by Eva Chase
“That’s all there was to it?” Ruiz said skeptically.
“I think if you want more details about their situations, it’d be better if you asked them directly,” I said. “I don’t know how much they’d want me to share. And that should be up to them, shouldn’t it?”
Ruiz considered me for a moment. I thought I caught a flicker of a smile. “I guess you’d be proving them wrong for coming here if you said anything else.”
“Is that a problem?”
She shrugged. “Not necessarily. I’ll see what they have to say for themselves. You hadn’t been in contact with them before they arrived here?”
I shook my head. “I met Lesley once or twice at functions in Portland years back when her family was visiting, but we never talked outside of that. I don’t think I’ve met any of the O’Briens at all.”
“And what have you done for them since they’ve arrived?”
“The usual things you’d do for guests?” I said. “Made sure they had a place to sleep and food to eat. Other than that, they haven’t asked for anything.”
“Hmm. Have you told them anything to encourage them to continue feeling they’re unsafe if they leave here?”
I’d told them I believed them, that I knew sometimes consortings were twisted for bad ends. I hadn’t volunteered any specifics because the oath stopped me from doing that. “I don’t think so,” I said honestly. “But I wasn’t going to turn them away when there’s no reason I couldn’t take them in.”
Something in the cock of Ruiz’s head sent an uneasy jitter through my nerves. I had the sudden suspicion that she was using magic right now, magic she’d put in place before she’d gotten out of that car, to help her judge my reactions. A lie-detector test of sorts. It couldn’t be an official one, because she’d have needed my permission for that, so it wouldn’t be incredibly effective, but she was gleaning something from whatever physiological responses she was tuning into.
Well, fine. I was telling the truth.
Ruiz looked at her tablet. Then she raised her gaze to meet mine again. “Regardless of what you know about Miss Portsmith’s and Miss O’Brien’s specific situations, have you seen reason to believe that there’s some sort of malicious activity in the witching community that witches like them would need to be protected from?”
My spine stiffened. How the hell could I answer that? “What do you mean by malicious activity?” I asked, keeping my voice even. If she knew something already, maybe I could at least acknowledge it, even if I couldn’t volunteer the facts.
The investigator’s expression offered nothing. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I…” The few things I could have told her, the bits of my own experience not covered by the oath, would have sounded crazy without proof. I saw a demonic creature in a cave on a cliffside. Yeah, that would go over well.
“I’ve seen reason to be wary,” I said finally.
“What reason?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t discuss it.”
Ruiz’s eyes searched mine, and in that moment I thought I saw real concern on her face. Something had slipped through the Frankfords’ cover-ups, something had made her worry, and she wanted to stop it, not support it.
“Lady Hallowell, the Assembly can’t help you or the other women here unless we know what we’re dealing with. If you have a complaint to make, I’m here to take it.”
My throat constricted. “I can’t discuss it,” I repeated.
I couldn’t tell if my emphasis was enough. Ruiz studied me a moment longer and then leaned back. “You can always come in to the Justice Division if you have something to report. You can even ask for me directly. And if we find any evidence that leads back to you, we’ll have to bring you in and insist on a full interrogation.”
That last remark could have felt like a threat, but Spark help me, I wished they would find that evidence. That it didn’t all hinge on me like it did right now.
“I know,” I said, and couldn’t help adding, “I’m sorry.”
Ruiz let out her breath. “I suppose you’d better send down your guests now, if they’re ready to speak with me.”
Ruiz sent me out of the room while she talked with Imogen and then Lesley. They didn’t look unsettled when they emerged, but Ruiz came out with a frown. When she left, after one last pointed glance at me, I went up to my bedroom and flopped on the bed. Emotion was tangled tight in my chest.
A minute later, the door eased open. Gabriel climbed on beside me. I turned, scooting closer into his embrace.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“For now,” I said. “I think so. I guess it’s possible the Assembly will decide I’m harboring fugitives or some other stupid charge and come back to arrest me for that.” I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the Justice Division’s version of justice these days.
“They’ll see,” he said, kissing my temple. “We’ll expose the Frankfords and the rest of them, and the families like your aunt’s will stand up and end this.”
“I just wish we had more. All those files don’t do us any good if we can’t find verification somewhere else that the oath doesn’t cover. They’ve been scheming for so long, drawing in so many people… We don’t even know which women they’ve roped in, not for sure. Frankford was too damned careful even with his private files.” There were records on those witches, of course, but under aliases I didn’t know.
“We’re making educated guesses, chasing down those leads. Kyler’s out near the coast right now looking into some things, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t like that either. They’ve sworn not to hurt any of my consorts, but he was still so much more vulnerable than I was. “I wish that video you took had turned out better.”
Gabriel had managed to film the demon and some of the confrontation with my father in the cave on a phone. But when we’d viewed it later, the image had been blurry, the audio distorted by a warble of the energy that had been pulsing from that portal. We weren’t convincing anyone of our outlandish story with that as our only concrete proof.
