by W. J. May
Aria’s face crumpled as a mountain of guilt threatened to crush her alive. She wished her mother had been the one to question her. The two of them shared the same fiery spirit. The same tactics, the same ploys. But her father? When he said things like that, she couldn’t bear it.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He paused, glancing back at her. “I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to tell me what happened.” He turned around to face her, standing just inches away. “Do you realize how serious this was? The extent of Jason’s injuries? He could have died, Aria. There’s a very good chance he would have if you hadn’t managed to pull off that tatù. We would have spent the next few days planning a funeral—buried him over the weekend. And I guarantee that’s not something Gabriel would decide to live through.”
Each word stripped away another layer, leaving her raw and exposed.
“If you could just trust that—”
“Trust has to be earned,” Devon said dismissively, setting off towards the infirmary once more. “Like I said...I thought you and I were past that.”
BY THE TIME THE DOORS swung open the others were already back, scattered mutely around the room. A single look at their faces said they’d had just as hard a time as Aria had.
Lily was completely dejected, sitting between Natasha and Julian with a hollow expression on her face. James was off by himself, looking like he was going to be sick. While Benji was sitting perfectly still on the cot next to Jason’s, the crook of his elbow was held tight in his mother’s grasp.
There was a hitch in Aria’s breathing when she saw her Aunt Molly. They’d yet to see each other—she and Natasha had arrived once Aria had already left. But while she had nothing but love and warmth towards the woman, she wasn’t happy to see her now.
Quite the contrary, she found herself feeling borderline scared.
“I expect she didn’t tell you anything,” Molly snapped without ever taking her eyes off Benji’s face. “This one couldn’t tell the truth if his life depended on it.”
Devon sank into a chair with a quiet sigh.
“No, she didn’t.”
Julian had prophesized as much. It was the reason he’d remained where he was, refusing to question his daughter further. The others had still felt compelled to try.
“Let me guess.” She slipped off the cot, releasing Benji for the first time. “You just couldn’t remember seeing anything? Too shocked? Everything happened too fast?”
Aria shot her aunt a helpless look, then lowered her eyes to the floor.
Ever since she was a child, Molly had been an ally. She was usually the first one the children went to when they got into trouble. Whether it was knocking down a prized lamp during a game of indoor baseball, or plotting the perfect revenge on an ex-boyfriend they’d sworn to hate. There was always a solution waiting for them. Always a hilarious greeting followed by a sunny smile.
But there were no smiles tonight. Molly had arrived at Guilder, to find her son’s bloody evening jacket tossed in a pile on the floor. The others were tolerating the lack of compliance. Barely.
She was not.
“Answer me, Aria.”
The words scalded the air as little angry sparks leapt from her fingers. Aria lifted her eyes, only to see her mother standing impassively by Molly’s side. No, there were no allies tonight.
“Leave her alone,” Benji muttered, keeping his eyes on the cot. “She doesn’t know—”
Molly whirled around, absolutely incensed.
“Is that right!” she exclaimed. “Well, here’s what I know. But there were scratches down the length of your body, wounds that couldn’t possibly have been made by a man. It was a shifter. And, judging by the clearing, I seriously doubt there was only one.”
Benji’s eyes flickered up for the first time, staring at his mother in surprise.
“When did you see the clearing—”
“Do not change the subject, Benjamin!” she shouted. “The four of you are lying to us and I want to know why!”
“Did you start the fight?”
The room fell silent as everyone inside turned to look at Gabriel.
It was the first time he’d opened his mouth since Jason’s sudden declaration. While the others had been arguing, he’d been thinking— quietly staring at his son’s face.
“Is that what this is?” he continued softly. “You think it’s better to get lectured by us than expelled from the school?”
Jason tensed in surprise, but kept quiet. It was the first time anyone had spoken to him directly since he woke up. They were keeping a respectful distance—in honor of him almost dying.
But that grace period had apparently worn off.
“I don’t care if you started the fight,” Gabriel said quietly. “And I don’t care why you got into it in the first place. Whoever did this is dangerous. Are you going to leave such a person free to move about campus? In striking distance of your friends?”
Sometimes Aria wondered why the others bothered to interrogate people at all. Gabriel was clearly the best at it. Not only were he and his sister the least squeamish, but he always seemed to cut right to the core of the issue—letting everything else fall away.
She expected Jason to crumble. For him to be overwhelmed with guilt just like the rest of them. But instead he rose to the challenge with fire in his eyes.
“I don’t know what to tell you...we have no idea who attacked us.”
An audible hiss rose up from the parents, and the children cowered and cringed. Aria looked up just long enough to shoot Jason a glare, paired with a telepathic warning.
You had better have a bloody good reason for making us do this.
This time, he actually met her eyes. But before he could say anything Molly stepped into the middle of the room, throwing up her hands. “That’s it—time for drastic action. Natasha?”
It took a moment to understand what she was implying. Then Jason bolted up on the bed.
“No!”
