gunfire. The ground had been covered with the slain, but she’d thought most of them had come from the explosion.
“The Weir didn’t seem to even notice the others until they were already behind us. We called to you then. But you didn’t hear. The Weir…” Lil trailed off for a moment, searching for the words. She shook her head again. “It was like a human whirlpool. Inhuman. That was when we feared for you, and came to get you.”
“I think… I think that was Asher,” Wren said. “He didn’t want you to get away.”
“After I fell, I must’ve already been losing consciousness. I thought I saw…” Cass said; it was her turn to trail off now. She was almost embarrassed to say it. “I don’t know. Something like angels, I guess. And I could swear I heard singing.”
“That was Lil,” Wren said. “She sings.”
“We learned long ago that when one is surrounded by unearthly screams, a human voice can sometimes reduce the terror.”
“No one sings like Lil, though,” Wren added. “It makes you brave.” Lil looked at him with a warm smile.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” said Cass. “Good to know I didn’t hallucinate the whole thing.”
“You didn’t dream any of it, Mama,” Wren said. “They were doing their trick.”
Cass looked at Wren, and then back to Lil for an explanation. Lil didn’t seem to understand exactly what Wren was saying either, at first.
But then she said, “There’s something Chapel taught us. He called it broadcasting. We’re not sure what it really does, or why it works, but it seems to make the Weir more hesitant to attack.”
Cass thought back to her last view of the battle, and though her final thoughts had been full of dread, her curiosity nevertheless won out.
“Show me.”
Lil was initially reluctant, but after a moment, she drew herself up on the bed and inhaled deeply. She locked her eyes on Cass’s. At first, there was no change. But after a moment, a faint glow started to gather around her, subtle and shifting, like a thin wisp of electric smoke. Lil closed her eyes briefly. The glow rippled. Where once it had appeared to be drawing from the air around her, it now surged as if emanating from within her. Her skin became as white as lightning, and when she opened her eyes, they burned with white-orange intensity, like coals in the heart of a fire.
She was terrible to look upon. Terrible, beautiful, utterly impossible to withstand. Even knowing that Lil was a friend and would do nothing to harm her, Cass felt her heart quail within her. And yet she felt unable to look away.
In the next instant, the angel of destruction was gone and only Lil remained. Cass realized she was holding her breath. She closed her eyes and exhaled, tried to force the tension out of her body.
“Can you teach me?” Wren asked.
“It was difficult to learn,” Lil said. “But I can try, if it’s OK with your mother.”
Wren looked up at her.
“We’ll see,” she said. And then to Lil, “It was you. It was you that I saw. You came, ran into the swarm and saved me.”
Lil dipped her head forward in acknowledgment, and said, “I was there, with Elan and Mei. Swoop, Finn, and Mouse as well. Together we were able to push the Weir back and scatter them. Then we ran.”
“They didn’t pursue?”
Lil shook her head. “I don’t know why. We thought maybe the daylight made it difficult for them.”
“Asher lost control,” Wren said. “I don’t think he was expecting that.”
“Expecting what?” Cass asked.
“Any of it. For us to attack. Or to have help. I think it was too much for him. This time. I think he’s still learning.”
“I still don’t understand it,” Cass said. “You’re sure it’s Asher?”
“I’m positive.”
“Do you know how he’s doing it?”
Wren looked down at his hands, clasped in his lap. After a few moments, he shook his head. “No, I don’t, Mama. I’m sorry.”
Cass leaned over and kissed him on top of the head again. In her hazy state, she’d almost let herself forget. She wanted to forget. But if it was true, and she had no reason to doubt her son, then Asher was out there, somehow. And that meant that Asher would, one day, come for them.
She thought back to the attack on Morningside’s gate. The destruction of Chapel’s village. Chapel’s village. Had Asher known that they’d sheltered Wren before he first came to Morningside? A sudden chill settled over Cass as the thought crystallized. It was exactly the kind of thing Asher would do. Scorch the earth of any and all who may have had a hand in his undoing. Or something else. Not even revenge. Just to destroy something beloved by his little brother. Pure malice.
It was too much to consider for Cass in that moment. Her thoughts were still scattered, hard to capture. As much as she hated to admit it, she was in no shape to do anything about Asher, or even to think about doing anything.
“You should rest,” Lil said. She got to her feet.
“Didn’t I just do that for sixteen hours or something?” Cass said. But even as she said it, she felt a hint of relief at the suggestion, as if it gave her permission to feel as exhausted as she did.
Lil chuckled. “A drugged sleep is rarely a restful one, and your body needs time. Are you hungry?”
Cass shook her head.
“I’ll check on you in a couple of hours,” Lil said.
“Thanks, Lil.”
Lil bowed slightly and gracefully left the room.
“I think I need to lie down again, baby,” Cass said.
Wren slipped off the bed and stood next to it while Cass gingerly repositioned herself. The mattress hadn’t seemed all that comfortable the first time she’d slept on it, but now it seemed as good as any bed she could remember.
“Can I stay with you?” Wren asked.
“Of course.”
Cass scooted over and started to put her back to the wall, but found there was no way she could lie on her back or left side that didn’t cause her some measure of pain. In the end she moved to the edge of the bed, to lie on her right side, and let Wren slide in between her and the wall. He lay on his back, with her arm under his neck and his head on her pillow. The pressure hurt her biceps a little, but she found the comfort of his weight outweighed the pain, reassuring her that he was here and safe. She laid her other arm over him and nuzzled his soft, warm cheek, and let her eyes fall closed.
Wren lay alongside his mother, listening to her steady breathing. It used to help him relax, to focus on her breathing. Now it just made him feel worse. He had lied to her. He’d never lied to her before. But then, he’d never had need to before.
It had been hard to say it, to actually get the false words to come out of his mouth. But he’d done it, and even though he felt bad, he was still sure it had been the right thing to do. Pretty sure, anyway. He’d told her he didn’t know how Asher had gotten into the Weir. But in truth, he knew exactly how he’d done it.
Asher had found his way into Underdown’s machine.
Wren had spent hours running it through his mind, replaying Asher’s final moments, still vivid in his memory. Even after all this time, he wasn’t certain what he had done. He wasn’t even sure what he’d meant to do. He’d just wanted Asher to stop, and to go away, so he’d told him to. And then. Then it was like Asher had just… dissolved.