by Rebel Hart
“Hey, don’t get me wrong. If we came across Deon first, I wouldn’t complain. We got so little time together, that I don’t want to waste any more time. I just imagine things have already been so stressful for him, that it would be nice if he could just come home and not have to worry about any of that, you know?”
Avery nodded her head as she munched on a piece of cinnamon bread. “That makes sense.”
Still, what they said was a logical response as well. We still didn’t entirely know how wrapped up Deon was in Connor’s world, wherever he was, and he probably did have an entire safe of good information that we could use to track down Connor and hopefully stop him for good. If we did manage to find Deon first it’d be good, not just because I’d be over the moon to see him again, but because then he could help.
The kitchen slowly started to fill with the rest of The Royal Court, starting with Jaxon and Colette, then Nikita, Brayden and Kyle, and last, but not least, Nathan. The kitchen island over breakfast was fast becoming our official Royal Court meeting place. Once Nathan had gathered his plate, he looked over at Kyle and nodded.
“Your sleeping in is causing delays,” Kyle joked.
Nathan shrugged as he chuckled. “What do you want from me? I’m taking advantage of not having my kingly duties right now.”
“Wait,” I said. “What?”
Everyone turned to look at me, furrowing their brows in confusion, and it was Brayden out of everyone who seemed to get it first. “Oh, right, Cherri wasn’t there.” He set his hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “Kyle is king right now.”
I dropped my jaw. “What?”
“Yeah,” Nathan replied. “I was sort of losing my mind there for a while, and I wasn’t doing the best job leading. I handed King to Kyle and became Prince in Line.”
“I just automatically assumed that you were still King and Nikita had moved up to Queen,” I responded.
“Actually,” Colette said. “Nikki hasn’t moved up. Not officially anyway. She’s still a Knight. In fact, if we’re being the most technical, you’re still Queen, Cherri.”
For whatever reason, that made me really uncomfortable. I didn’t feel like I should have the weight of The Royal Court on my shoulders anymore. It wasn’t just because of all the things that I’d put them through, but they’d all changed and grown so much that it wasn’t fair for me to lead them anymore.
“I don’t think I should have that title anymore,” I said.
“You know, I don’t disagree,” Kyle said. “Honestly, I think there are many changes that have to take place. Maybe now’s as good a time as any to do it.”
“We’re still missing someone though,” Nathan said.
Almost as if he’d been summoned by the mention of his name, we heard the front door open and a few moments later, Sicily rounded the corner into the kitchen. “Hey hey!”
“Good morning, Sicily,” Colette greeted.
“There she is!” He held out his arms towards Colette. “You have no idea how much of a whiz this chick is.” He walked over and stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “She figured out a way to check four times as many pings a day as we were checking. At this rate, we could get through the list way faster than we were planning on.”
Across from Colette, Jaxon silently picked up a butter knife off the island and held it out in Sicily’s direction. “Move.”
Sicily held up his hands and backed away. “Right. Sorry.”
“Knock it off,” Colette snipped at Jaxon, but he ignored her apart from setting the knife down on the counter and resuming his breakfast.
“I forget, I’m the lost, lonely single in this group.” Then he put his arms around Kyle and Brayden. “Well, I have these two at least. Just three single guys doing what we do, right?” Everyone went silent, and I actually had to fight back a laugh, but then I looked across the island and saw Brayden biting his lip to keep from laughing. Finally, Kyle broke and started snickering, which sucked in Brayden, and soon we all erupted with laughter. Sicily raised an eyebrow. “Ah, I missed something.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said.
Sicily smiled over at me. “My best friend!” He walked around the island and I stood up to meet him in a hug. “I’ve missed you. I feel like we haven’t seen much of each other lately.”
“I expected you to be hanging around here more,” I responded.
“To be fair, we’ve been working him to the bone,” Alistair said. “When he’s here, we lock him up in his dungeon and make him work like Cinderella.”
