Twisted Together

by May, W. J.

  Molly and Julian laughed nervously, and even Brick had to smile, before he put his second hand on Devon’s other shoulder and moved so they were standing toe to toe.

  Then, all they could do was wait.

  For a moment, Brick’s squinty eyes fogged over, almost like he’d forgotten something and was trying hard to remember what it was.

  “What do you say, man?” Devon’s grin was fixed on his face. “Do I mean the Privy Council any harm?”

  Brick cocked his head and his brows pulled together at the center. This was clearly not the easy read he had been expecting. The longer he took, the more agitated everyone around him became. Julian had actually started to reach for his Taser, when Brick suddenly pulled back, releasing Devon and shaking his head, like he’d come up for air.

  “Sorry about that, man, it’s just…” He shook his head some more, trying to clear it. “You’ve got a real mess of feelings going on in there.”

  Devon straightened his jacket briskly and avoided eye contact. “Well, Kerrigan was one of my oldest friends and we did go through a lot together. It’s hard to believe she had her father’s intentions at heart. Hey, you think you know a person, but you really don’t. I certainly don’t mean the Council any harm.”

  “No,” Brick agreed seriously, “no, you don’t. Well, good luck, you guys. I’ll radio in to let them know you’re coming.”

  “Thanks.” Devon clapped Brick quickly on the shoulder as the four of them made their way inside. Molly and Julian avoided touching him altogether.

  Once they were inside the Oratory itself, the level of ‘creepy surreal’ soared to whole new heights. As Rae looked around the familiar carved walls, there was a strange, almost guilty tightening in her chest. She had basically grown up in here. In all the ways that mattered. Coming of age. And now here she was, breaking in like some sort of criminal.

  It’s not your fault, she reminded herself as they walked noiselessly to the hidden doors set into the far wall. Everything you’ve ever done has been to protect them. It’s they who turned their backs on you.

  For whatever reason, that didn’t make the feeling go away. In fact, it only made it worse.

  They slipped through the first of the doors without a problem and were headed down the main underground hall, when Devon suddenly stopped short. His eyes flicked toward the stone wall, and a hint of a smile pulled up the corner of his lips.

  “Jesse,” he said, with a curt nod of his head.

  Rae stared at the stones in bewilderment, and then stifled an actual shriek of surprise as the slender body of a young man pulled away from the rocks.

  “How did you know it was me?” he asked with a grin. Before their very eyes, his coloration took on that of a normal college kid, the expert camouflage of the wall melting away.

  Devon grinned back and clapped him good-naturedly on the back. “Your breathing. Rocks don’t breathe.”

  The boy named Jesse shook his head, looking slightly frustrated. “Yeah, I haven’t been able to work that part out yet.”

  “You will,” Devon said encouragingly. He stepped back to allow Jesse and Julian to shake hands. “Just give it time.”

  The kid grinned again. “Too bad your old partner’s not around to help me. I heard it only takes her a minute to master someone’s ink and then…” His voice trailed off as Devon’s face tightened and turned away. “Hey, man, I’m sorry. I still can’t believe she got arrested. That sucks.”

  Still invisible to the rest of the world, Rae smirked with satisfaction. At least someone who worked here thought so. And damn if she didn’t want to reach out and touch Jessie to mimic his tatù. Now wasn’t the time, but maybe one day…

  “Uh…thanks,” Devon said quickly. “Hey listen, we’ve got to run. Is Carter in his office?”

  For the first time, Jesse looked a bit nervous. “Yeah, with about half the rest of the Council. Brick radioed that you were coming in, and everyone raced down to watch your little interrogation.”

  “That’s just…perfect,” Julian muttered darkly, staring down the dimly-lit hall.

  Jesse’s eyes flicked down the hall as well before he took a few steps back, melting into a colorful painting of Henry VIII mounted on the wall. “Good luck. You might need it.”

  “Thanks,” Devon murmured, leading them forward once more.

  The closer they got to the office, the harder Rae’s heart began pounding in her chest.

