Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

a couple of times in the New York area. There hadn’t been any sightings of Lilith, but exiles in the area seemed to be moving in mixed packs. It was clear that Lilith had them out doing her dirty work for her – and it made sense since the lure of the Grigori Scripture would be the only explanation for exiles of both light and dark continuing to work together.
    ‘I hate being stuck in here. I feel like I should be out hunting.’
    ‘Right now, I think this is the best place for you. If you were out in the open they might’ve come for you. At least this way you’re training and getting stronger. There are Grigori searching worldwide and all the senior Grigori in New York are hunting her. We’ll find them.’
    The problem was– I didn’t feel stronger. I was exhausted. I slumped back even further. Lincoln smiled and started to get up, collecting the food trays as he did.
    ‘I’ll leave you to get some rest.’ He paused at the door. ‘You know, I’m really … You’re doing great. The testing will be a breeze. I know it isn’t easy and being locked up is hard but I’ve been really … proud to be your partner.’
    I swallowed hard at the praise. Lincoln was talking to me as my trainer and it was a big thing for him to hand over a compliment like that.
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, wishing he wasn’t leaving but knowing I couldn’t ask him to stay.
    He nodded. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    After he left, I tried calling Steph again. We hadn’t been having much luck reaching each other. She was either off hunting ingredients for the Qeres or I was busy training. Tonight was no different, my phone going straight to her voicemail. I left a message telling her I would try and email, but we both knew that however we made contact, neither phone nor email was secure so she wouldn’t be able to tell me much.
    From what Griffin had gleaned from Dapper, they’d already found nine of the ingredients they needed and Dapper had enlisted a few old friends of his family to help keep them hidden. We didn’t know exactly what that meant but he assured us they were all safe and together. The last three ingredients were proving more difficult to find – the original sources of one, seemingly extinct. If we had to, we would use an inferior mutation of the herb but Dapper still felt it was worth persevering and since we hadn’t got any further at our end, Griffin agreed. No one seemed to want to deal with the outstanding problem of the angelic thirteenth ingredient.
    The odd text Ihad received from Steph mostly complained about her lack of ‘alone time’ with Sal, until, two days ago, a simple smiley-face message, which I presumed meant she’d finally found a way to rectify her problem.
    I had a shower, washing off the blood from the evening’s session with Rainer. When I walked out of the tiny bathroom, wrapped in my towel, every muscle aching to the extreme, and considering giving myself a quick healing once-over, I found Zoe and Spence both sitting on her bed.
    ‘Hey,’ I said. Then I saw the clothes – not mine – laid out on my bed.
    ‘What’s going on?’
    My confusion didn’t last long when I saw the smiles plastered on their faces.
    I shook my head. ‘No.’
    They kept smiling, sitting there in the kind of clothes that screamed: planning no good.
    ‘No!’ I reinforced. ‘I can barely stand up and Rainer will be back here banging on my door in,’ I looked at my watch, ‘six hours.’
    ‘Oh, come on, Eden. You used to be fun. We’ve barely seen you and some of your classmates are starting to talk …’ Spence said, trailing off.
    ‘Talk about what?’
    ‘That you think you’re too good for us. I mean, look at it from their point of view, you haven’t even been showing up to meals.’
    I knew there wasprobably truth in what he was saying. I hadn’t been showing up for things because of my training but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t take it in another way. I didn’t want to be an outcast.
    ‘A few of them will be out tonight and it’ll give them something else to talk about over breakfast if you show.’ Spence’s eyes were alight. I knew he was baiting me, setting me up to give in.
    I bit my lip.
    ‘Come on.’ Zoe chimed in. ‘I’ve even put out a hot outfit for you so you don’t have to think, and don’t pretend you can’t swing a little of your own power on yourself for some healing. We all know you can.’
    I gave her a snarky look. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’m