by Lee French
Brian’s eyes popped wide. “You’re bluffing.”
Claire’s brow furrowed and her gaze fell to her shoes.
“Am I?” He picked Brian up again and threw him at the wall. For the sake of showmanship, he drew his sword. “You want to test me and see?”
“Don’t. Please don’t.” Claire’s voice came out smaller and more plaintive than he’d heard from her before. “His dad did that to me.”
He turned to see her hugging herself. Brian took advantage of the moment to throw his shoulder into Justin’s gut. Because he had no intention of stabbing the kid, Justin tossed his sword aside to avoid doing it by accident. He punched Brian in the face and wrestled with him until they wound up on the floor. Justin held him down with his knee on the kid’s back. The string of obscenities spewing from Brian’s mouth made Justin raise an eyebrow.
This had gotten completely out of hand. “Claire, go look for a filing cabinet and see if you can find divorce papers or something else that shows Avery’s address. We’ll figure out where he works on our own.”
She fled the room. He turned his attention back to Brian, who’d stopped swearing. “So my dad used to beat me up. How about yours?”
The boy under his knee went still. “What?”
“Your dad beat the crap out of Claire, and from what she said, I gathered he was experienced at that. I’m wondering if he used you for practice. Or maybe your little brother? Your mom?”
Brian gulped. “Um.”
“Ask your mom for help, Brian. Just tell her you need someone to talk to. Make it about the divorce. That’s rough on kids. Nobody has to know.”
“Justin?” Claire’s voice echoed in the stairwell. “There’s cops outside the house!”
“I guess your little brother has his own phone. Damn.” Justin sighed and shouted to Claire, “Come here and let’s go!”
Of the two of them, Claire needed to get away more. He’d survive if he got arrested, and Tariel would find a way to help him get free. Claire wouldn’t. They’d try to take her locket away and either kill her when she freaked out, or sedate her to take it, which would then kill her.
Claire ran to him, clutching a piece of paper. “I found it.”
“Good.” He heard pounding on the door and knew they’d run out of time here.
“This is the police. Come out with your hands up!” a voice shouted through the door.
Claire had gone pale and he wanted to throw her out the door. “Run, Claire.”
“What?”
He let go of Brian to reach Claire and shove her at the back door. “Get on Tariel’s back and go!”
The front door crashed open and cops poured inside. “Freeze!” a uniformed officer shouted. “Put your hands up!”
Claire gulped and threw the door open. Justin raised his hands, standing where he blocked the cops from shooting her. Through the open door, he met Tariel’s gaze and nodded to her. She’d get Claire to safety, whatever it took.
Chapter 23
Claire
She thought the horse would wait for Justin, but as soon as Claire hopped onto her back and grabbed her mane, Tariel sprang away. Her last glimpse of Justin was of him getting down on his knees with his hands behind his head and watching her escape. Tariel jumped over the ten-foot-high fence, a feat she hadn’t expected the horse to be capable of. They bolted up the street too fast for cops on foot to give chase and in the wrong direction for those still in their cars.
Holding on, her mind blanked by panic, Claire hunched down and shut her eyes against the wind. They moved so fast she thought a stray fly might kill her. When they turned onto a freeway onramp, her brain clicked into gear. “Wait,” she screamed, trying to be heard over the roar of the wind. The horse slowed and hopped to a halt in the breakdown lane. “Justin didn’t take me home for a reason. I need help, but not from Marie.”
The horse snorted at her, and she got the impression Tariel had said “Then from who?” She rubbed her forehead, trying to think of an answer. Her social worker wouldn’t be much help. Marie and the girls needed to be protected, not involved. None of her foster parents, former or current, could help. That left…Drew. She trusted him. He may not be useful, but he’d have her back, no matter what.
She took a deep breath and made the decision. “Take me to the group home.”
Tariel turned her head to flash one skeptical eye at her.
Claire crossed her arms and narrowed her own eyes. “Hey, you never question any of Justin’s plans, and he does stuff like slicing up doors in public buildings and rushing houses without expecting the cops to come. I’m at least getting the only backup available to me before storming a police station.”
With a snort, Tariel pivoted and sped across the city. Claire jumped to the ground as soon as they reached the large house. “Back me up so I don’t wind up in the basement again.” That said, she walked up to the front door and threw it open. “Drew!”
Several heads popped out through doorways. Claire flashed them all a fake smile. Drew stuck his head out of his bedroom and her smile became real.
“What are you doing here?”
“Grabbing you. C’mon. Bring…” She shrugged. “We’re gonna cause some trouble.”
His red eyebrows lurched up. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
The foster father thumped into the hallway, filling it with his girth. “I know that’s not a good idea. You left. Fine.” He crossed his arms. “You’re not getting anyone else into—into whatever it is your costumed freak sugar daddy is into.”
“Whatever. C’mon, Drew. I need your help.”
“He’s not going anywhere.”
Tariel stepped up and stuck her head over Claire’s shoulder. She bared her teeth and made a low, threatening noise in her throat.
Flinching away from Tariel, the foster father grabbed Drew by his shirt. “Get back, demon horse. You can’t have this boy.”