  What the hell had they been thinking?! Sneaking in to the Privy Council?! They’d been stopped twice already, and they hadn’t even made it to Carter yet. Who knew how many more super-human guards were waiting just around the next corner? What if someone had the power to see people who were invisible? Both Devon and Carter had assured her that wasn’t the case, but what if she just bumped into someone? With half the Council gathered in Carter’s small office, it wasn’t exactly unlikely…

  And if she did? Well, it would be back to the holding cell and then off to start her new life in prison the very next morning.

  Almost as if sensing her fright, Devon slipped his hands casually into his jacket pockets, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze as he did. She pulled in a silent breath and tried to slow down her racing pulse.

  Devon would never let that happen. He’ll never let me go back to jail. Hell, I’d never let me go back to jail. We’ll just stick to the plan, and everything will be fine.

  But all those good feelings went right out the window when Julian opened the door to Carter’s office.

  * * *

  It wasn’t half the Council waiting on the other side. It was the whole bloody thing.

  The four friends froze in place as the eyes of forty or so stern-looking men latched onto them with terrifying attention. Molly’s already-pale face turned even whiter, and Julian reached down to silently take her hand. Still hiding behind Devon, Rae had stopped breathing.

  Carter sat at the center of it all, and it was on him that Rae focused all her energy. Carter was on their side. Carter would see them through this. He had to.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Devon’s voice sounded as small as Rae had ever heard it. “We didn’t mean to interrupt—”

  Carter held up a hand to silence him, the hard lines on his face making him look especially grim. “Not at all, Mr. Wardell. Actually, the Council has gathered here today for you three. To hear what you and your two friends have to say.”

  Mr. Wardell. Just a few days before, Carter and Devon had been sharing a secret bottle of scotch, telling war stories in front of a bonfire in Scotland. Now it was Mr. Wardell.

  Rae jumped with the rest of them as the door behind them suddenly slammed shut and locked.

  Devon tried to keep his composure, nodding quickly and pulling himself together. “Alright, well, that’s why we’re here.”

  “And why is that, exactly?” a ferocious-looking man demanded from a few chairs away. He had a tuft of white hair clinging to the top of his head, and beady black eyes that seemed to have no color around them whatsoever. “Perhaps to explain where the three of you have been these last few days? Or perhaps to explain your previous absence for the entire month after Guilder’s graduation?”

  His harsh words echoed in the little room and Devon pulled in a quick breath.

  No…this was not going to be as easy as they thought. Not that they had even thought it would be.

  “My friends and I took a leave of absence after graduation. It was fully sanctioned by the Council, and Carter was fully aware that we were going. I regret that I didn’t tell you where exactly we went.” His voice sharpened slightly. “As we weren’t on active assignment, I didn’t realize it was in the Council’s purview to track our every movement.”

  A low murmur hissed through the room, and sitting behind his desk, Carter shook his head a fraction of an inch. This was not the man to be messing with. Devon needed to pull back.

  The man in question, however, seemed to literally rise to the occasion. His withered old body looked to almost re-in
flate as he half-rose from his chair and pointed a gnarled finger at Devon’s chest. “You, young man, are a multi-million dollar, malfunctioning asset. Nothing more. From the minute you graduated and signed your employment contract, you became the Council’s living, breathing property. Everything you do is within our purview. Everywhere you go, everything you think. You are no longer your own person. You belong to something greater.” His voice fell to a dangerous whisper, “Do you understand?”

  An icy chill ran down Rae’s back and she realized she was trembling where she stood. Carter was right: Cromfield had been working to undermine the Council since before anyone in this room was even born. And, upon hearing those words, it seemed he was well on his way.

  Property of the Council?! A malfunctioning asset?!

  He was making it sound like some kind of cult! Like they’d signed their entire lives away!

  She could feel Devon stiffen in front of her. In a way, she was almost glad she couldn’t see his face. She couldn’t imagine what it must look like right now.

  There was a brief pause, and then he inclined his head, lowering his voice to a more respectful tone. “Yes, sir.”

