A scratch at the door finally draws my attention. It swings open and Juliet bursts into the room with an excited look on her face.
I bolt up, putting some space between me and Mathias. I hadn't expected more company. While she doesn't always announce herself during the day, she does at this time of night.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was interrupting," she says.
"It's not what it looks like," Mathias tells her quickly.
Hurt dashes through me. What's that supposed to mean? Is he worried she's going to think we're together or something?
I push the thoughts aside for now and focus on Juliet. She looks as if she has something important to tell me. Which makes sense. I doubt she'd be charging into my room without knocking if she didn't have a good reason to.
"We got a match," she says, excitement coming through every word. "On your DNA sample."
My eyes widen. "We did?"
"DNA?" Mathias asks.
"To find Syxe's family," Juliet says by way of explanation. "Sometimes the simple things work."
"Never mind that, what did the match say?" I ask, trying not to get my hopes up too much.
I'm not even sure what the best outcome is. Do I want to find my parents? They may have given birth to me, but they also abandoned me to the care of the Shadow Association, I'm not sure that's the act of a caring parent. Maybe they won't even want to see me.
"I haven't opened it yet, I thought you'd want to do the honours."
I nod, grateful to her for so many things.
Mathias grabs my laptop and pauses the film so I can use it. I don't look at him as I take it. I can't without my feelings showing on my face. What's wrong with Juliet thinking there's something weird about us spending time together? She already knows we do, she's been there for some of it.
I try to ignore my feelings. They're just going to get in the way of whatever news the site has uncovered for me. This could hold the answer to where my parents are.
If I'm lucky. It might also be a false alarm.
I click on the bookmark for the site, and pull up the messages tab. Blood pounds in my ears, the intensity of what I could find when I click open almost too much. A small part of me wants to ask Juliet and Mathias to look and tell me what they find, but that's not right.
This is something I need to do.
I take a shaky breath and open it up.
Relative found.
The two words mean everything and nothing at the same time. Without more information about who the person is, I'm not sure what to do with it.
"Click on it," Juliet insists.
I nod and do as she says.
"I don't understand," I whisper as I read the words on the screen.
Juliet is already on her feet tapping something into her phone. "They've found a relative in Supernatural Retrieval Agency files," she says. "Which means we need to get someone there to unlock them."
"I don't know anyone there," I point out.
"Luckily, I do. I helped the receptionist's family with a ghost problem just after I started at the academy. I should be able to get us an appointment for tomorrow."
I raise an eyebrow. "That quickly?"
"It's amazing what a little favour can do to grease the wheels." She taps on her phone. "Sent."
"Thank you," I say with all the earnestness I'm feeling. I wouldn't have even managed getting this far with Juliet.
"You're welcome. What lesson do you have free tomorrow?"
"The third and fourth sessions," I answer.
"Okay, I'll see if I can get us an appointment for then," she promises.
"Thanks."
She waves it away. "I'll see you tomorrow." She's out of the room before I can say anything else.
"Do you want to put the movie back on?" Mathias asks.
I shake my head. "I don't think I'll be able to focus." Partly because I'll be thinking about what he said when Juliet interrupted us, but I'm not about to tell him that's the reason.
"Okay. I'll leave you to get some rest." He smiles at me, seemingly unaware of how much I'm still hurting.
"Mmhmm." I nod at the same time.
"Sleep well, Sxye."
"You too."
The door clicks shut behind him, leaving me alone in my room.
I sigh and collapse back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying to come to terms with everything that's happened in the past few hours. I'm not sure which part I'm supposed to be focusing on the most, but my mind keeps replaying Mathias' denial over and over.
How do I move forward from this? I thought the two of us were heading somewhere, but if that's the way he feels, I'm clearly wrong.
I take a deep breath. It doesn't matter. One thing at a time. I still have to work with him as my reaping partner, so I need to work out how to put my feelings about him to the side and do my job. I don't want this to come between us and finding out what happened to Erica's baby.
Or between me and finding out what happened to my own family.
I have to focus on the important things. I'll work out how things need to be with Mathias once I'm done with the rest of it.
Now if only my heart would get on board with that plan.
6
Juliet is almost bouncing as we make our way down the street and towards our destination. True to her word, she managed to get us an appointment at the local Supernatural Retrieval Agency station. I know several reapers come and go from the building all the time, but I haven't had a reason to go in myself yet. I certainly didn't think the first time would be to find out about a family member of mine.
The station doesn't look the way I expect it to. In my mind, whenever anyone talked about it, it was something grand and magical, like the academy. Instead, I'm standing in something that looks like every police station I've seen on TV. It's rather dull compared to what my imagination pulled up.
Juliet doesn't seem phased by it. But that's not a surprise. If she helped the receptionist, she's probably been here before. She's also had more time being a practising reaper than I have, considering she enrolled at the beginning of the year rather than in a random week like I did.