“I think we’re circling the drain on backtracking to Connor through Brayden, so hopefully I’ll be able to join the tech side soon,” I said.
Sicily rubbed my back. “Aw, I’d love that. Just like old times.”
Back before I reconciled with The Royal Court, when we were still in high school, Sicily and I would hole up for entire weekends sometimes just grinding through the internet for any clue regarding Deon’s whereabouts. Though we didn’t find much, we would often catch streaks of information and would get excited following the trail to its end. Even if we were disappointed at the end of it when we didn’t find anything, there was something about plugging in and chasing a ghost together that was fun and exciting. Our friendship was built on that.
“Okay, well, grab a seat, Sicily, we have some things to go over this morning,” Kyle said.
“Oh. Okay.” Sicily took a seat on the stool that was empty next to me and started loading some of the breakfast food onto a plate. “Are you guys breaking up with me?”
Kyle and Nathan exchanged a look and then Kyle smiled at Sicily. “Quite the opposite, actually. I’m offering you an official role in The Royal Court. Baron.”
Sicily’s jaw dropped to the floor. He looked over at me and I nodded with a smile, then he looked back at Kyle. “Yeah? I get to be official?”
“If you accept,” Kyle said. “I’m not going to muscle you like Nathan did us.”
“Okay,” Nathan grumbled.
“Yeah, hell yeah! I get to be part of The Royal Court?” He looked at Jaxon and Nikita. “Does that mean these two won’t bully me anymore.”
“Oh calm down, you baby. We haven’t done that since first semester senior year,” Nikita hissed.
Sicily held out a hand towards Jaxon. “He just pointed a knife at me like five minutes ago.”
I giggled and shook my head. “Well, we can only do so much. Maybe just don’t touch Colette.”
“Hey,” Colette said. “He can do what he wants, and Jaxon will be fine.” Jaxon looked up and glared at her, and she glared back, totally unfazed. “Trust me,” she said directly to him, “He’ll be fine.”
A flash of excitement crossed through Jaxon’s eyes, then he smiled and returned to his food. They were such a unique couple. I was excited to see more of them together over the course of the summer.
“Is that a yes?” Kyle asked Sicily.
Sicily snapped his fingers and threw up finger guns. “Hell yeah that’s a yes.”
Kyle frowned. “Did you just throw finger guns at me?” He looked at Brayden. “Did he just throw finger guns at me?”
Brayden chuckled and looked at Sicily. “Don’t do that.”
Sicily put his hands down. “Right. The Royal Court is finger-gun-free. Got it.”
“Well then, with that matter sorted, I’m requesting to move Cherri down from Queen to Princess,” Kyle said. “Does anyone have any objections?”
No one said anything, least of all me, but then Colette raised her hand. “Who will be Queen?”
“Well, I suppose that goes part and parcel with my next request, which is that Nathan moves back up to King, and Nikita moves up to Queen with him, and I’ll of course move back down to Prince in Line for now.” Kyle explained. “No offense, you guys are fun, and I love you more than anything, but you stress me out. I’m going to relax, enjoy spending time with,” he gave Brayden a quick glance, “everyone, and bask in the glory of not having all the responsibility.”<
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“Aw, but I like being retired,” Nathan whined.
“That’s too damn bad,” Kyle replied.
“I’m in,” Avery said.
Alistair nodded. “Yep. Me too.”
Everyone else gave their own messages of affirmation and then Kyle picked up an unpeeled banana and banged it on the island like a gavel. “So ordered, and thank god.”
“Well, then what’s next, your highness?” Colette asked Nathan.
He looked back at me. “What’d you guys learn from driving blindfolded?”
“Brayden did amazing,” I said. “He was able to get us to a place that we’re relatively certain Connor was meeting him in, but it’s all locked up. He’s pretty sure that there’s a back entrance that they pulled him out of when Nikki and Jaxon eventually found him, so the next step is to have Jaxon and Nikki take us back to where they found Brayden and see if he can walk us back to the back entrance, and hopefully it’ll be an easier one to get into.”
