by W. J. May
“I expect she will,” Aria said calmly. “But we won’t be here to see it.”
The girl shook her head in confusion but Lily was already moving to the far window, unhinging the ancient lock. It sprang free and a rush of freezing air poured into the bathroom.
A second after that, the idea suddenly clicked.
“Oh, no—you guys can’t be serious!”
Lily swung a leg out the window, while Aria flashed a faint grin.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. We’ve done it loads of times before.”
“I only broke my leg once,” Lily added helpfully, her voice echoing from somewhere outside. “But to be fair, I was attacked halfway down by a rogue pigeon...”
Sofia blanched, unable to process anything more than the window.
“We’re so high up,” she whispered, casting a terrified glance back at the door. “Is there anything to even hold on to—”
“Don’t come,” Aria said simply. The two might have bonded under a temporary truce the night before, but they were still on opposite sides. “I don’t know why you’re out of bed anyway.”
Sofia’s eyes narrowed sarcastically. “For exactly the same reason you are. To make sure those boys don’t kill each other.”
“Arie?” Lily’s voice drifted inside. “Can you check for birds?”
Aria distractedly moved toward the window, glancing down at the drop. “I highly doubt that’s the only reason.”
Sofia flushed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The girls locked eyes, both picturing the same red-haired man. A moment later Aria returned to the window, swinging her leg over the ledge.
“It means if you want to come—this is the only way to do it.”
She vanished a moment later, half-hoping the girl wouldn’t follow. By this point, though, she should have known better. There was a quiet sigh then Sofia appeared above her, staring down at the lawn.
“This is...really high.”
At one point or another, each of the friends had said the same thing. But after years of becoming inured to such antics, the fear had given way to adrenaline and glee.
“Try not to think about it,” Aria advised, already halfway down herself. “Think of the trouble waiting if you stay—it’s great motivation.”
Unseen by anyone else Sofia rolled her eyes, at the same time digging her nails into the slick stone. “You should be a life-coach, you know that?”
“Twenty-four seconds,” Lily whispered triumphantly, throwing up her hands the second she touched down. “A personal best in terms of time.”
“Nothing compared to my time,” Aria boasted, dropping down beside her. “But we can’t all be gifted with such glorious ink.”
Lily smacked her with a grin and the two of them started heading towards the trees. A second later, they remembered Sofia and glanced back at the wall.
“She’ll be fine,” Aria muttered. “Let’s just go.”
Lily gave her a long look. “Fine, fine...I was just kidding.”
They jogged briskly back to the tower, getting there just as the lovely girl released her death grip on the stone and fell lightly to their side.
“I did it!” she exclaimed, unable to hide her excitement. She tilted her head back with a grin, peering all the way back to the top. “I can’t believe that just happened!”
Unfortunately for the others, she had one of those contagious smiles—and they soon found themselves grinning as well. Of course they stopped it quickly, scowling instead.
“You want to take a picture?” Aria challenged. “Or can we go?”
The shifter’s smile faded slightly as Lily spun around with a dainty sniff. “Seriously, Hastings. A child could make that climb.”
Not another word was said between them as the three girls darted across the lawn, safe under the cover of the trees. It only took a second before two people started walking towards them.
Granted, it wasn’t the two people Aria expected to see.
“What are you doing here?” Alexander demanded, looking just as surprised to see them as they were surprised themselves. “It’s bad enough I’m stuck with...”
Eric folded his bulging arms, daring him to finish the sentence.
“You didn’t really think I’d let you go alone, did you?” Sofia asked briskly, sweeping her long hair up into a ponytail. “Someone has to temper the insanity.”
“Yeah, because you’re so stable yourself,” he retorted, but he didn’t look particularly angry. In fact, Aria could have sworn she saw the hint of a smile. That smile brightened significantly when his gaze fell on her. “What about you, Wardell? Keeping tabs on me?”
Her teeth ground together and she reminded herself they were there to make peace. “You’re not the person I’m here to see.”
Even as she spoke there was a rustling in the trees, and two new people stepped out of the shadows. They stopped abruptly when they saw the group waiting for them, stilling in surprise.
“Looks like the gang’s all here,” Benji said brightly, shooting Sofia a secret grin. He lowered his voice slightly and added to Jason, “Told you he’d bring someone.”
For his part, Jason didn’t look at all pleased. That being said, he hadn’t expected his friends to sit on the sidelines while he volunteered to wander into the darkness with a man who’d recently attempted to take his life. He glanced at them briefly, then bowed his head with a frustrated sigh.
Alexander missed nothing, stepping forward with his hands in the air.
“All right, let’s just get it all out in the open. Yes—I may have gotten a little rough with your friend the other night. And yes—he covered for me. Though I have no bloody idea why.” He glanced briefly at Jason before turning back to the others. “The point is, it’s not going to happen again, all right? Scout’s honor. So there’s no need for the chaperones.”
Only then did Aria realize that Eric’s grip on Alexander was just as tight as Benji’s was on Jason. Though whether it was to restrain or protect wasn’t quite clear.