“We’ll get more chances,” Gabriel said, hugging me tighter. “I know we will, because I know you, and I know there’s no way you’d ever give up on this.”
I hugged him back, tucking my head into his warmth. Having Gabriel’s confidence meant more than I knew how to say to him. He’d lost his father because of how mine had treated them, tossing Mr. Lorde aside after generations of loyal service to the Hallowells. But he’d come back to me, supported me, sworn himself to me with more love than I ever could have asked for.
He kissed the side of my face, my cheek, heading toward my lips. I raised my chin to meet his mouth. But I only got to enjoy the heady heat of his kiss for a few seconds before the sound of the gate buzzer filtered through the door.
I groaned, but my pulse skittered at the same time. Maybe the Assembly was coming back to arrest me already.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Gabriel asked. If he’d been on duty, it’d have been him opening the gate anyway.
“Let me see who it is first,” I said.
From the huge windows at the front end of the house, I could see down to the gate even from the second floor. A cherry-red Mustang was parked by the gate. And the young blond woman who was just stepping up to the bars was familiar enough that my breath caught in my throat.
Gabriel glanced at me. “You know her?”
I managed to nod. “That’s Caroline Almeida. Her parents are some of my father’s—and the Frankfords’—closest colleagues. What the hell is she doing here?”
Chapter Four
Rose
Caroline Almeida sat primly on the same settee Investigator Ruiz used less than an hour ago. She looked so polished with her impeccably subtle make-up and the crisp cut of her blouse over her tailored slacks that it was hard to feel she’d take me seriously as lady of this estate. I was still in my dress that was rumpled from casting, my hair mussed after my snuggle with Gabriel. For a f
ew seconds, I was taken back to those teenage years when I’d wandered around the witching get-togethers in Portland feeling gawky and out of place.
Then Caroline rubbed her mouth with a brisk motion of her hand, her eyes twitching away from me and back, and I realized at least part of the reason she looked so stiff was nerves. She didn’t know what to expect from me either.
“Oh, hey, another visitor?” Naomi said, ambling in. “Nice to meet you! I’m Naomi.”
Caroline went even more rigid, but she accepted Naomi’s handshake. Her gaze shot back to me.
“She’s my cousin,” I said. “Anything you’d talk to me about, she can hear too.” I turned to Naomi with a meaningful glance. “This is Caroline Almeida. Her parents have done a lot of work with my father.” Then I added, to Caroline, “Do you want to tell me more about why you’re here?” She’d been pretty vague when I’d gone to meet her at the gate, but intense enough with some sense of purpose that I’d let her in.
I knew from our stolen files that her family supported the Frankfords, but that meant they were bound by the oath not to harm us either. And my family, on my father’s side, was linked too, so I couldn’t make any definite judgements based on that. We’d just have to be very careful what we said around her.
And obviously she felt she needed to be careful with us. Fair enough.
“I just…” She hesitated, her hands clasping in her lap. “I’ve gotten the impression that there’s some kind of conflict between you and my parents—and other people they do business with. I know they won’t tell me what’s going on. But I’ve heard enough that I’m worried. So I was hoping we could talk, and you could tell me your side of things, and that would at least give me a starting point.”
Wow. What could she have heard that would have made her come to me instead of approaching her parents directly? Or maybe she had approached them and the way they’d dismissed her had made her suspicious?
I couldn’t help thinking of the struggle I’d gone through accepting my father’s guilt a month ago. But I’d accepted the truth in time.
“There’s only so much I can say,” I said. The oath prevented me from even mentioning there was an oath. “I’m not on the best of terms with several families in the witching community. I don’t agree with certain things they’ve been doing. And my father tried to control my consorting in a way that would have really hurt me.” That crime I’d uncovered more than a month before I’d taken the oath.
I braced myself for her to ask for proof. I couldn’t have provided it to her any more than I could have to Ruiz. But she simply nodded. “These families had some kind of plan that you were supposed to participate in?” she said. “Or that you interrupted?”
“A little of both,” I said.
“That faction had the enforcers loyal to them chasing her all the way across the damned country,” Naomi broke in. “They almost—”
Her voice cut off before she could get into any actual criminal actions the Frankfords’ people had taken. The oath I’d taken bound her too, just as much as it protected her and the rest of my family.
Caroline worried her lower lip under her perfectly white teeth. “But everything—everything got sorted out?”
Naomi and I exchanged a look. “Not exactly,” I said. “But everything that’s not, I can’t talk about. I’m sorry. Believe me, I wish I wasn’t in this position.” I paused. “Whatever you heard, it must have been pretty serious. Did you come all the way from Portugal?”
“We were staying with extended family in San Francisco for the month,” Caroline said. “I guess that’s why… They didn’t realize the acoustics of the house…” She grimaced. “I don’t know what to think. I hardly know anything. And if you can’t tell me anything else…”
An idea lit in my head like an extension of my spark. “Your parents probably have more answers. Even if you’re not comfortable talking to them, if you looked through their files—on paper, or on the computer—you might be able to put the pieces together. That’s how I caught on to what my dad was doing.”