  “I couldn’t hear you, boy!”

  He lifted his chin and Rae could practically see the fire burning in his eyes. “Yes. Sir.”

  The man lowered himself back down to his chair. “Good. Now, where have the three of you been since Miss Kerrigan’s convenient escape from the detention center?”

  Convenient escape? Rae’s eyes flicked nervously to her three friends, each one standing stiff as a board in front of her. Maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea after all. This man was out for blood.

  “We were in Liverpool, sir,” Julian answered in a soft voice, “where I grew up.”

  The lethal-looking man turned his snake-eyes to Julian. “Liverpool…” He rifled through some papers, presumably, Julian’s file. “You spent time in foster care there, correct?”

  Rae’s mouth dropped open in shock, and Molly shot Julian a look of total bewilderment.

  He’d never really talked about his family, his life at home. But Rae had never for a moment assumed that was because he had problems!

  “Yes, sir,” he answered in that same obedient tone. “I was thirteen when then-President Axe came to collect me. My father had gone missing while working for the Privy Council, and my mother couldn’t manage. I spent some time in foster care. When my MIA father returned, President Axe came and took me to Guilder.”

  He had done well to mention Carter’s predecessor—Rae could tell. She wanted to ask him a million questions but there was a reason he hadn’t mentioned his childhood and it wasn’t her place to ask unless he wanted to tell. There was another general murmur throughout the room, but this time it was a far lighter tone. The man had been liked, and this boy was apparently part of his collection.

  Even old snake-eyes had to agree. “President Axe was a good man, God rest him.”

  Julian kept his eyes on the floor. “Yes, sir. He was.”

  “And the three of you, all three of you were in Liverpool after Miss Kerrigan’s escape?”

  “We wanted to get a little distance,” Molly piped up, looking terrified to be speaking for the first time. “Rae is…well, was my best friend. She was close to all of us. We needed to get a little space. We’d hoped that by the time we came back she would have been found already and brought back.”

  Even though she knew the words were fake, Rae couldn’t help but feel stung. Molly had said them so convincingly, talking about her in the past tense as though she was already gone. It was nothing compared to what she felt when Devon spoke next.

  “And you, Mr. Wardell?” The man turned back to him. “You have no further loyalties to Miss Kerrigan?”

  Rae expected Devon to sigh. For him to hang his head, maybe wring his hands; somehow act like it was a difficult question for him. What she didn’t expect him to do was smile.

  “You just said it yourself, sir. She’s a Kerrigan.”

  It felt like a knife had been plunged straight into Rae’s heart. Her whole body seemed to lock down, and she took a silent step back.

  “I’d hoped she might turn out to be different from her father,” he continued, speaking in that same quiet monotone that was breaking Rae’s heart. “When I was assigned to be her mentor at Guilder, I thought she showed some promise. That she believed in our way of thinking, like her mother. But she turned out to be exactly the same as what we had been told about her father.”

  Two invisible tears snuck down Rae’s face and she was quick to catch them before they hit the floor. He’s lying, she told herself. You know he’s lying, so get it together.

  However, there was something horrible about seeing him standing there, calmly tearing her entire life apart. It chilled her to the bone. Like he expected her to turn into her father. It hurt something fierce. She took another step away from him. Maybe her father had been brainwashed by Cromfield. Maybe he wasn’t really bad, but the Privy Council had assumed he wasn’t worth saving and, in fact, led him in the direction of her downfall. She glared at each member in the room, her eyes resting lastly on Carter. He was in love with her mother. Maybe he too had pushed Simon away with the hope of having a future with Beth. The thought shocked her. She forced herself to focus on what Devon was saying, not on what- ifs and could-have-beens.

  Devon hung his head and sighed, “I admit I was still disappointed. It’s one of the reasons I went with Julian and Molly when they suggested we get out of town for a while to clear our heads.” Then his voice grew stronger and he looked the scary old man right in the eyes. “But my loyalty is, and has always been, to the Council. I wouldn’t risk that for Miss Kerrigan. I wouldn’t risk it for anything in the world.”