She approaches the front desk with the same natural confidence she normally exudes. I trail behind her, hyper-aware that no one here knows me or why I'm here.
"Hi, George. How are you?"
"Juliet, how lovely to see you. I'm good. We had a memorial for Sandrine a couple of weeks ago thanks to you, it was beautiful."
"I'm glad I could help." She beams. "We have an appointment about this file." She slides a piece of paper across the desk to him.
He nods, probably having expected this given that he's the reason we have an appointment in the first place.
Nerves assault me from every direction. This could be it. The answer to where I came from. I'm not sure what good the knowledge will do me when I don't have any memories of any members of my family, but maybe knowing something about them will help with that. It might give me an answer to how I ended up in the Shadow Association's care in the first place.
George taps on the keys. "I've set you up with Agent Fielding. She deals with a lot of the missing supernatural reports."
"Missing?" I echo.
He ignores me, probably because has no idea who I am.
"I've informed her you're here, she should be with you in a moment. Why don't you take a seat?" He gestures to some surprisingly comfortable chairs across from the desk.
"Thanks, George, I owe you one," Juliet says.
"You never owe me a thing," he counters.
We make our way over to the seats. Despite how inviting they look, I sit on the edge, my leg bouncing up and down as the reality of what we're doing here sinks in.
"What did you do for him?" I ask, desperate to take my mind off things.
"His brother's finacée was human and died. She got stuck between this world and the next."
"What was her unfinished business?"
Sadness crossed over Juliet's face. "
She wanted to finish picking out her wedding dress and have her fiancé see her in it."
"Oh."
"It was hard. Not the picking part, that bit was relatively easy. We found a dress shop owner who understood what we wanted to do, and she let us do a private fitting. It was the first time I ever saw myself in a wedding dress..."
"I hope Tobias didn't see." My attempt at a joke falls flat, even to me.
Despite that, Juliet chuckles. "He did, actually. But we weren't dating at the time so I don't think it's bad luck."
"How did you do the second part?"
"George's family are witches. They created a projection of Sandrine over me so his brother could see her in the dress. His face...I've seen all kinds of emotions doing this, but that was the first time I'd seen heartbreak. But it helped them all get peace, and that's the important thing."
Ah. I can see how that would have an impact on everyone involved.
Before I can change the subject to something more cheery, a woman approaches us. Her well-fitted suit and tight bun say that she's not to be messed with. The points of her ears sticking through her neatly parted hair reinforce that even more.
Everyone knows not to mess with a fae. I may have grown up with no clue about being a reaper, but I'm not clueless about the supernatural in general. It's impossible to be when everything about society is integrated.
"Good morning. I'm Agent Susan Fielding, you must be Miss Dixon," she says.
Juliet is on her feet in seconds and holding out her hand to shake the other woman's. It's hard to remember Juliet is only nineteen sometimes. She has the maturity of someone a lot older.
Perhaps it's the effect of dealing with death all the time.
"You can call me Juliet," she says. "And this is my friend, Syxe."
Agent Fielding nods. "Good to meet you. Why don't you come through to my office and I'll share the case file with you."
"Thanks."
I get to my feet and follow the other two women through the station and into a cosy office.
"Please, have a seat," Agent Fielding says.
She settles herself behind the desk and moves a stack of papers to the side until she locates a specific file.
"It's an old one. I don't think I've ever had a reaper ask for a thirty-year-old file before," Fielding says, handing it over.
"It's amazing what we come across as reapers," Juliet says.
I raise an eyebrow. She's doing a good job at not confirming or denying that this is a personal matter and not a professional one. I suspect that if the Supernatural Retrieval Agency becomes aware that it's my search for my family, they'll rescind our access to the files instantly.
Juliet hands it to me and I open it up.
A black and white smiling photo stares up at me from a poster, the word missing scrawled across the top with a description of the woman in question. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm looking at my mother's face for the first time. She looks just like me. Or I look like her. I suppose she's the original.
Anna Weston.
I guess the Shadow Association let me keep my real surname after all. I've always wondered about that.
"Do you know what happened to her?" I ask Agent Fielding.
The woman smiles sadly. "She was from Cambridge and was living there when the walls went up. It's all in the file."
"Walls?" I echo, confused for a moment.
"For the City of Blood, I'm sure you've heard of it."
I nod. Who hasn't heard of the city deemed to be paradise for vampires? I may not have known I was a reaper until a couple of months ago, but I wasn't living under a rock before that. It would have been impossible to miss news of the city considering how much reporting there was on it when the authorities finally breached the walls six months ago.
"You think she was inside?" I ask, pointing to the photo.
"We have to assume so. Her mother was the one who reported her as missing, but everyone knew there wasn't much hope left for supernaturals who didn't get out of the city within the first six months."