A memory tatù wasn’t a casual thing to play with, and ink that delved into a subject’s mind had a different set of rules than the rest. It would never be administered without consent.
That had never been a problem...until now.
“None of us is doing that,” he said firmly, eyes flickering to his friends. “Not one.”
This time, the shock of the refusal was much more pronounced. Several people started to speak at once, but it was Julian who knelt beside the bed.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked softly, eyes shining with concern. “Jase, if you won’t tell us the name then tell us the problem. We can help—I promise we can.”
Jason faltered for a split second, then shook his head firmly. In truth, he was having just as much trouble refusing their parents as the rest of them. But his mind had been made up since the moment they carried him, battered and bleeding, out of the trees.
“There’s no need,” he answered quietly, adding in a louder voice. “At any rate, there is no need for a tatù. We just never saw the person’s face.”
Julian leaned back with a hint of frustration as Gabriel leaned forward to take his place.
“A truth tatù, then.”
They locked eyes for a split second before Jason shook his head with a sneer.
“Really?” he asked caustically. “Is that what you want?”
Lily and Aria exchanged an astonished glance as that inexplicable caginess spilled over with a hint of rage. He’d been polite and respectful to everyone else. But to his own father?
Whatever Gabriel was feeling, he was far too practiced to let it show. “I want you to be honest with me,” he said quietly.
“Oh, like you’re always honest with me?”
Aria’s eyes squeezed shut as she brought a hand up to her temple.
I think I know what this is about...
Gabriel shook his head, looking utterly bewildered.
“What does that—”
But at that moment, the door
burst open and the infirmary was flooded with light. A swarm of agents in the same dark clothing flooded towards them, moving with that terrifying synchronicity Aria had always found so comforting until now.
They were dragging something between them. She couldn’t see what it was—only the occasional flailing of feet or broken gasp as they tried to stand on their own. Then all at once the procession stopped and a path cleared down the middle, revealing their prisoner.
Aria sucked in a breath.
They found him.
Alexander’s face was dirty, there were scratches on his hands, and the clothes he was wearing weren’t his own. Both arms were being held tightly by agents on either side—lowered to such a level that when they moved he lost balance completely and was simply dragged behind them. Now that they were stopped he struggled to get to his feet, panting silently in the sudden quiet.
“Of course,” Luke muttered under his breath.
One of the agents stepped forward, acknowledging the adults with a nod of his head.
“We found him at the edge of the trees, trying to shift back.” He spoke with brisk efficiency, as if this was a formal debriefing. Given the people he was addressing, that wasn’t far off the mark. “I think he would have done it before, but he was trying to find someone else. There were other tracks on the lawn, but they vanished almost immediately. He’s the only one we caught... So far.”
Alexander wrestled silently against the hands holding him, but said not a word in his own defense. For a split second his gaze flickered up to Aria, then dropped back to the floor.
For the first time since arriving, Gabriel pushed off the infirmary bed—walking towards the prisoner with a dangerous calm. The sight of it was enough to freeze the entire room. A dozen pairs of eyes shot nervously to his hands. He stopped a few feet away, his eyes locked on the boy’s face.
“What does he shift into?”
The agent glanced at Jason, noting the giant scratches torn down the center of his clothes, before clearing his throat. “...a tiger.”
At that point, Natasha pushed to her feet. Of all the people gathered, she had a purely passive power and next to no combat experience. But that wasn’t going to stop her. One look at the woman’s face and she was ready to tear the shifter to pieces with her bare hands.
Julian put a steadying hand on her shoulder, though he looked exactly the same way.
What are you doing to do now?
Only Jason heard the question, echoing silently in his head. He glanced at Aria for a split second before anchoring his fists painfully against the mattress and swinging his feet to the floor.
“It wasn’t him.”
There was a mild explosion from the others as Gabriel whirled around, cursing in a language they didn’t understand. That legendary calm vanished for a split second as he stared down at his son.
“How do you know, if you can’t remember?”
When Jason stayed quiet, he turned back to the prisoner.
“Rae.”
She nodded silently and moved forward, lifting her hands towards Alexander’s face. But a second before she could touch him Jason stumbled forward, catching the back of her coat.
“You can’t!” he insisted. “I’m saying it wasn’t him. You have no right to think otherwise.”
More to the point, she had no right to do otherwise.
The woman pulled in a steadying breath and turned around slowly, fixing him with a burning glare. At the same time, Alexander looked past her—staring at Jason in total shock.
“My daughter was in those trees, Jason.” She spoke quietly, drilling in every word with the precision of a knife. “My own daughter...and you’re saying it wasn’t him?”
Jason’s resolve faltered for a few wavering seconds. His eyes flickered again to Aria as he pulled in a shaking breath. Then those eyes flashed to Alexander, and he was once again in control.
“It wasn’t him.”
Chapter 4
Considering how long some parts of the night had dragged on, the next few steps flew past in the blink of an eye...
