I was flooded with so many different emotions that I couldn"t even begin to sort it all out. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reflected on the dreams I had.
"The ghosts are gone," Isadora said.
I opened my eyes and nodded.
"Did all that really happen?"
"To a certain extent, yes," Isadora said. "Your living ghost has done its job by freeing you from much of the darkness that held you prisoner. Before, you were a girl without direction, but now-with some of the ghosts removed-you are reborn. How do you feel?"
I took a deep breath and reflected on everything I had just experienced. "I feel..." I paused. What possible sentence could summarize all that was going on in my head and in my heart?
Isadora looked at me with a glimmer in her eye, as if she knew what I was about to say.
"I feel like I have hope," I finally said.
She smiled. "And that, girl, is the essence of life," she said as she kissed me gently on the forehead with her soft lips. "Now come, let"s get me to the altar on time, otherwise my bride-to-be is going to kill me."
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
Shadow Cairo devoured his noodles, slurping them down like he hadn"t eaten for days, as we sat in the diner, just on the outskirts of Kwonloon.
Reiko pushed her noodles around with her chopsticks while chewing on her lower lip. She looked antsy.
"Everything alright?" I asked while staring into the large, black sungla.s.ses she was wearing. She was trying to conceal herself.
Reiko shrugged. "I"m not a fan of public places," she said, "I like to stay invisible." It was evident from her plain grey clothes and the hood draped over her head.
During the walk over here, she constantly looked over her shoulder, paranoid that someone had followed us the entire time.
I couldn"t blame Reiko for her behavior. Her mom was ambushed and killed during the Midnight Society"s war with the Ascension, collateral damage during that senseless power struggle with Elias Rose.
That was sure to leave a lasting impression on someone.
"It"s good to get out once in a while," Cairo said, polishing the last of his noodles and pushing his bowl aside. "Fresh air and a little sun does everyone good."
"The air in Hong Kong certainly isn"t fresh," Reiko pointed out, "and it"s cloudy today."
Cairo shrugged. "We make do with what we have," he said.
I turned to Reiko. "Did you get anything useful out of that phone?"
She pulled it out from the pocket of her faded jeans and handed it to me. "I ran a check on all the calls-incoming and outgoing. Most of them were legit business calls to clients and business a.s.sociates. The only exception was an unknown caller."
"Calisto?" I asked.
Reiko shook her head. "I can"t confirm for sure. It was impossible to pinpoint the location of the call. I"ve never seen anything like it," she said pulling out her own phone. She swiped to a screen that displayed the map of the world. Red circles pinned down hundreds of different locations all across the map.
"What am I looking at?" I asked.
"This is a trace of one single call made by the unknown caller."
I raised a brow. "There are over twenty locations identified."
"Like I said, I"ve never seen anything like it. The bits of the digital message had been chopped up, filtered, sent through an unidentifiable router to all of these locations across the globe, rea.s.sembled, and then sent directly to Elena"s phone. It"s ingenious. I"m afraid this is beyond my capabilities."
I slammed my fist down on the table, startling Reiko.
So much time wasted trying to hunt down Calisto, and on top of that, I had given up far more than I had gained. I had lost Midnight Society"s hold over the Triad and potentially instigated a war with the Yuen Xi Zhao.
"Easy man," Cairo said raising his hand.
Was seeing the flat of his palm was supposed to calm me down?
"This, coming from the guy who"s first reaction was to pound away on my face when I tried to talk to him," I rolled my eyes.
"Sometimes, atmosphere is everything," Cairo said. "If you wanted to reason with me, take me to a coffee shop and chat there, rather than trying to catch me in a fighting pit."
"Give me a break," I said, "At the first sight of me, you were going to run your fists through the back of my head. You"re like a single-minded mule when it comes down to it."
"And you"re a scheming snake," Cairo retaliated. "You don"t have an honest bone in your body, calling a truce and then-"
"For f.u.c.ks sake, did I not just say I wanted to stay invisible while I was out in public?" Reiko hissed. "You two bickering is not helping my cause."
I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. "What a waste of time," I uttered. "Calisto"s getting stronger by the second and here I am in Hong Kong, wasting away while arguing with the world"s largest dumb a.s.s over a bowl of noodles."
"Why do we need to be the ones finding Calisto?" Cairo asked.
I looked at him, surprised. "I"m not sure if you remember, but she murdered all of our parents? If you made peace with that already, then good for you," I said. "You"re a better person than I am."
"That"s not what I"m saying man. Look, we"re throwing s.h.i.t at the wall and hoping that it"ll stick..." he began.
I interrupted him. "I don"t think that"s the exact saying you"re looking for."
"Whatever," Cairo rolled his eyes. "The point is, we need for her to come to us. You get me?"
"Cairo"s got a point," Reiko said. "We should devise a plan to draw her out. It makes more sense than blindly chasing her."
They were right. I had let my anger consume me and instead of thinking things strategically, my first instinct was to hunt her down like a blood hound.
I was never the leader that the Midnight Society needed. I was far too hot headed and emotional. Often, it was Abraham who settled me and forced me to think logically about a problem instead of rushing headfirst into it while my emotions were clouding my judgment.
But Abraham was gone, stolen away from me by Calisto too.
G.o.d, I hate her.
