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  Joshua was proud of his creativity but had the wherewithal to realize that imagination was often counterproductive to logic. This self-awareness did not help them as they stole across the city in the early morning. Every incoming car was a drive-by shooting. Every commuter about to strip their clothes away like some superhero comic strip to reveal black assassin robes. Was the punk skate boarding at seven in the morning genuine? It didn’t seem possible but he didn’t blow them up with his mind, so maybe?

  The train station only elevated Joshua’s stress. Naturally filled with suspicion and drug addicts, suspicious drug addicts. Now I have to clock the crowds. Are they moving too close, are they keeping their distance (we do smell, no one felt comfortable using that shower), why do people keep looking over here? Oh, it’s because Gianna is still dressed like a clown.

  But they managed to board without any harrying—whether that be ticket issues or murderous ones.

  The cars were vintage commuter: A skinny aisle divided the car in two with a set of padded seats facing each other on each side with a table in the middle. A dark red print carpet inlaid with gold covered the floor, and every set of seats had a large window to go with it. Overhead were stainless steel luggage racks and white lights placed into the ceiling.

  The group spread out in the back car, alone for the time being. You could always consolidate if it started to get crowded.

  “Hey Gianna,” Joshua prompted, “I was thinking. That group that is now after us, how many of them are there?”

  “A lot.”

  “I don’t suppose you could be more specific?” Kael asked.

  She yawned. “Hawnnestly, I don’t think the size matters all that much. The main thing is that they are powerful, so much so that size is irrelevant. They’re everywhere.”

  “But, like, where specifically?”

  “Taerose,” Bartholomew offered, pointing to birds with Emilie through the other window.

  “Taerose is its own division. They call them Synods,” Gianna offered, head tilted, counting the birds on far lampposts as well with her mouth moving silently. “I was from Seriah originally before getting transferred to the Oceanic Synod.”

  “Which includes Tyré,” Kael added. “Anything in the ocean or an island is that. . . Synod?”

  “Everything is in the ocean,” Joshua offered unhelpfully.

  Gianna ignored their jabbering which got her an approving nod from Bartholomew. “Then there’s the Central Synod. The entirety of Yatala.”

  “That sounds like a lot.”

  “Especially since we’re in Yatala.”

  Gianna replied, “I don’t think it’s that bad. Everyone says it’s the smallest one.

  Joshua looked out the window, studied the passersby. He had been forgetting to do that. Look at them all. Endless potential murderers.

  “Then let’s start with what you do know,” Kael said. “Any idea who attacked us in the helicopter?”

  “Like, have I met him?”

  “Just, whatever.” Kael wasn’t hiding his frustration well. He looked to Bartholomew who shrugged.

  “He’s definitely one of the Oceanic Knights.”

  Joshua couldn’t say why, specifically, but he started laughing. These names were too much to handle. The only thing that killed the laughter in a reasonable amount of time was the memory of almost dying, pulled down in a pillar of blood. That and everyone looking at him like he was the crazy one in the room and not Gianna; she was having a good day.

  He thought that until he realized she was not counting birds, her mouth moved and Joshua had no clue why she was gaping like a fish.

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  “And Knights are strong?” Kael pressed forward.

  Gianna shrugged. “Sure, why not. They’re appointed by the Commanders as their number twos. Don’t ask me to explain why people do the things they do. I know Taerose only has one Knight—he’s a famous basket case—"

  Pot, meet kettle

  “--and Seriah has three.”

  “Oceanic and Yatala?” Kael asked.

  Gianna shrugged big enough that it looked like she was stretching, maybe she was.

  Joshua drummed on the table. “Let’s just cut this short. We have Knights and Commanders, how many more rankings above them am I going to have to memorize.”

  “Just the guy in charge,” Bartholomew added.

  This is the second time he’s said something that makes me distrust him. Bartholomew knows way more than he tells us. Or, Joshua paused to think, you picked up a factoid or two in the interrogation room.

  “Name?”

  “Absolutely no idea what his name is,” Bartholomew said. “Nor do I know he is a ‘him’.”