She gave me a small wry smile. “I tried that already. As far as I can tell, Charles and Helen Frankford are in charge of whatever’s going on, and they handle all the, ah, paperwork. It’s sounded like they’ve tightened up their personal security even more in the last few weeks.”
I might not be able to say much about the Frankfords, but my expression must have shifted. Her gaze sharpened. “You know about them too.”
“I can’t talk about it,” I said quietly. It didn’t surprise me at all that they’d have beefed up their security, though, after my unsparked consorts and I had breached it and nearly exposed their entire horrific conspiracy.
“Okay.” She looked down at her hands and then back at me. “I think you might still be in some danger. I’m sure you’re already looking out for yourself. And I don’t know if my parents are involved in that at all—I hope not. I just wouldn’t have felt right not saying something.”
I blinked at her, suddenly touched. “Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate the warning. Was there anything specific you heard—”
She shook her head. “If there was, I’d tell you, I swear. It was just the general tone. The idea of the ‘problem’ needing to be ‘resolved.’ If I do hear anything specific, I’ll reach out.”
“That’s the most I can ask,” I said. My stomach had knotted. “I wish I could help you more.”
“It’s all right. The fact that you let me in at all says a lot.” She sighed and got up. “I don’t want to impose on you any more than this.”
“It’s all right,” I said, standing with her. “I’ve already got two unexpected guests.” I wasn’t completely sure how I would have felt about her staying right here on the estate even after everything she’d said, but I wasn’t sure I could turn her away if she needed somewhere to hide out either. I couldn’t remember if she was consorted yet or not. Who knew what her parents might have arranged or be arranging for her?
“Thanks,” she said with another small smile. “But I really should be getting back. It’s a long drive… I told my parents I was visiting a friend. We’re supposed to be heading back home in a few days anyway.”
“Are you sure you’re not in any danger?” Naomi said. My cousin knew how to get right to the point.
“Of course not,” Caroline said. “I can’t imagine…” A shiver ran through her. “No. It’s nothing like that.”
Was she really that sure? I grappled with what I could say and what I couldn’t as I walked her to the door. “If you ever do feel like you need somewhere to go,” I said. “I’d find a space for you here. Just so you know that.”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that, but thank you.” Her hands fidgeted with the hem of her blouse. Her nerves had returned, because of how she’d opened up with me or because of who she was heading back to, I didn’t know.
Naomi and I watched her walk back to her Mustang. I pressed the control inside the door to open the front gate for her. My cousin set her hands on her hips.
“Well, that was interesting,” she said.
More than just interesting. The things Caroline had said were still sinking in. She’d felt I was in danger—enough that she was willing to implicate her parents in telling me that. They were still talking about resolving the problem I posed, even though theoretically that problem had been resolved with the oath. I rubbed my arms, an uneasy chill running over my skin.
“We can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” I said. “Poking at leads without even being able to say what we’re looking for is getting us nowhere. We need to get real hard evidence. So what if Gabriel’s video didn’t work out? He wasn’t prepared. If we could just get back to the cliff, show everything from where it is on the property to the cave itself, maybe even try to talk to that creature— We need to show people just how far the Frankfords and their allies have gone. Just what kind of monsters they’re messing with.”
“It wasn’t that easy getting out the
re in the first place,” Naomi said. “How do you figure we’d manage it?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. The Frankfords will have that property so much more heavily guarded than before. They’d expect us to try something like that.” I bit my lip.
“Is there anything— I mean, I know you have more information than you’re allowed to talk to me about. Is there something in there that might give you an angle?”
By all that was lit and warm, I wished I could talk to her about the files we’d grabbed. Frustration coiled in my chest. But in this case there wasn’t much I could have told her anyway except, “Not that I’ve seen. We’d have jumped on that opportunity if we’d found it.” I knew the history of the property’s ownership, the calendar of their visits there, the old schedules the Frankfords had set up for rotating security, but they knew we’d seen all that. We couldn’t go in blithely hoping they’d left everything the same.
“Well, you know you’ve got me on your side no matter what, cuz,” Naomi said, slinging an arm around me. I hugged her back for a second, the frustration turning into an ache. She’d have to go home soon too. To her consort and the rest of my mother’s family—including my other aunt, Irene, who didn’t believe Naomi should be getting mixed up with me at all.
Somewhere in the depths of the house, one of our few landline phones rang. I shut the door and hurried to get it. It had barely rung since I’d gotten back—since the estate had become formally mine.
“Rose?” said the slightly familiar voice on the other end. “Oh, I suppose I should say Lady Hallowell now. It’s Herbert Landry.”
“Master Landry?” I said automatically. Most of my magical teaching had been done by James Courtland, who lived just outside town near us, but when I’d been particularly young, Landry had taken on some of my education. He’d moved down south—better for his old age, he’d said—and had only returned to Portland for occasional visits. I hadn’t seen him in years.
He chuckled. “I think you’re enough past being my student to drop that formality. I’m glad I reached you.”