Drew gulped and stomped on his foot. As the foster father yelped and let go, Drew rushed out to wrap his arms around Claire. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Me too.” Tariel sat her hindquarters down, and they scrambled onto her back. Claire grabbed two handfuls of mane and Drew held onto Claire. His hands groped more than she expected before they settled around her waist as Tariel broke into a gallop.
“Where are we going?”
“The downtown police station. We’re going to rescue Justin.”
Chapter 24
Justin
The door opened and Avery walked in. He seemed cool and collected, and Justin nodded to him. “It’s been a while.”
“Yes, it has.” Avery set a folder down on the table Justin had been handcuffed to. He crossed his arms and looked down his nose. “How’s the wife? Last I saw you, there was a baby on the way?”
“Yeah, she’s almost three now. The older one is five. Started kindergarten this year.” Avery should already know these things, but Justin had let himself get wrapped up in his family. Everything with Mark’s Phasm had happened because he’d chosen Marie and the girls over his job, when he needed to find a way to keep them closer to equal. The Knights needed him as much as his family did.
Avery’s mouth twisted in annoyance. “I’m happy for you.”
Looking around as if he’d never been inside an interrogation room before, Justin noted the faint smell of bleach. “I assume all the recording devices are conveniently broken?”
“Of course.”
“What can I do for you, then?”
“Funny you should ask.” Avery sat on the table with his body twisted so he could both see Justin and appear to ignore him. “Where’s Claire?”
Justin shrugged. “Probably visiting the site of her family home. I imagine someone bulldozed the charred wreck and rebuilt there. It’ll probably be upsetting, but she’ll have to learn to live with it eventually. Did you ever find the guy who did it? I remember you saying you would.”
Avery rubbed his side. Justin wo
ndered if that spot had a scar, or if Claire had hit him there. “Yes.”
“Good. Glad to hear it was taken care of.”
“Got away.” Avery bared his teeth in a snarl. “That bastard shot me and got away.”
“Huh.” Already lounging as casually as he could in the hard metal chair, Justin managed to get his hands to his face so he could stroke his chin in thought. “When was that? You know I would’ve helped if you asked.”
“A few years ago.” Avery waved dismissively. “It’s not important. One Knight doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”
Justin raised his brow and wondered if he should take that as a message about his own value. “Maybe, maybe not. His daughter kind of objected, though.”
Avery rolled his eyes. “Always the bleeding heart.”
“Last I heard, we take care of our own.”
“Only when it’s convenient.”
“Only when we know.”
Nostrils flared, Avery clenched his jaw. “Too late.”
Justin doubted that a Knight who also happened to be a detective couldn’t find someone if he tried. “We could hunt him down together. You and Mark were friends, weren’t you? Don’t you want to see his killer brought to justice?”
“The damage has been done, and there’s nothing more to be gained by hunting it.” Avery turned away from him, rubbing his eyes with a finger and thumb.
His use of “it” caught Justin off guard. From that one word, he guessed that some kind of Phasm entity had burned the house down and shot Avery. But that made no sense. Ur-phasms had to take animal bodies, which couldn’t hold a gun and would have trouble setting a fire without alerting the family or Kupiri. Full Phasms couldn’t affect the real world directly.
Without knowing why, it seemed important not to let on he’d noticed the slip. “But you know where he is.”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you think you can handle it?”
Hope flared in Justin’s chest. Avery may have been tainted, but he hadn’t lost his mind. With luck, he could avoid having to break out of jail. “I’ll never know until I try. Besides, is there a downside to letting me do your dirty work?”
“Yes.” Avery stepped away from the table and went to the door. “But it might be taken care of later, so we’ll see.”
“Wait.”
Avery’s eyebrows quirked up, suspicion etched in every line of his face. “For what?”
Justin cast about for some way to get Avery to give him an opportunity to either do his job or free himself. He’d asked Avery to wait without knowing what to say or do next, and tried feigning weariness to cover his uncertainty. He needed to kill the corrupted Phasm, and to do that, he needed to get close to it.
This would be the first time he’d run across one, though he’d heard and read other Knights telling stories about their hunts. His biggest challenge would be figuring out how to get close to the Phasm without letting it seduce him. Avery could inadvertently help though, especially if he thought he could turn him.
“At least let me see Mark. He should know someone is looking out for his daughter.”
Avery faced the door for several seconds, then said, “I’ll think about it.”
Icy dread settled in Justin’s gut as he wondered what Avery would do in the meantime.
Chapter 25
Claire
Tariel stopped a block away from the police station. Until this moment, Claire had been focused on getting here. Now, as she and Drew helped each other clamber down from the horse’s broad back, her mouth went dry.
“Okay, we’re here,” Drew said. “How are we going to get Justin out of jail?”
Claire gulped. “I don’t know. He’d know what to do. We need Justin to figure out how to break Justin out of jail.”
“We don’t have him, so we have to figure it out ourselves.”
