by W. J. May
Devon nodded curtly, but kept his eyes on Maize. “And you helped, did you?”
With the reckless abandon of one who’d awoken some feral beast, the agent committed himself fully to the cause. Acknowledging the question with a manic smile.
“Someone had to. I’m sure you would have done the same in my shoes.”
Luke laughed nervously, then shot him a sideways look. “Are you actively suicidal?”
“No, Luke,” Devon intercepted the question, taking a step closer. “You heard what the man said. He’s helpful. Allow me to show my thanks.”
For the first time, Maize’s smile faltered. But it was actually Dorian who stepped in between.
“Head’s up.”
There wasn’t a worse enemy on the planet to make than Devon Wardell. Except perhaps one person. His beautiful wife.
The doors didn’t swing open. They burst into flames.
“WHERE IS SHE?!”
Tristan’s head shot up before he gestured an agent toward one of the fire extinguishers, shooting Devon a glance. “Always so dramatic, that one...”
Rae spotted them a second later, blurring to her daughter’s side.
“I’m here, sweetie.”
She didn’t ask any questions. The legendary Rae Kerrigan hadn’t needed to use words or even bullets to fight her battles in a long time. Instead, she lay a hand on her husband’s arm. Her eyes dilated as she replayed the last few minutes. They shared a quick look. Then she turned around.
At that point, Maize decided to make himself scarce.
“Are you sure?” Her voice cracked through the air. “I have several more ideas for ways you can be helpful, Eric. I’d be happy to show them to you anytime.”
The man retreated without a backward glance, leaving the others in awkward silence. After it had lasted a few seconds, Aria tried to steer them back to solid ground.
“Uh...Mom, Dad—this is the...” Her brain stuttered on his last name. “This is Dorian. He’s the new librarian.” She caught his gaze and corrected herself quickly. “Well, actually, he’s going to be filling in for...”
Rae squeezed her tightly as Devon quickly shook the man’s hand.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Dorian said quickly, looking a little overwhelmed. “And it’s just like I told the rest of the Council—Aria was with me the entire evening. She has nothing to worry about.”
Devon nodded, then did a quick double-take—offering the man a faint smile.
“Thank you for that.”
The librarian nodded swiftly. “My pleasure. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll bid you all goodnight.”
“We should go, too, honey.” Rae smoothed down her hair, wiping any lingering tears from her cheeks. “Let you get some rest. We’ll be taking you home in the morning.”
Devon shot a glance down the hall, like he was dying to investigate himself. Instead, he turned to the fire-haired boy who was permanently affixed to his daughter’s side.
“What about you, Benji? You staying with your dad?”
Benji shook his head, bidding his father a quick goodnight. “No, I’ll walk her back. Make sure she gets in okay.”
Rae and Devon shared a quick smile. Chances were she would probably have been safe with them—two of the most dangerous and respected people on the planet. But those things had never seemed to register with Benji. She’d be safe if he was there. It had been that way since they were kids.
Together the four of them walked fearlessly through the crowd of agents, hardly sparing a glance at the smoldering doorframe as they swept out into the night. From there, it was just a quick walk across campus and they were on the steps of Aumbry House.
“You sure that you’re going to be okay?” Devon asked with concern, trying to catch his daughter’s eyes. “We can stay with you if you like.”
“In the dorms?” Aria asked sarcastically. Only then did she realize her father was being perfectly serious. Her face softened into a genuine smile. “I’ll be fine, but thanks.” She shot a quick look at Benji as well. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
They stared after her as she began climbing the stone steps and vanished inside. She’d be willing to bet they stared after her for a lot longer than that.
Catalina was already asleep by the time she pushed open the door, snoring obliviously in the neon glare of her alarm clock. She’d find out what happened in the morning—the entire campus would be buzzing with the news. But for at least the next few hours Aria could get some sleep.
She fell straight into bed without bothering to take off her clothes—shifting uncomfortably to pull her cell phone from her back pocket. A new message was waiting, one from an unknown number. She clicked on it with a frown, watching as it popped up on the screen.
Hell of a first impression, Wardell. Here’s to breaking some rules...
She threw it down on the comforter, staring up at the ceiling. She grabbed fistfuls of hair. Benji was right—what the hell was wrong with this day? Was it only a few hours ago that she’d lost her shirt in the middle of the hallway? It seemed like a lifetime. Then there was Alexander himself...
She considered him carefully, playing back each detail in her mind.
The boy was a paradox. Interested, yet standoffish. Abrasive, yet engaged. Endlessly confident, yet when he saw Tristan there was a flicker of genuine fear in his eyes.
And he didn’t look surprised. Not to be dragged out of bed. Not to be questioned. It was like he was almost used to it. And who is Mr. Phelps?
The phone dinged again and she snatched it up as a different number flashed on the screen.
Are you okay?
Jason.
He usually knew better than to ask such obvious questions, but tonight he was just as thrown off balance as she was. She considered what to write back then curled up on her side, shoving the phone deep under her pillow and trying not to cry.
No, she wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay at all.