  Eyes went to Gianna who shriveled in the spotlight. She shrugged. “You’re asking me for things people have told me.” Her body language sucked in, she was getting frustrated. “He is actually the dead brought back to life. He controls all four elements. He actually controls a fifth element. That he is the King of Taerose or the Apostle of Seriah.”

  I don’t want to talk about the Dark Element,” Gianna near spat, crossing her arms and removing herself from their table.

  “Can I ask a question, to you two?” Bartholomew said to the brothers.

  Kael nodded.

  “Who are you trying to bring back to life?” Bartholomew smiled in his own way, lips pressed tight into a crease. “You told me what you’re looking for, I know the rumors you’ve heard.”

  Kael puffed up his chest. “I don’t think it’s any of your bloody business—”

  Joshua disassociated, he’d seen this enough times. Instead, he watched Gianna which was easy to do because she never looked back and made you feel bad for watching. She is pretty. It was an idea Joshua had been bouncing around, but they’d never had five seconds just to sit without the fear of death over their heads. Shame she’s scary. Would she be less scary if she was ugly? It wasn’t exactly a sterling recommendation coming from Joshua, who found most any girl attractive. There’s two girls my age on the platform my age right now. They’re even prettier than Gianna.

  “Everyone hide!”

  Everyone snapped to Emilie in surprise. She stood on the seat, pointing to the entrance to the station. Following the length of her finger and out the window, they saw them.

  The them.

  The thems from yesterday.

  The big man, the Knight of the Oceanic Synod, dressed shoulder to toe in his assassin robes strolled onto the platform. Behind him, in his shadow, three more assassins trailed in.

  Bartholomew grabbed Emilie by the waist and dove to the ground, as did everyone else.

  No one breathed out of instinct, practical or not.

  Joshua kept waiting for a gun shot, or shouts, threats of arrest by the station guard, but the fact was, without context, the assassins merely dressed oddly. They had to be getting strange looks, but nothing would happen, Joshua never got that lucky.

  The five of them lay on the floors and under tables for at least a full minute, and then the door opened. Eyes filled with dread slowly rotated from all corners of the caboose to meet the onlooker. It wasn’t the Knight or his lackeys, but it also wasn’t a complete unknown. No, all five of the group recognized who stood in the door at a sight.

  The gray man, in another suit, somehow even more pretentiously expensive than the one from last night, stood relaxed with a hand in one pocket and another on his phone. He gazed around the room, let out a sharp whistle, and headed back the way he came. As the door slid shut with a sucking clunk, the train lurched and slowly began its commute.

  “Is that good?” Emilie asked.

  Joshua wasn’t sure if she meant the man, the door, or the fact that the train had started moving.

  Joshua got to his elbows and poked his head up just enough to look out to the platform. As it slowly chugged by, Joshua saw no dangers. Maybe the Knight was further down the platform and out of view, but it hardly mattered now that they were moving. However, they had a new problem: the gray man.

  But was he?

  Joshua nodded to Kael. “You want to just, I don’t know, talk to him?”

  “The Blood Syche?” Kael asked.

  “What? No? Fancy man there.”

  “I’ll fight him if needed. We’ve done a lot in the last 28 hours and somehow all the talking last night was the most exhausting part.”

  “Then watch me be stealthy. I shall reconnaissance the fancy man.”

  Kael held up a finger, ready to correct more than one issue with Joshua’s declration, but changed his mind, realizing that any objection would only garner many, more, words.

  Joshua propped himself up one more time. They were clear of the station and not a danger in sight.

  He passed through the first door and into the covered gangway. With an outstretched finger a hair form the button, Joshua halted, mouth falling open.

  Face so close to the viewport into the next car that his shallow breathing fogged the glass, the Knight of the Oceanic Synod stood seven feet tall, flashing shark-like teeth, and looking down at them with utter focus. Joshua’s lungs skipped a breath as the man’s hand slammed into his own open button, and the barrier between them dissolved.

  Joshua said, “Geh Fyr.”