Alicia arrived and the infirmary was promptly emptied. She briefly examined the others, doing the cursory check for scrapes and bruises, finishing up with Jason. There was a golden glow and the marks on his chest vanished. A second later, he was turned out with the rest of them.
Around the same time, Tristan and Carter arrived back at Guilder. They’d been shamelessly avoiding the dance, dining together in the city, phones on silent. When they finally glanced down and saw the missed calls, they’d rushed to the parking lot so quickly they’d forgotten the check.
And finally...Alexander was released.
This was done with much more grumbling, but it was done nonetheless. With no evidence except the rapidly fading tracks in the clearing, along with five witnesses swearing to his innocence, there was simply no reason to hold him. No technical reason.
Of course, the others didn’t go down without a fight.
“Where is he being housed?” Gabriel asked bluntly.
The doors to the infirmary had just closed behind them, and the entire processional was standing in the middle of the hall. Alexander lifted his eyes nervously, holding out both arms as PC agents removed a set of tatù inhibitors from his wrists. He hadn’t said a word since being dragged out of the woods and into the infirmary. He certainly wasn’t about to start now.
“He’s in Joist,” Carter answered. “With all the rest of them.”
The words rang heavily in the silence that followed, implying a great deal more. With all the rest of them...like Jason, and Benji, and James.
The headmaster froze for a moment, thinking it over before quickly adding, “I can have him moved—”
“No, that’s perfect. I can see Joist from my window,” Gabriel interrupted softly, his eyes never leaving Alexander’s face. “I’ll be staying in the vacant cottage across the lawn.”
It was certainly news to the rest of them, not least of all his wife, but never for a second was he challenged. Tristan graciously inclined his head before extracting a ring of keys from his pocket and pressing the correct one into Gabriel’s hand.
“For as long as you need,” he said simply.
“And what about the rest of them?” Molly asked loudly. It wasn’t often she was on the losing side of a fight, and she could not believe they were being thwarted by their own children. “If this boy really is innocent, that means the real attacker is still out there.”
Her voice practically blistered with sarcasm, and the friends flinched.
“That’s true,” Devon said slowly, watching each one in turn. “We’ll need to have round the clock surveillance—agents patrolling every inch of the campus day and night.”
Aria’s mouth shot open to argue, but she held her tongue.
There had been an incident during her first year at Guilder—a fire in one of the faculty rooms that at first seemed accidental, but was later revealed to have been by design. Classes weren’t cancelled, but the entire campus was on lockdown. Students were placed on strict curfew. Agents escorted them from class to class. There could be no deviance, no secrets. It was as though a giant magical microscope had been placed above them in the sky.
For a band of teenage trouble-makers...it was hell.
“I suppose we will,” Carter said quietly, eyes flickering between Aria and James.
To say that he and Tristan had been shocked by their grandchildren’s lack of compliance would be understating it to a massive degree. Given the bloody events of the night, both were tempted to simply bypass due process altogether and use a tatù to see the attack for themselves.
A single brush of Carter’s hand and the truth would be revealed. All questions would be answered, and it was likely the subject would never even know.
But such a plan could never be admitted. And the children were keeping their distance.
“I’m sure that’s not necessary—” James mumbled, but Benji nudged him silent.
&nb
sp; The headmaster’s eyes swept between the two of them, but he was too tired to argue the point. Half his staff was currently putting out lightning fires, and it was clear none of the friends was going to talk. Instead, he simply waved them off with a flick of his hands.
“We’ll talk about this more later,” he promised. “For now, you should get some sleep.”
The words were meant for the parents just as much as the children. Maybe more. Like Molly, they weren’t accustomed to defeat—let alone at the hands of their own. Neither were they accustomed to removing the handcuffs and letting the guilty party go free.
Gabriel’s eyes burned as Alexander took a hesitant step away from them, rubbing his wrists.
“Don’t go far,” he said softly, offering the boy a terrifying smile. “I’d hate to have to track you down...”
“Alden,” Tristan warned under his breath.
But the message had already been delivered. Alexander paled to the color of a living corpse as he nodded shortly and vanished into the darkness, glancing back only to give Jason a parting look.
There was a split second where Aria expected him to apologize. A split second where she half-expected him to turn back around. But their eyes met only for a moment.
A moment neither of them would ever forget.
HAD ARIA HARBORED EVEN the slightest hope of reconciliation with her parents, she would be disappointed. The second the family stepped outside, Rae and Devon splintered instantly from their children—walking in silence towards the adjacent parking lot.
“Where are you guys...” James caught himself quickly, trying not to act as shaken as he was. “Are you guys heading back to London?”
Devon kept walking as Rae turned back with a cold shrug.
“Nothing else we can do here.” Her eyes flashed over to Joist Hall, where Alexander was just disappearing through the doors. “Besides, I don’t think any of you is in danger. I also don’t think all those agents forced to patrol the campus are going to find anything tonight.”
Brother and sister shared a quick look, then Aria stepped forward.