Chapter 3
Tired as she was, Aria wasn’t able to get to sleep until the early hours of the morning. Every time she closed her eyes, the same image popped back into her head.
His body splayed out across the floor. His eyes gazing up into nothingness.
It felt like she’d only just closed her eyes, when a shriek roused her from slumber. A second later, a pillow struck her squarely across the face.
“Wake up!”
She pried her eyes open to see Catalina standing anxiously at the foot of her bed, waving something back and forth in her hand. It took a second to focus and realize it was a phone.
“Did you hear what happened?! No—of course you didn’t! You’ve been in bed!” The girl perched on the edge of the mattress, eyes wide as saucers. “Mr. Dorf died last night. They found his body in the history room. It looks like someone snapped his neck!”
So it wasn’t a bad dream—which I would know, as I’ve barely slept.
Aria pushed shakily onto her elbows, wincing in the bright morning sun. Just a few seconds had passed, but there’d been at least a dozen more beeps on Catalina’s phone. She didn’t know how it was possible, given the early hour, but the entire school had already discovered what happened.
“Yeah,” she mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck, “I heard something about that.”
Normally, she’d be up and dressed—getting ready for English. But there wasn’t going to be anything normal about the day. Instead of springing out of bed, cursing dead Victorian poets and their continued effect on her daily life, she got up slowly and pushed back her waves of tangled hair before glancing out the window to the bustling campus below.
Sure enough, there was a charge to the air. She could sense it even four stories up. The Guilder rumor mill had struck again, and this time they weren’t too far off.
“What do you mean you heard something about it?” Catalina demanded, still gripping her phone. “You’ve been passed out up here. Her eyes grew even wider. “Unless you fou
nd out on your way back from detention. Wait a sec... Arie! Did you see something?”
You could say that.
Fortunately, Aria was spared from answering by a sharp knock on the door. She opened it up to see her mother standing on the other side. There were grass stains on her hands, her hair was swept up into a quick bun, and she was wearing the same clothes as last night. If Aria had to guess, she’d been up all night with the others investigating the murder. That was the thing about agents of the Privy Council. They didn’t tend to sleep when there was a killer on the loose.
“Hey, Mrs. Kerrigan!” Catalina said excitedly, waving behind Aria’s back. It didn’t matter if she’d married or not. Rae would always be ‘Kerrigan’. “Are you here because of the event?”
Aria rolled her eyes, but Rae kept a composed smile.
“I’m afraid so. You should hurry, Caty. You’re going to be late for class.”
The telepath glanced at the clock, let out another shriek, then snatched up her bag and hurried out the door. She cast Aria a parting glance on the way out, silently demanding to get filled in on the entire scoop the second they met for lunch.
Rae waited until she was gone, then shut the door—glancing briefly around the room before automatically making her daughter’s bed.
“You should get dressed, too,” she advised. “Natasha and Gabriel got here about five minutes ago. They’re being debriefed by Carter, but they’ll be ready for you soon.”
Aria looked up hopefully. “Carter’s here, too?”
One grandfather in her corner was great. Two was even better.
Rae nodded swiftly, plumping the pillows before perching on the edge of the mattress. “He picked up the Aldens from the airport. They were in Bavaria and no one could get a hold of them until now. Gabriel’s a little upset about it...”
Yeah, I can imagine.
Overprotective fathers had been a theme in Aria’s life ever since she was a child. It didn’t matter if they were dealing with their own kids or not. If someone in the family was in trouble, they’d be on the next plane. For Gabriel to find out his son had been interrogated in a homicide investigation while he was hundreds of miles away? She could see that not going over well.
“I’m surprised Dad isn’t up here.”
Rae smiled faintly, tracing the edges of her daughter’s phone. “No boys in Aumbry House. Doesn’t matter that he’s an adult—some lessons stick for life.”
Aria snorted sarcastically, slipping on a sweater.
Madame Elpis tends to have that effect on people.
There was a quiet swish behind her as Rae conjured herself a shot of espresso. She held it out a moment later, prepared to create another. “Want a cup? It’s your favorite.”
Aria glanced over her shoulder, yanking clothes out of her closet. The process always took longer than it should, given that Molly had crammed the thing full of black-tie couture.
“Mom, don’t be so fancy. I’m a high school student. I don’t need to use magic to get a cup of coffee. I can slum it just like everyone else.”
With that, she pressed a secret panel in the wall—which slid back to reveal a state-of-the-art espresso maker. She poured in the imported roast, then pushed a brass button—inhaling deeply as the smell of Arabian coffee beans wafted over the room.
“Sure,” Rae agreed dryly. “Slumming it.”
Needless to say, when the children had grown old enough to move into the dorms their parents had found them rather lacking in terms of some of the basic necessities. They started by making little improvements. A mini-fridge in the closet, a plasma TV tucked into the wall.
Things progressed from there...
“When did you get surround sound?” Rae asked suddenly, glancing at the ornate metal speakers tucked into the corners of the ceiling. “And is that a Jackson Pollack?”
Aria glanced at the painting hanging above the dresser.
