Memories filled me, but I shoved them away. It wasn’t like he’d ever given me much of himself.
Gone . My hopes and dreams for what could’ve— should’ve —been had been shattered.
Turning to Rhys, I pressed my face into his chest, hiding. I savored his warmth and his comfort. It grounded me. He gave wordlessly whenever I needed him.
“Dad,” I whispered. No use denying it. It hurt. More than it should have.
Rhys kissed the top of my head, and his arm tightened around me. “It’s okay.”
How could it be okay? Life…it took everything a girl had, then held out its hand for more.
“He...he’s all scrunched up,” I said in a wavering voice. “He looks uncomfortable.” A stupid thought on my part, but even in death, should he be lying curled on his side? If nothing else, my father had always stood tall and stared me in the eye.
“Maddy,” Cece said from behind me, and I eased back from Rhys’s embrace. She held her arms out, and her face was splotchy from crying.
I still couldn’t find a tear to shed. Why couldn’t I summon tears for the only father I’d ever have? My emotions jumbled around inside me, and while I couldn’t see any of them clearly enough to grab onto, I could run to my sister. We wrapped each other up, and one of us rocked. Me or her; it didn’t really matter. We sheltered each other, drowning in our combined sorrow.
Eventually, she drew back and nodded, as if to say that we could deal with this as long as we had each other. Her gaze flicked to our father before returning to me, and I watched as a hint of anger etched its way into the overwhelming grief in her eyes. “Someone did this. That asshole who picked us up. He killed him and left him in the trunk…” Closing her eyes, she took a shaky breath. “Then he took his identity.”
“Totally twisted,” Sarah said, her arms crossed over her chest. A tic in her temple throbbed.
“Why do this?” Cece asked.
“To get closer to us,” Rhys said. “What better way to lure you two in and then betray you—us? To shove in a knife and twist it?” His arm went around my shoulders, and he tugged me close again.
“Do you think this means that Dad wasn’t involved with what was going on at Wadsworth?” I asked in a small voice. Was I silly for maintaining a tiny scrap of belief that he hadn’t purposely sent me to a place that could have killed me?
“I don’t...I hope not,” Cece said.
“At this point, all we know is that someone wants us at that cabin,” Aidan said, taking Cece’s hand and tugging her close.
“If they’d asked Dad to get us, he would have said no,” Cece said fiercely. “He wasn’t involved.”
I watched Aidan to see his reaction to her words, but his face remained neutral. He probably wasn’t as sure, but he also knew that now was not the time to say it.
“Killing your father and using his appearance would be the easiest way to lure us there,” Rhys said.
My heart hurt, crushed against my ribcage. Had our actions brought about my dad’s death?
“Don’t think that,” Rhys whispered, his arm tightening on my shoulders. “It’s not your fault.”
“I didn’t say anything.” My voice croaked.
“You didn’t have to.” He turned me to him and, after tucking the chair leg beneath his arm, cupped my face. “I know you, Maddy. Don’t blame yourself. We had to escape Wadsworth before it killed us. We couldn’t know how desperate the Council would be to find us.”
“There’s something bigger going on here,” Aidan said.
Sarah nodded, gnawing on her lower lip. Her gaze kept drifting to Dad before darting to the woods, but I didn’t hear anyone coming. Even the insects remained hushed. She tipped her head toward the trunk, and it was clear that her words were for Aidan. Maybe Rhys. Not me or Cece. “What should we do with—”
“We can’t dump him,” Cece said. “Mom...oh jeez, Mom. She’s going to freak. She…” Her gaze met mine. “She loves him.”
“I know.” She’d stuck it out with him despite how he’d acted, and the fact that he’d betrayed her with my mom and created me. “What do we do with him?”
“We’ll leave him where he is,” Aidan said. “For now.”
I felt lost, as if I’d been plunked into a life raft and set adrift in a deep, dark sea.
“Whoever did this needs to pay,” Cece gritted out. Her eyes swam as she looked at me. “Someone killed him…and I plan to return the gesture.”
Rhys shook his head. “I’m not sure—”
“That asshole was taking us to the cabin.” Cece’s eyes slitted as she turned to Rhys. “Maybe we should go see who’s waiting for us there.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to storm the place,” Rhys said, ever practical. “We don’t want to walk into a trap.”
“We have an advantage. We know about their planned ambush,” Aidan said. He snapped the trunk closed, shutting Dad inside. “We can drive until we’re close, then I’ll spare a little magic to glamour the vehicle. We need to get close enough to see who we’re dealing with.”
Rhys looked resigned to the plan. “I’m in.” He looked from me to Cece.
“Me too,” Cece said.
I gave a jerky nod. There wasn’t anything I could say. My emotions had wrecked me, and I was merely along for the ride.
Aidan cupped Cece’s shoulders. “We’ll have to get inside the car...”
She pinched her eyes closed, then opened them. They shimmered again as she shrugged. “I’ll be fine.” Her fists clenched as she let out a little growl. “Vengeance always comes at a price.”
Aidan’s hands dropped down to hers, and he linked them together. “We’ll get whoever did this, Cece...together.”
“Together,” she echoed.
I nodded as a raw feeling stole over me. My dragon slumbered. One call, and we’d fuse together and show them what it meant to stir my— our —fury. Unleashed, we’d be a tsunami, roaring over them until nothing remained.