  The man sat back in his chair, looking satisfied, and made a subtle gesture to Carter. With a slight nod, Carter got to his feet and motioned the three of them forward. “As much as we appreciate your words, there is nothing like the truth.” He held his hands out and beckoned them. “It’s time to prove it.”

  As Molly, Julian, and Devon made their way slowly across the room, Rae slipped around to the back, hugging her way around the wall until she was directly behind Carter’s desk. Once she was there, she pulled in a deep breath and wiped her teary eyes.

  He didn’t mean it. None of them did. They’d just done it so convincingly. It’s time to pull it all together, Rae. We’re here for a reason. I’m the next one up at bat.

  The entrance to the chamber was supposedly in the hearth behind his chair. And as much as she didn’t want to be anywhere near her friends as they went through this next part, she had to be close enough to open the door in the brief window where the lock would be deactivated.

  She watched as, one by one, her friends stepped forward and took Carter’s hand. It was impossible to tell what was going on behind their faces, or if Carter was even using his tatù at all. At first, Rae suspected he wasn’t, because Molly had a slightly over-theatrical reaction; squinting her eyes shut with a look of concentration that was most unlike her. Things were different with Julian. There was a hesitation in the way he presented his hand to Carter, followed by a knowing gleam in Carter’s eye as he probed deep into the boy’s thoughts.

  Well, that’s one way to find out about Angel. Carter did say they’d discuss it later…

  Finally, there was just Devon left. He stepped forward slowly, and Rae realized that she was holding her breath. The last time Carter had used his ability on Devon, it had been the day that he professed his undying love. Just moments before, Carter had admitted that he’d been using his ink to spy on Devon and Rae’s progressing relationship. It had been such an explosive confrontation; the two men had almost come to blows. But instead, Devon had merely held out his arm and asked Carter to tell him if what he felt, in all its purity, could possibly be wrong.

  It was the first time Rae had ever seen Carter cry.

  Devon held his arm out again, this time with a little knowing smil
e dancing deep behind his eyes. Carter touched his skin and both of them bowed their heads for the briefest of moments. Free from the sight of the hushed crowd, Rae stuck her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes, staring between them with a sarcastic little smile.

  Carter wasn’t doing a damn thing. Devon had forbidden it after that day at Heath Hall.

  After a minute, Carter gave Devon’s wrist a little squeeze and both men lifted their heads.

  “Let the record reflect that I, James Carter, have knowingly and thoroughly—”

  There was an almost-inaudible click behind her as the lock to the chamber temporarily de-activated at the sound of Carter’s name. Moving as quietly as she could, Rae pried the little door open using nothing but her fingernails, hoping it would be enough to keep it from locking shut.

  “—investigated the minds of all the accused. They are indeed,” he paused for effect, “free and clear of all suspicion. They are all now, and have been always, loyal to the Council.”

  There was a much louder reaction through the crowd at the news. Some people smiled with open applause. Others looked strangely disappointed. Snake-eyes just stared unblinkingly forward.

  “As such, I believe it’s time we put them back to work.” Carter gave Devon a stern, yet teasing, smile. “I believe your ‘leave of absence’ has been long enough.”

  Devon ginned back, following along behind Carter as he led the crowd slowly from the room. The rest of the men stood and followed suit, several of them patting Molly and Julian on the back as they filed out into the hall. Eventually, there was only old snake-eyes left.

  He hadn’t moved from his chair since Carter had pronounced their innocence. In fact, he hadn’t stopped staring at the wall directly behind Carter’s chair. The exact same spot where Rae was currently standing, not daring to breathe, with her fingernails still wedged in the door.

  What looked to be the ghost of a smile lifted the corners of his ancient lips, and for a moment the noise from the hall seemed to dim, leaving the office a deathly quiet.

  I’m caught. I’m so dead. He’s going to scream that I’m here. All my friends are going to be put in jail. Carter in the cell beside us. What the—