“Wait.” Her gaze settled on the horse, who blinked one large blue eye at her. “Don’t we?” Claire grabbed Drew’s hand and plunged inside the station. She walked up to the desk and smiled at the woman in the blue uniform. “Excuse me, we’re looking for my big brother. He was arrested earlier this afternoon, and we have his bail money.”
The woman gave them a pitying smile. “What’s his name?”
Claire blinked. He hadn’t told her his last name, and she’d never asked. “I’m pretty sure it would be under Justin. Guy in chainmail with a cloak and sword?”
“Oh, that guy.” She mostly stifled a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head. “He’s down in Holding. First basement. Talk to the officer behind the desk down there.”
“Thank you.” Claire pulled Drew to the stairwell.
As they hurried down the stairs, he leaned close and asked, “We have bail money?”
“As if,” she whispered. “C’mon. We’re going to talk to him. Justin’s going to come up with a plan to rescue himself.” They breezed into the darker, dingier Holding desk area, with concrete flooring and no-longer-white walls. Drew put his arm around her shoulders while they waited in line, and she stared at the file cabinets, then the stacks of papers littering the desks. A long table against the wall held pamphlets for various types of counseling services, legal aid, citizenship, and the library. Above that, a bulletin board had notices in an array of colors about all kinds of community events and services.
The woman in front of them wanted to collect her husband’s belongings. The officer denied her request on the grounds that everything would be held until his release. The exchange made Claire wonder how they’d retrieve Justin’s armor and sword. Swearing up a storm at the officer, the woman left in a huff.
With a heavy sigh, the tall, black officer gave Claire and Drew half of his attention. The other half went to the black plastic binder in front of him. “What do you need today?” he said in a bored monotone.
“Hi.” Claire gulped, suddenly nervous about lying to a cop. “Sorry to bother you. Um. My big brother was arrested earlier, and I was told he’s down here in holding? The guy with the cloak and armor?”
The officer blinked at her and rolled his eyes. “Right. You’re here for Sir Lancelot. Just visiting, or posting bail?”
“Visiting, please.”
He opened the binder and pushed it forward, handing her a pen chained to it. “Print your name here and sign here. I’ll need to see some ID.”
“I have a school ID, is that good enough?”
“Yes.”
She handed Drew her backpack, and he rooted through it for her ID while she wrote her name on the page. The officer looked it over and grunted. He pointed her through a door to a large room, told her the visit would be recorded and monitored, and called the next person forward.
Drew put his mouth next to her ear. “How are we going to get him to plan his escape if it’s recorded and monitored?”
“I don’t know.” She forced herself to smile as she told the guard she’d come for Sir Lancelot. He directed them to one of the several metal picnic-style tables in the Holding area. Drew sat sideways and pulled her close. Her spirits sank further when she saw Justin—without his armor—led into the room with his hands cuffed and attached to a chain around his waist. His feet had been cuffed to that chain, also, and he looked cranky. Her smile faltered and failed.
“Get your hands off her,” he growled at Drew. “You can keep them to yourself until we have a chat about appropriate behavior.”
“Yessir.” Drew lifted his arms in surrender.
With a smirk, a guard shoved Justin down onto the bench opposite them. “Fifteen minutes,” he grunted, then left.
“Why are you here? Do you have a brilliant plan?”
Claire gulped. “We were hoping you’d have one.”
“Mine went so perfectly, I can’t see how another one could possibly fail.” Justin rolled his eyes and sighed. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe.”
She stuck her chin out. “I can take care of myself.”
“Avery’s in the building.”
<
br /> “Oh.” Sparks of fear flashed out to her fingers and toes. “I was worried about you. Tariel is too.”
“I’ll be fine.”
He seemed so distant. Her shoulders slumped and she looked away. “I guess…I guess you kinda regret picking me up the other day.”
“No.” He sighed again. “Not even a little, and not for a second. Look, since you’re here anyway, Avery—” He flicked his eyes past her shoulder, then he spat out the first swearword she’d ever heard him say. “Protect Claire and the locket,” he hissed at Drew.
He lurched to his feet and charged despite his chains. Claire turned to watch in stunned horror as he plowed into Avery and he two men tumbled away from the door together. She grabbed Drew’s hand and yanked it, pulling him to the exit. They raced out together, hit the door for the stairwell, and ran up.
“Where’re we going?”
“I’m not sure!” Claire burst through the door to the ground floor and snapped her head back and forth in a panicked rush to see everything at once. Cops turned to stare at their unexpected entrance. She blushed and shuffled to the front door again. The thought crossed her mind that Avery might have files on Justin at his desk that she could destroy. He’d be busy downstairs for a while, and she might not get another chance to do it. Besides, Justin had been about to suggest something. Based on what she knew of him, it had to have been an idea like hers.
She whirled and marched to the front desk again. “Excuse me. Um, where can I find Detective John Avery’s office?”
The woman raised an eyebrow at her. “Third floor.”
“Thanks.” She walked to the stairs again, trying to project calm purpose and not alarm anyone. When she reached them, she ran up with Drew on her heels. On the third floor, she recognized the hallway to the side. It had the closet they’d used to see her dad. Drew pointed her to a secretary beyond it, who directed them to Avery’s office and said they could wait there for him.