Once the little speech was finished, the shifter glanced about to see how it had gone over.
...not well.
“So that’s it?” Lily took a step into the space between them. She may have been the youngest person there, the only one who hadn’t yet learned to tap into her powers, but she stepped forward without a hint of fear. Standing head-to-head with the tiger. “Forgive and forget? You could have killed him, Hastings. If Aria hadn’t done her healing...” She shook her head. “You think this is settled with a ‘Trust me, it won’t happen again’?”
Alexander stared down at her, then lifted his shoulder with a shrug. “His rules. Not mine.”
“Not mine either,” Lily answered in a low voice, clutching those secret items she’d stashed in her pocket. “But this will be settled. One day. I can promise you that.”
A chill swept over the clearing. The lovely girl had so much in common with her father it was sometimes easy to forget that she was Angela Cross’ daughter, down to the bone.
Alexander froze in spite of himself, then forced a smile. “Until that day, sweetheart.”
Yeah, until that day.
“Shall we move this along?” Aria said quickly, before things could spiral into an unfortunate sequel. “What exactly were the two of you planning on doing tonight?”
Jason turned to Alexander, interested to hear the answer himself.
“Isn’t it obvious?” The shifter spread his arms wide, gesturing to the campus. “One of your teachers was murdered on-site. We’re going to figure out how that happened.”
The others stiffened with the same distasteful look. Even when the things he was saying were technically correct, his callous tone was enough to set their teeth on edge.
Benji clenched his jaw, trying to keep his temper in check. “Let me guess—out of the goodness of your heart?”
The shifter’s eyes danced with amusement. “Don’t be silly. It happens to be my research question.”
AFTER THE PRELIMINARY threats had been made and everyone present was fairly convinced they weren’t going to be suddenly massacred by the other side, the unlikely consortium set out through the trees towards the perimeter. While only some parts of the campus had been cordoned off by a fence, the invisible boundary was silently understood by everyone who crossed it. Like dogs trained with a shock collar, they instinctively stepped back once they’d gotten too close.
“Well it certainly doesn’t look like much,” Alexander murmured, kneeling down to examine the space for himself. The air shimmered slightly and he retracted his hand. “Or maybe not.”
“I wouldn’t,” Benji advised, staying well clear himself. “You never know what’s going to happen; if it will shock you, freeze you, or just trigger a silent alarm to call in the—”
“Agents,” Jason hissed, swiftly pulling him behind a tree.
The rest of them melted quickly into the shadows as a trio of men rounded the curve of a building just twenty feet away. Under most circumstances they would have been sitting ducks, but these men weren’t looking for anything in particular. If anything, it looked like they were simply on a break. They were standing behind the Oratory in clothes typically used for training, laughing quietly amongst themselves and sipping from bottles of purified water. Not an immediate threat, but the fact remained...they certainly would have been to anyone who’d tried to break in to the school.
“This whole part of the campus is out,” Jason murmured under his breath, slipping into the trees with the others. “No one in their right mind would try breaking in this close to the Oratory.”
“The northern wing is out, too,” Lily added. “It’s too close to Tristan’s office.”
The others started nodding in agreement, but one person was shaking her head.
“That’s assuming whoever it was knew where Tristan’s office is,” Sofia argued. “It’s also assuming Dorf was even the target—which seems unlikely.”
Aria lifted her eyebrows in surprise. The lovely shifter usually kept her opinions to herself, especially in the presence of her overbearing brother. But this one didn’t make any sense.
“What do you mean, not the target?” she repeated with a frown. “His neck got snapped.”
“It was dark,” Eric said gruffly. “It was quick.”
Aria’s surprise tripled on the spot.
He can talk?
“The man had no enemies, no grudges held against him,” Sofia continued softly. “He lived quietly on campus with very little social life outside the school. If we’re serious about looking into all the possibilities, we have to consider the man was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
A silence fell over the clearing.
Aria and her friends thought they’d been so clever, taking matters into their own hands. But it was clear now, they weren’t the only ones who’d been investigating the murder.
It was quiet for a moment, then Jason broke the silence.
“How do you know all that?”
Sofia’s eyes flashed with sarcasm, then cooled immediately when they drifted down to the newly healed skin on his chest. “They might have brought in you, Oliver, and Aria that night, but let’s be clear—my brother was the prime suspect. You think I’m not going to take an interest? You think I’m not going to do everything I can to clear him?”
“And what if he’s guilty?” Lily replied coldly. “We all know he’s capable.”
The shifter’s eyes flashed again, but the psychic was merely protective—just as protective as she was herself. “Your own aunt cleared him.”
If only that was enough for the Council.
“Maybe you want to start talking to me instead of just about me,” Alexander said loudly.
Lily shot a dangerous look in his direction, but it was Sofia who spun on her heel.
“Shut up.”