“Oh good. We’re adding breaking and entering to our list of leisure activities,” Alistair said.
“Well, only a few people have to go,” I said. “I’m pretty certain he’s not in there anymore, so we’d mostly be looking for any new leads or clues. I’ll go, obviously. Brayden will have to be there, so Kyle will be there. Nathan, you should probably go because you know the most about your dad, and then we’d just need Nikki and Jaxon.”
“Yeah, and breaking and entering is already on our repertoire,” Jaxon said, and Nikita chuckled.
“I’m going,” Avery said. “I’ve seen this thing through this far.”
Alistair put a hand on Avery’s. “Baby, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If you guys got caught and got arrested or something, Yale could pull your scholarship.”
Avery opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off before she could. “Avery, I agree. The rest of us don’t even know what we’re fucking doing yet, but you have so much at stake. You’ve been awesome up to this point. Let us take over from here.”
Avery eyed me, and I could see in her gaze that she was upset, but she took a breath and then nodded. “Fine.”
The relief on Alistair’s face was easy to read, and he looked at me as if to say ‘thank you,’ but allowed the words to remain unspoken. It was one thing I just wasn’t going to do: ruin anything else for my friends while trying to make things right. They didn’t even have to fight, but they were because they loved Nathan and they loved me. The least I could do was not drag them into situations they had no business being in.
“We shouldn’t waste any time then,” Nathan said. “Let’s finish up, and those of us who are going can ship out.”
We divided into two cars again, Kyle, Brayden, and me in Kyle’s car and Nikita, Nathan, and Jaxon in Nikita’s. Kyle led the way back to the spot that Brayden had led us to and then pulled his car over so that Nikita could pass him. She took the lead and drove a couple of blocks away, down a block that ran between the backs of two sets of abandoned stores, and parked.
We all got out and followed Nikita and Jaxon about halfway down the block where Nikita said, “This is where we found Brayden wandering.”
“You said you ripped your blindfold off at some point, right Brayden?” I asked. “Is there any chance it’s still around here?”
“It’s not like Postings is shelling out all their taxpayers’ dollars on keeping this area clean, so it’s possible,” Kyle said. As someone who lived in North Postings and would see the same pieces of litter hanging around in the streets for months at a time, I knew that to be true.
Brayden did a couple of circles with a look of determination on his face, and then he started walking up the block. Nathan noticed first and started following, and the rest of us eventually fell in line. Both expectedly and not, he stopped in a spot and bent down and picked up a black bandana that was laying on the ground and he handed it over to Nathan.
Nathan ran his thumbs over the fabric and then nodded. “Yeah. This is my dad’s handiwork.”
My stomach bottomed out. “You… recognize it?”
Nikita was next to Nathan in a second, rubbing his back. “Let’s not talk about that right now. If it’s confirmation that it was Connor’s, then we’re on the right track.”
“Bray, do you think if we blindfolded you again that you could walk backwards like you did last time?” Kyle asked.
Brayden was totally unresponsive. He had a look of horror mixed with sadness on his face as he watched Nikita console Nathan. It only took Kyle a few minutes to take notice of the situation and he looked away, his expression breaking as he did. It was heartbreaking.
Someone exhaled next to me, and I jumped a little before realizing it was just Jaxon. He was watching the scene before us with a pensive look that was befitting his more observant nature.
“Things are pretty fucked aren’t they?” I whispered to him.
Jaxon shook his head. “You have no idea.”
“So maybe we don’t do the blindfold,” I said, louder. “Maybe just close your eyes?” I was less concerned with finding the place, and more with breaking up the unexpectedly tense situation we’d found ourselves in.
“I can do that,” Brayden said.
He closed his eyes, his chest raising and lowering a little more dramatically as he did so, then he turned around a couple of times again and started off. Kyle trudged behind, and I rushed up to stay between Nathan and Kyle. It wasn’t that I thought Kyle would hurt his best friend for any reason, but they needed some space. We followed Brayden down the block and across the street, and then he started to hesitate. He started to go left, then backtracked and tried to go straight. His movements got uncertain, and every time it seemed like he was off, he’d stop and turn around.
