Enthralled: Tainted Book Four

3. Expendable

Rome Aalders

It wasn't long after Hank and Gina left to pick Angelo della Morte and his crew up at the airport that Lilas asked for an ice cream cone, and none of us had the heart to deny her. She was grieving for Hinge - ahem, Bertie - and missing her mom, but too scared to go back to St. Pat's to catch the portal home.

Guess I would be too after seeing Sasquatch-like monsters eating people on the doorstep, I grunted to myself.

Feeling bad for the kid, we all volunteered to walk with her to the nearest cafe, but Mr. Snyder said his stiff, old legs needed stretching and he could do with some fresh air. Since we were in the heart of Huskarl territory, neither I nor Kerry saw a problem with that, and we sent them on their way.

Now that it was just the five us left in the safehouse, I decided to share an issue I'd been pondering for a while. Maybe they would see something that I didn't or couldn't.

"Why do you think Clem called my team up for this mission?" I glanced from Jax to Gigi to Mira, then settled on Kerry. "Why us particularly, I mean. We're a really young team, compared to the thousands of others who have hundreds of years of experience. Yeah, we're sanctioned by the council, but we only have a dozen or so missions under our belt. We won't even rank on the scoreboard for another century or so."

"He never thought it was going to become this complex." Jax threw his arm around Gigi's shoulders and looked unconcerned. "I mean, we went from banishing hellhounds to chasing after a crazy politician who drinks nephilim blood in a misguided attempt to live forever. Who could have predicted that?"

"Yeah. Still. Seems odd."

"Take it as a compliment," he suggested.

"Or as a challenge," said Gigi. "Maybe Clem's testing you. See what you're made of."

"Maybe you're expendable. Or he didn't want you to succeed." When silence greeted Mira's theory, she quickly apologized. "Sorry. I don't know this Clem person. I hope I didn't offend anyone."

"No, it's not that," Jax said. "Just ... very interesting."

"Expendable makes sense, in a way." I finally looked away from Kerry and stared at the floor. "Easier to write off a younger team than an elite one. And it wasn't really an official mission anymore after Amanda was freed, was it?"

"Do you remember the story he told us about her?" Gigi said quietly. "He said he wasn't the same William Greenaway anymore and the other wardens started calling him Clemency to remind him to show some. When we revived his wife, it probably skewed all of his priorities and number one became to get her to safety. No matter what - or who - it cost."

"Ruthless," Kerry said, and I absently remembered explaining the word to the kid. "Yeah, I can see that in him. Can understand it, too. May not be intentional on his part, but I'd expect nothing less, really."

"But why wouldn't he want us to be successful?" I asked.

"I don't know." Mira shrugged. "It was just a theory. Like I said, I don't know him, but is it possible he had ulterior motives?"

"He's a teacher!" Gigi protested. "He thought we had enough brains and talent to handle this, maybe even hoping we'd stretch ourselves and grow from the experience."

"You're too innocent, Tennessee," Kerry snorted, rolling his eyes. "Not everyone is so pure-minded. Not even teachers."

"And you're too traumatized to trust. Not everyone is corrupt. Not everyone is your enemy."

"Well, I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?" I cut in before an argument broke out. "Whatever his reasons, pure or corrupt, we're here and in the thick of it now. We'll see it through to the end."