Betrayal by Lee Nichols Read Free Book Online Page A

and waited for his chance. He killed two of the top four people in the Knell, inside our own stronghold. We need to protect Emma.”
    â€œShe’s no threat to him,” Gabriel protested, “not without Yoshiro’s guidance.”
    â€œYou want to bet her life on that?” Bennett said, his jaw clenched. “Because the Knell’s done so well with predictions lately. You didn’t even know Rachel was possessed.”
    â€œIt’s not that simple,” William said. “We can’t commit ourselves to Emma before we know what we’re facing. Maybe that’s what Neos wants us to do.”
    He and Bennett argued for a few minutes, until I interrupted. “What is wrong with you people? I’ve been doing this for like twenty minutes—you’re the ones with the massive headquarters in New York and a thousand years of practice. I thought you knew what you were doing. That’s why I came.”
    William rubbed his eyes. “This is something new, Emma. Your appearance, Neos’s bond to you, these wraiths and possessions. Yoshiro would still be alive if …”
    â€œIf I hadn’t come?”
    The doctor knocked and stepped inside before William could answer. Her preliminary autopsy of Rachel revealed that she would’ve died within the hour, even if we hadn’t dispelled the wraith inside her. The doctor shook her head. “But that’s all speculative. I’ve never seen someone possessed. Her organs are a mess, as if the wraith grew to fill the cavity of her body—not just a spectral force, but a physical one.”
    So, technically, I hadn’t killed her. But the act was the same, the murderous rage I’d felt when I wanted to protect Bennett, and didn’t care who I’d hurt. A burning anger that came too easily—and felt too good.
    I wondered how long she’d been alive with that thing inside her, using her like a puppet while choking her to death from within. And what about her last words to me? Saying that I needed a weapon—and warning me about a threat, a siren that Neos would send to cripple me? What was that? Could I even trust her dying words?
    I thought about her eyes as she died, the pain and the truth shining in them. At the end, that was her. The real Rachel, my long-lost aunt. Lost again, now.
    Bennett and I left after that. There was nothing more to say. Downstairs, we passed the room that held the tapestry, and I couldn’t help looking one last time. Was I really the reincarnation of some ghostkeeping legend? The woman’s face looked stronger than the one I saw in the mirror; she looked like someone who’d seen terrible things. She looked like someone who’d done terrible things. I didn’t want to be her, and I definitely didn’t want to become her.
    And yet, what happened tonight felt like only the beginning. There would be more blood, more pain, more deaths. Things would never be the same again. Why me? Just because I was descended from the person woven into this tapestry? Did my whole life boil down to ancestry? My parents, who’d lied to me. My brother, who’d disappeared. The previous incarnations of me, who’d fought and died.
    I looked from the woman’s face to the ghosts surrounding her. She looked strong and fierce, but she didn’t look happy.
    As we descended the imposing front steps of the Knell, I asked Bennett, “Have you ever seen that, a wraith breaking out of a ghostkeeper’s body?” I tried to erase the image of Rachel plunging her wraith-arm into Yoshiro’s chest, and failed.
    â€œNo, that was a first.”
    â€œBefore she died, Rachel said I needed a weapon.”
    He turned toward me and assessed the damage—the exhaustion in my eyes, the bloodstains on my clothes, my hands balled into fists. “What you need is a good night’s sleep. I booked us a hotel. I knew you wouldn’t want to stay here.”
    We