“Lost?” I asked.
He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. “I hadn’t slept or eaten in like two days.” He looked at me. “I can’t really remember. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” I replied.
“I mean, we can just do some spatial deduction from this point anyway,” Kyle said. “Although we’re a little far from the original building.”
“Oh!” I yelped, then turned around and ran back to where we found Brayden’s blindfold. “Brayden,” I called. “It’s not that you don’t remember. You went too far.”
Everyone came back to where I was as Brayden asked, “How do you know that?”
“You said before that they just sort of dropped you and eventually you pulled your own blindfold off, right? You didn’t walk for that long blindfolded.” I pointed at the doors nearby. “The first building he led us to is over there, but maybe there’s an underground tunnel or something that led here.”
“That would be very like my dad,” Nathan said.
“He walked pretty confidently up to the end of the block,” Kyle said, and then put his hand on a door right near the corner. “Here maybe?”
Brayden looked down the brick wall and then his eyes widened. “Yeah! It’s that door! It opened to the right. I remember bumping against the open door frame on the left side.”
“He’s right,” Nikita said. “The rest of these doors look like they open the other way around.”
Jaxon walked over to the door Kyle was standing near and started to fiddle with it. Kyle and Brayden watched over his shoulder, and I did a quick cursory glance for any onlookers or cameras. Security was low in a place like North Postings, I knew all too well, but I still wanted to be able to see if someone was coming.
Eventually, Jaxon managed to get the door free and opened it. Brayden stepped inside and then back out. “This is it. I remember going upstairs. Two flights.” Jaxon pulled a gun out of his waistband and held it up as he led the way in, and we all filed in behind. Nikita propped the door open so we wouldn’t somehow get locked in, and then we followed Jaxon and Brayden down two flights of stairs. “There were lots of hallways,” Brayden said. “Twists and turns, but there will be a door first.”
We got t
o the bottom of the stairs and all stopped dead in our tracks. All at once, each one of us deflated entirely. It wasn’t that there were no twists and turns.
There was nothing at all. It was a big, empty room that stretched in all directions for probably two blocks.
“Do we have the wrong place?” I asked.
Nathan shook his head. “No. We’re in the right place. My dad just made sure it was totally cleaned out before he moved on. Even had the walls torn down. That’s just like him.”
“He tore the walls down?” I asked. “That’s excessive even for him. Are you sure?”
Kyle walked a little further into the room and pointed down. There were bright lines cutting through the floor, dividing it into halls and rooms like some sort of blueprint. “Here’s where the walls used to be. The dirt and grime is significantly less here.”
Nathan looked at me. “You shouldn’t underestimate my father. We wouldn’t be in this position if he wasn’t a lunatic.”
“So what do we do next?” Brayden asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “We just hit another dead end.”
14
Deon
“You have to go get the fire extinguisher!” I screamed at Felicity. “Hurry up! Everything is burning to the ground!”
“I don’t know where it is,” Felicity barked back.
“On the counter over there! Hurry!”
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”
“Felicity!” I screeched.
“Shut the fuck up! I’ve got it! Move so you don’t catch on fire.”
On the screen, big, bright red letters that said ‘mission failed’ appeared. I turned and looked at Felicity, who was still flicking the button on her controller that operated the fire extinguisher as if we hadn’t already lost.
“I think you can stop,” I growled.
She held her hand up in my face. “Don’t look at me like that, you brat. The kitchen caught on fire because of you.”
My jaw dropped. “How was it me? You were supposed to be watching the fries!”
Felicity was sitting in her favorite spot on the couch, while I was sitting in the comfortable armchair. Concrete was curled up in a ball next to Felicity on the couch, and his ears flicked every time we yelled back and forth at one another, like he was irritated we were disrupting his nap.