"Calisto"s one smart b.i.t.c.h," Reiko said. "We"ll need to think of something, or someone that could draw her out of the hole she"s hiding in."
"I know how," I stated. From the moment Cairo mentioned luring Calisto out, I knew what had to be done.
"Someone"s going to have to kill me," I said.
"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Cairo asked, shooting me a backwards glance.
I took a deep breath, and then told them my plan, one which required my death.
Chapter Twenty-Nine.
Aria "Now ain"t that an absolute travesty," Beau said as he sipped on his c.o.c.ktail. Standing amongst the blooming flowers adorning the plantation"s gardens were Isadora and Delilah. They were intertwined within each other"s arms, enjoying every moment of their first dance on the wooden floor laid out on the gra.s.s. The lights strung overhead cast a warm ambient glow over them. It was a breathtaking moment The wedding singer"s rich voice echoed through the microphone as he performed a stunning rendition of What A Wonderful World.
The beautiful music, the enchanting lighting, and the radiating beauty of the two women on the dance floor made everything seem like a surreal fantasy, like something ill.u.s.trated within the pages of a fairytale storybook.
I was absorbed in the moment, and couldn"t help but smile uncontrollably as I witnessed two devoted lovers, dancing underneath the night sky on the happiest day of their lives.
"What a travesty," Beau sighed again.
"How is it a travesty?" I snapped. "Is it because two amazing women discovered true love and want to spend the rest of their lives with each other? Is there something offensive about being gay?"
Beau shook his head and raised his arms in protest. "You got me all wrong on that one," he replied. "Trust me, no one appreciates girl-on-girl action more than I do..."
"Pig," I whispered underneath my breath.
Beau either didn"t hear me, or chose to ignore me as he continued on with his rant, "...it"s just a travesty that two stunning girls have been taken off the table with one single wedding. They"ll never experience the utopia that"s waiting for them between my bed sheets."
I shook my head. "Please tell me you quarantined your s.e.xual indecency to only your bed, and it didn"t spill over onto the couch, the same couch on which I have been sleeping on for the past couple of nights."
"I can tell you no such things," Beau said with a grin. "But what are you complaining about? You have a bed sheet that"s providing a layer of buffer between your skin and any remnants from my acts of love."
"You never gave us a bed sheet," I pointed out.
"Oops," he said, as he took another sip from his drink. "I knew I forgot something."
I shot him a disgusted look and groaned. "Great. I need to sc.r.a.pe a layer off my skin now."
Suddenly a hand, holding a gla.s.s of wine, reached out towards me. I turned to see Lincoln, still in his ridiculous sleeveless tux.
"A drink?" he asked.
I nodded and eagerly took the wine gla.s.s.
"Everything all loaded up?" Beau asked.
"Yes, both cash and guns. Thanks for the lack of help," Lincoln said coldly. "You"re as useful as this hideous outfit I"m wearing."
"You"re very welcome," Beau replied, flashing an obnoxious smile.
"The boat"s waiting for us in the docks area, about a five minute walk down the hill and behind those trees," Lincoln said, pointing towards a thicket of dense cypress trees. "Isadora has some of her men guarding it for us. We can go whenever we like."
Beau glanced at the crowd. "It"d be a shame to waste the potential of this night," he said. "Weddings always attract a crowd of single, beautiful, and envious women who wonder when they"ll meet their prince charming."
Lincoln shrugged. "We can stick around for an hour or two, I suppose," he said. "Just be careful who you end up s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g, Beau. I think I see about half of Louisiana"s criminal underworld here. Hit on the wrong woman and your nuts will be hanging off someone"s mantle by the end of the night."
Beau shrugged. "Hey, for the right woman, I"m willing to take the risk."
"Suit yourself," Lincoln said. "But by midnight, Aria and I are getting on that boat, whether you"re on it or not."
"Then I better get started," Beau said as he turned his back to us and began walking away. "I usually like to take my time."
Lincoln and I watched as Isadora and Delilah"s first dance came to an end. It was followed by the traditional cutting of the cake.
They had ordered a grandiose five tier cake, decorated with exotic flowers. In the middle of it were two voodoo dolls holding each other by the hand, one resembling Delilah and the other Isadora.
I smiled. It was cute.
"Thank you, Aria," Lincoln said, his tired eyes filled with both warmth and longing. "It was quite the risk you took, walking into the mouth of that lioness."
"We all have a part to play in this," I said. "I"m just glad I"m still alive to enjoy this lovely wine I"m holding." I raised my gla.s.s to Lincoln, whose hands I noticed were empty.
"Not drinking?"
Lincoln shook his head. "I"m still recovering from last night"s debauchery. You"re not an easy girl to get over," he teased.
"Sorry."
Lincoln shook his head. "My fault," he replied. "A bad joke too soon."
I looked at him affectionately. He was a beautiful man, with a young heart and a kind soul. Any girl was lucky to be with him. His touch was delicate and warm, and his words were as sweet as cinnamon. However, I knew in my heart that it was Shadow that I loved, and as long as there was that small glimmer of hope that we could still be together, Lincoln would never have gotten a fair chance from me.
However, remembering the dream where Lincoln ravaged me while I was under Isadora"s control, made me uncontrollably wet. I turned away and hoped that I wasn"t blushing too hard. If Lincoln asked me about it, I could just blame the alcohol.
"Want to go for a walk?" he asked.