Between the Spirit and the Dust

Chapter Twenty Six

“What did you say?”

 Max’s gaze never wavered from me but emotions flickered through his eyes so quickly that I couldn’t get a read on them. His expression finally settled on resignation and he exhaled loudly. When he spoke, his voice was completely steady. “I’m part of the Council. Or more accurately, my family had been.” 

 “But the Council hasn’t existed for generations,” interrupted Evie. “There is no more Council.”

  What Evie didn’t say was how a Council couldn’t have let Gabriel kill so many Para girls without piecing any of it together. And this had to be true, if there was some kind of Council overseeing us, there wouldn’t have been so many victims. Gabriel would never have managed any of this.  

 “And you’re human,” breathed Sophia, her eyes still glassy from the tears that she had shed earlier. She pinned him down with a glare. “I know every single trick there is to hide any trace of Para and you’re not using anything. You’re completely human.” 

 Max ran a hand through his hair, barely showing any sign of hearing Evie or Sophia aside from a quick glance at them. But he answered them anyway. “I am human but I’m also a member of the Council. You all are.”

 He held up a head, sensing that I was about to interrupt and continued, “There’s something I have, a book that I inherited from my Grand-Uncle when he passed two years ago. And that’s also the book that you saw, Ems, when you practiced reading me.”

 The book with the cracked leather cover, that book that he’s always been weirdly protective of.

 “When I first got the book, I didn’t understand what it was talking about. It had been someone’s diary and he was writing about a Council, with people having paranormal powers. But when I figured out that he wasn’t writing about fiction, that he was writing about actual people, I panicked and pretty much chucked the book away.”

 “When did you find out?” I asked. “When did you know about the Council?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Max couldn’t meet my eyes any longer, instead staring down at his balled fists. “I took the book with me when I came here, with you guys. I’ve tried to read as much of it as I can and I went by my Grand-Uncle Eddie’s place here in DC a few times, to see if I could find anything else in his own home. But the only thing that he had was this book.” 

 “And what did you find out?” prodded Evie. Her tone was perfectly calm, as though she was discussing the weather and I stared at her disbelievingly. She gave me a tiny shake of her head, warning me to keep my temper in check. 

 “There is a link between the girls, you were right about that the whole time. And that link — that link is that all girls’ families had belonged to the Council. The last remaining Council before the alliance between the clans dissolved.”

 “Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”

The question had come from me and I’d surprised myself by how hurt I’d sounded. Immediately I regretted it and wanted to take back it back, to pretend that I’d hadn’t asked such a stupid question when there were more important things to be worried about.

 And Max’s face, the way he flinched when he heard the question, it was the spark that ignited the anger that I’d been holding back. I didn’t even know who I was angry with. Was I angry with him, at how he’d asked me to let him in, to be honest with him but had refused to do the same for me? Or was I angry with myself, at how clueless I had been in thinking that he was a boy that I could trust with anything and who would be there with me through everything.