“Order amidst chaos. Aunt Molly said it suited my personality.” She flushed defensively at her mother’s probing look. “What—you were the ones who let her decorate. You should see some of the art she got for Lily’s room. Must have cleaned out half the Louvre.”
She pulled out her regular school clothes then immediately put them back, opting for something a little more formal. Something about being interrogated in a murder investigation compelled a person to leave the jeans and sneakers in the closet.
“And Gabriel put in the surround sound,” she added off-handedly.
To be honest, her uncle had been almost more over-the-top than her aunt, adding in touches to his heart’s content until the high school dorm room looked more like a luxury suite. He’d also added radiant floor heating and a secret weapons cache that opened with the push of a button. But, given her mother’s current expression, Aria felt no need to share those details out loud.
“You about ready?” Rae asked, approving the blouse and skirt combination with a quick nod. She fixed her own hair, then pushed to her feet. “The sooner this is done, the better.”
Aria nodded, and followed her out the door.
You can say that again.
WHEN ARIA HAD BEEN told she’d be formally questioned by her aunt in the morning, she half-expected it to happen in the Oratory. For benches and tables to have been set up to mimic a courtroom. Carter would sit at the head with a gavel. Every now and then, he’d bang it against the stone.
But the reality was nothing like that.
Instead of heading across campus, Rae led her daughter across the lawn to a cluster of benches set up beneath the trees. Ironically enough, it was the same group of benches that she and her friends frequented almost every day. In hindsight, she suspected that’s exactly why they’d been chosen. The adults may be forced to proceed with a cursory interrogation, but they were determined to keep it as painless as possible. Aria wasn’t surprised to see a carton of doughnuts there as well.
“Well, this is...friendly.”
She flashed a quick glance at Carter, who rose immediately to his feet with a hug. She suspected the doughnuts were his doing. As was the location.
“A quick stop before you head back to the city,” he said casually. “I thought you might as well get some breakfast at the same time.”
If Aria wasn’t so nervous, she would have smiled. At this point, the man was on the verge of passing out milk and cookies. If it weren’t for the trio of agents heading across the grass, along with the other unofficial suspects, it might actually have been a fine time.
“Morning, sweetie.” Devon kissed her on the forehead, blurring to a stop so suddenly it was impossible to know where he’d come from. Like Rae he was wearing the same clothes as the night before, and there were dark circles under his eyes. “You sleep okay?”
“Yeah.” She nodded quickly. “Sure.”
No need to trouble him, as the man had already been pushed to the brink. As it stood, he was watching the slow progression of the other agents with a glint of steel in his eyes.
“Is that necessary?” he muttered to his father-in-law.
Carter shot him a quick glance before pressing a doughnut into his hand. “This is for their benefit, not ours,” he answered softly. “We already know what happened.”
“You do?” Aria asked suddenly, glancing up as Jason emerged from Joist Hall—both his parents standing on either side. “You know what happened to Mr. Dorf?”
Her grandfather paused, looking abruptly sad.
“No, child. We don’t know that. Only that you weren’t involved.”
She nodded quietly, glancing up at the covert eyes peering down from the school.
“Like that matters,” she muttered. “By lunchtime, every student at Guilder is going to know what happened last night. Odds are, they’ll think I attacked the poor man with a club.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Rae said firmly, giving her a little squeeze. “I promise.”
She nodded curtly as the agents joined them, keeping her daughter close to her side. Both M
aize and the man who’d grabbed Benji had walked up together—looking things over in surprise.
“Since when do we provide pastries at formal interrogations?” Maize asked innocently.
Devon stepped in between them, looking absurdly threatening aside from the maple bar that had been shoved unceremoniously into his hand. “Since the interrogations are a formality to appease those lesser talents among us who can’t get a promotion any other way.”
Aria lifted her eyebrows as the smile melted off the man’s face. A muscle twitched in the back of his jaw, and for a split second she thought he might actually take a swing at her father.
Then Carter clapped his hands loudly. “Good—we’re all here.”
She glanced around as the Alden family reached the benches. Gabriel looked to be in a fiery temper as Natasha stood calmly by his side. Jason was just as nervous as she was herself—a feeling that only seemed to worsen when Alexander and Oliver joined them beneath the trees.
“The purpose of this meeting to establish clear alibis for everyone unaccounted for at the time of the murder,” Carter said in a practiced voice. “Natasha Alden will conduct said interviews mnemokinetically, as all the subjects have been gracious enough to volunteer.”
There was a restless shifting amongst the children. It was a good speech but, in truth, none of them had volunteered. Most of them had been up half the night dreading that very moment.
“Mr. Jack,” Carter intoned as he gestured him forward, “would you care to go first?”
Oliver hung back for a second, blonde curls blowing in the breeze. He then let out a sigh and stepped forward—extending his hand in defeat.
“I don’t know how we do this,” he admitted. “Is it just a touch?”
Natasha smiled comfortingly, gesturing for him to sit beside her. “It’s a little more involved than that. I’ll be travelling back with you to see everything that happened for the designated amount of time. I won’t see anything more than that,” she said pointedly. “That’s why we’re using my tatù.”