a cross in the void // christopher lightwood {4}

fifteen // before the world went upside down

"Listen, you know I didn't get them the last time. How can you expect me to get them this time? I told you they have . . . something. Some kind of shield."

That voice sounded familiar, but Dash just couldn't place it. And they didn't want to try to dig back into their memories for it either, they'd already blanked out twice trying to do that, trapped in a loop of memory they couldn't escape. They weren't sure whether that was magic, or just their mind's own doing.

"What are they talking about?" Alan asked, behind them.

Dash shook their head. The Blazer Lady was out there, talking to . . . someone. Dash pushed the curtains of the coat check aside and found it to be a small young woman with bloodred hair and jade stones in her ears. She looked frustrated, and a little afraid. The Blazer Lady looked annoyed.

"Listen," she snapped, "I did not crawl up out of my home amongst the reeds and come here and take you under my wing just to have you back out on me. I need my answers, child. Out of anyone in this world they'll have them."

"You saw what happened the last time I—"

"Yes I saw. You slipped up. You can do better. Go." The Blazer Lady made a shooing motion. "Go."

Red Hair backed up and turned her back and stalked away.

"I've seen her before," Dash whispered, letting the curtains fall back.

"Where?" Alan asked.

Dash shrugged. "Hell if I remember."

< & >

Saoirse threw open Castle's doors when Pluto was only halfway up the walk. "Pluto!" she yelled, flinching quickly back into the shadows before she could be burned by the sun. "Pluto, something's happened. You'd better get inside. It's your mother."

Pluto panicked so badly they nearly forgot and left the bicycle in the grass. They got indoors as quickly as they could and found Brigitte sitting in front of the study fire, wrapped in a crocheted coverlet.

"What happened?" Pluto asked.

"A wailing." Brigitte was reduced to whispering, her voice hoarse and raw. "A wailing for so many souls. So many." Her voice broke and cracked and she had to stop and swallow and start up again. "I fell in the kitchen with the screaming and I couldn't get up again. I had to call the Institute and make them send Ian to walk me here. He's in the kitchen. And the worst part—the worst part is I couldn't see what was going on. I have no idea who died, or where, or why. My Sight—my Sight was cut off. All I know is there as a massacre and I couldn't see it."

Pluto knelt and wrapped their arms around Brigitte's thin shoulders. Brigitte returned the hug, burying her head in the collar of Pluto's winter coat, and they stayed like that, breathing and trying to calm down, until Saoirse said, "So what now?"

"We still go to that party tonight," Brigitte aid. "I can get hold of someone there who'll listen. Until then I need to sleep. Where's Bryn?"

"Right here," said Bryn, materializing out of the shadows at the far corner of the room, where the curtains kept the daylight from getting in. She knelt with Pluto and Brigitte by the fire.

"You're going to have to go and get my dress from the house," said Brigitte. "I doubt Pluto has much I'll be able to wear and I want them here with me."

Bryn nodded and got back up and vanished again, as quickly as she had come. Pluto helped Brigitte to her feet and they took the elevator together up to Pluto's rooms on the fourth floor. Pluto settled Brigitte carefully onto the bed and left her to sleep. They read the transcription of James's scrying attempt that Christopher had written out for them. They typed up what they needed to. By then Bryn was knocking on the fire escape door and Pluto leapt up to let her in. Bryn laid Brigitte's change of clothes out and claimed the man-eating sofa, and offered Pluto the box of Dutch chocolate cookies she'd brought with her as well. Pluto took two and went into the bathroom to get changed.