A gasp of surprise rippled through the clearing. Even the stoic Eric looked shaken to the core. Alexander took a second to regain his composure, then began, “I only meant—”
“I could give a damn what you meant,” his sister interrupted, looking two seconds away from showing him what a tiger attack felt like from the other side. “Do you think she’s wrong to be angry? Do you think they’re wrong to suspect you?” A pale finger flew into the air, pointing blindly at Jason’s chest. “You almost killed the guy, you stupid moron! Over a stupid high school dance! So yeah, I think you can take whatever criticism they choose to throw at you and shut the hell up!”
A silent shockwave went through the trees.
Alexander was stunned. Benji was in love. But Aria was thoughtful—ignoring the threats and latching on to something she’d said earlier, about their talk with Natasha.
“My aunt doesn’t see everything,” she murmured, almost to herself. Her eyes drifted to her friends, uncertain whether to share the secret. “There are things she can miss.”
Alexander’s eyes flickered up with a knowing glimmer. She flushed and looked away.
Not that.
The group response was hardly definitive. Lily was looking hesitant, Benji was looking at Sofia, and Jason’s face had flushed scarlet at the memory of their stolen kiss.
After a few drawn-out seconds, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
“There was a shadow,” she blurted suddenly, before she could lose the nerve. “The night of the murder. I couldn’t tell who it was, but it was streaking away from the history building. Fast.”
This one little bit of news stopped the conversation.
“A shadow?” Eric repeated with a brutish frown. “That’s what you’re going on? A shadow?”
On second thought, maybe it’s better if he doesn’t speak at all.
“A person or a shifter?” Alexander asked sharply.
Aria shook her head. “A person, I think. But it was too quick for me to tell. Since then we’ve been...we’ve been looking through the tatù registry for anyone with that kind of ink.”
Three shifters exchanged a glance.
“How do you have access to the registry?”
Benji was quick to shut the question down. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, there’s way too many people that qualify to narrow down the list.”
The group paused again, thinking.
“Then where was it headed?” Alexander asked suddenly.
Aria lifted her head. “What?”
“This...shadow. Which direction was it headed?”
She glanced instinctively at Benji, then shook her head. “Away from the murder. They were fleeing the scene. What does it matter which way?”
Alexander opened his mouth to speak, then glanced at Jason and seemed to think better of it. After a few seconds of silent deliberation, he chose his next words very carefully.
“Exactly—he was fleeing the scene.” His skin flushed ever so slightly as he fidgeted uneasily under their gaze. “I’ve recently come to understand that in moments like that, you don’t think about covering your tracks—you get to where you need to go. It’s your best chance of escape.”
The friends glanced at each other before turning back to the school.
From where they were standing, they could see the corner of the history building peeking out from the western wing. Aria lifted her finger, tracing the path the shadow took.
Sure enough, it was a straight line—heading straight for a cottage.
“Who lives there?” Sofia asked, following her gaze.
Lily shook her head, forgetting for a moment that she’d decided to hate the girl until the end of time. “Don’t know—the vacancies shift depending on who’s teaching that semester and which agents are in from out of town.” She cocked her head thoughtfully. “There’s not much security.”
“Why would they need security?” Sofia mumbled. “The people living there are security all to themselves.”
It was a fair point. There were houses it was safe to break in to, and houses it wasn’t. The last thing you’d wan
t was to break one of these windows or knock down one of these doors. There was simply no way of knowing what kind of firepower was waiting on the other side.
Then again, the cottage in question was set slightly away from the rest—on the far edge of the lawn beside the tree-line. If there was ever a chance to see who lived inside, this was it.
“I’ll go,” Aria murmured, turning invisible at the same time. For this kind of recon, she was the natural choice. Her eyes flickered to Benji. “Cover me?”
He nodded even without seeing her, knowing instinctively the question was for him. The others waved them on impatiently, well-used to such things, but the three shifters were watching in open fascination. Eric, with all the tact of a cave troll, waved his arm blindly, trying to find her.
“Not feeling so cocky now are you, bear?”
Alexander rolled his eyes and swatted his arm out of the air.
After taking a deep breath, Aria crouched down low and darted towards the cottage. Her chosen ink might have rendered her invisible, but old habits were hard to break. She flew from tree to tree, using their cover as long as she could before sprinting across the open grass.
As usual, Benji was right by her side. He might not have had supernatural shielding like she did, but his tatù made him fast enough that no one looking would be able to see.
The windows were dark, but uncovered. Smoke was rising from the chimney, but there wasn’t a sound from inside. After mentally debating whether to switch to a silent tatù, Aria decided to stick with invisibility and began climbing silently up the flowering hedge.
“You got this,” Benji breathed, keeping his eyes on her progress by watching the denting of the leaves beneath her hands. “I’m right below you.”
If anyone else had said such a thing, she would have scoffed and shut them down. But it was always comforting coming from Benji. The two might compete for having the biggest ego in the group, but those things never seemed to matter when they were only around each other.
One hand in front of the other.
It was the same thing she told herself every time she climbed the trellis beneath her bedroom window. Of course, it was much easier going down than it was going up.