Except she must have done, otherwise I'd have had a very different upbringing.
"Do you have any contact information for the mother?" I ask, trying not to get my hopes up too much. If they can put me in contact with her, then maybe I stand a chance of finding some family of my own. A grandmother.
Fielding shakes her head. "I'm sorry, she's listed as deceased."
"Oh." I lean back in my chair and let that sink in.
"Is there anything else you can do?" Juliet asks.
"I'm sorry, I can make you a copy of the reports if you need one for the reaping you're working on, but other than that, there isn't much in the file that'll help."
"A copy would be good, thanks," Juliet answers for me. I'm glad, I don't think I could form words, even if I wanted to.
Fielding nods. "I'll go print everything off now. If you think of any more questions, I'll answer them once I'm back."
Juliet turns to me the moment the door clicks shut behind Fielding. "Is it her?"
I turn the file so she can see the poster. "I don't think there's much doubt."
"No," she agrees. "I'm sorry it's not more."
"That's okay. It's a start. And more than I had before. I have her name..." A tear falls onto the page.
I lift my fingers to the skin under my left eye, surprised to find it wet. I didn't realise I was crying. I need to snap out of this before Fielding returns and gets suspicious. I wipe the tears away and try to focus on the positives. I came here so I could get more answers than I had before, and that's a reality already. I have a photo, a name, and more information than I'd have found in months if there hadn't been a police file on her.
"This is good," I whisper, trying to reassure both me and Juliet at the same time. "We can work with this."
She reaches out and takes my hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. "We will," she promises. "And this is just the first step. We've been training for digging and researching. We will find more answers for you. I promise."
A genuine but weak smile stretches over my face. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. This is what friends are for," she assures me. "We'll figure all of this out, no matter how long it takes."
I believe her. Not just because she doesn't have any reason to lie, but because I think she's right. It may take time, but we've already gotten this far.
Finding out where I came from feels like it's just within reach.
7
The thrum of the grove magic filled me, even from within the academy walls. It's like the trees know I'm heading in their direction and want me to remember them.
I close my eyes and drink it in for a moment, not waiting too long in case I run into someone.
Or into the wall. That feels like the kind of thing I'd manage to do.
The grove is surprisingly empty to say we have a lesson. Normally there are thirty to forty students whenever we have a Reaper Skills tutorial, but this time, there are only seven other people when I get there. Normally, at this point, almost everyone has arrived already.
Mathias waves to me. My heart skips a beat when my gaze lands on him, only to turn into a dull ache as I remember everything that's going on between us.
Reluctantly, I make my way over. It's not that I don't want to spend time with him. I do. But I don't know how to act now he's made it clear I'm interpreting what's going on between us wrong.
A couple more people trail into the grove after me, but it seems this class really is just for the ten of us.
Mr Denzel strides to the front of the grove, his scythe strapped to his back just like ours are.
"Good afternoon everyone," he says as he turns to face us. "I'm sure you're all wondering what you're doing here."
No one says anything. I just assumed we had a normal lesson, and I'm sure the others think that too.
"You're the ten first years with the highest reaper bounty points," he says. "That means you're the ten students who have shown you're abl
e to reap the most difficult and complicated cases compared to your peers..."
I glance at Mathias, a little confused. I know we're doing well, but considering I haven't even been here the entire year, it's surprising I've made the top ten.
He shrugs. "I was doing okay before I met you, but we've cleared some big cases."
"Oh." I'm not sure I agree with that. None of what we've done seems to have been very noteworthy, but it must be to the higher-ups.
The bounty points are assigned based on a rigid system, which implies there isn't much room for cheating.
We're here because the points say that we're good. I just have to get on board with that. I suppose there's a chance they didn't start counting them until later in the year. Another question for me to ask Juliet.
"You're here to learn a scythe technique that can cut a ghost's tether to the world," Mr Denzel announces.
Cold seeps through every part of me as the meaning of his words sinks in.
"I thought the whole point of seers and porters was that we didn't do that?" I blurt.
Surprisingly, the teacher nods, as if expecting someone to say as much. "Thank you, Miss Weston. You're correct, that is the point of seers and porters, and it's been debated whether teaching this technique is a good idea, but we believe that it is. Every reaper throughout the world has the power to do this, and the knowledge of how is what it takes to be able to stop it happening by accident. That's more important than keeping the technique a secret."
Oh. I suppose that does make sense. Even before I found out I was a reaper, I could talk to ghosts, and I did. But knowing that I can, and what I should actually be saying has made it a lot easier to communicate with them in the right way.
"There are two different ways to do this. One only requires a single reaper, but the other needs two."
Juliet's hand is in the air within seconds.
"Yes, Miss Dixon?"
"Why would we use the two reaper version when we can do it with one?"
Shadow Prophet (Scythe Grove Academy Book 2) Page 3