“Whoever did this won’t get away with it,” Rhys said.
Sarah strode toward the doors. “Time to get this shitshow started.”
Aidan climbed into the driver’s seat with Cece beside him, while I sat in the middle of the back seat with Rhys and Sarah flanking me. Leaning forward, I clutched the back of the front seats.
No one suggested we buckle.
Turning the car around, Aidan bumped down the dirt road to the main route, where he eased the vehicle in the direction we’d come from. I noticed he took care not to exceed the speed limit.
Cece turned, and our gazes met. She placed her hand over mine, still clutching her seat, and squeezed.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“Yup. Me too.”
“If you see Fake Dad on the way,” Cece said, turning to Aidan, “run the fucker over.”
Not a bad idea.
But we didn’t get the chance. The road remained empty as Cece navigated for Aidan. I was grateful that we didn’t pass any other cars on the way there; I worried that an oncoming driver would see the trauma on our faces and know right away that something horrible had happened. Which was stupid. The lights would keep them from being able to see more than a driver in a car.
As we drove down the dirt road, Aidan flicked his hand, glamouring the vehicle. He parked a few hundred feet from the cabin, tucking the car underneath a row of big pine trees behind a building that—at the moment—looked unoccupied.
I swiped my hands on my thighs, not sure why they felt dirty. It wasn’t as if I’d touched anything other than the car. Maybe that was it. I was no empath, but horrible emotions had to be trapped inside the tight space, left over from Fake Dad. I swore they’d transferred a bit of themselves onto me.
Getting out, we stared at each other. At least the rain had stopped.
“Plan?” Rhys said in a hushed voice. “My thought is to assess the situation first, see what we’re dealing with, then back away and talk about what to do from there.”
“Yes, let’s not storm the place and kill everyone until we know what’s going on,” Sarah said wryly. The weight of her stare fell on me.
“They might not have killed my dad, but I still want answers.” Dragging my gaze from hers, I focused on my feet. Sadness kept pulling me down, only to be driven away by anger, as if the two feelings dueled inside me. I had a feeling that anger would soon rule. Sadness could wait until later.
“Come on,” Cece said, taking the lead. She strode toward the cabin with Aidan at her side. The rest of us followed. We walked single file, keeping to the shadows. A few neighboring places had lights on, but it was late, and I doubted anyone was standing at their windows looking out. But it didn’t hurt to use caution.
When we got within twenty feet or so, we stopped. In the distance, a loon called, echoing the mournful feeling inside me. Lights from buildings across the water shivered across the surface.
“We should go in together,” Aidan said, his intent gaze focused on the medium-sized log building. There were no lights on inside, but that meant nothing. “Do you sense anything, Cece?”
“No.” Her gaze never left the building. “But I’m having a hard time feeling anything. I can’t seem to shove aside my rage long enough to focus. Fury is burning through me, and it needs a way out.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder, needing the connection.
“I’ll go and peek in a window or two. I won't storm the building,” Rhys said, sliding Sarah a look. “When I come back, we can figure out what to do.”
We remained silent as he crept closer, watching as he carefully made his way around the building, peering inside each window.
He came back, and his grim gaze met mine. “There’s no one there.”
“Of course,” Sarah said with a sigh.
Aidan stepped forward. “You’re sure?”
Rhys nodded. “Yeah. The place isn’t that big, you know? And it’s open inside. Unless they’re hiding on the second floor, there’s no one there.”
“There are two bedrooms on the upper level,” Cece said, taking a step forward. “If I go inside—touch things—I’ll know if someone’s been there recently. Maybe even who it was.” She glanced at Aidan. “I can bury my shit long enough to do that.”
“Okay,” Aidan said, but it was clear that he wasn’t giving her permission. He was with her no matter what.
As a group, we walked to the cabin and found it unlocked, something that never would have happened if Dad had been around. My gut lurched as the realization sank through me all over again. Dad was dead. He’d never lock the front door again.
Leaving us in the big living room spanning the front of the cabin, Rhys sneaked up the staircase. We heard tiny creaks from the floorboards overhead.
“Nothing up there,” he said as he came back down and joined us, hovering beside me with Aidan and Sarah at our sides. Cece went around the room touching things. A lamp. The back of the squishy floral sofa. The TV remote.
“Feel anything?” Aidan asked, so softly I barely heard him. I appreciated him taking care with his words, as though speaking quietly could soften the blows that kept raining down on her shoulders.
“Nothing yet,” Cece said, strain coming through in her voice. I knew she felt something, but I imagined it wasn’t what we were seeking: evidence of someone other who’d been here. She’d feel Dad. He loved coming to this cabin all year round. Touching the last of his presence would hurt as much as the moment she’d seen him lying dead in the trunk.
“So, what now?” Sarah said. “This was a bust, and we’ve got a body in the trunk to deal with before we go too far. The Council will be after us, and the last thing we need is—”
I cut her off, my voice rising with fury. “I need to know who killed Dad.”
As if summoned, someone stepped through the entry into the kitchen. Someone who hadn’t been there before. Someone I didn't recognize.
“You want to know who killed Darren?” the woman asked dryly. “I did.”
CHAPTER TEN
Cece
The woman smiled wickedly. “At least—”
Fire roared through the room toward her before she could finish her sentence. Maddy’s anger at the loss of a father she’d never have resolution with had taken over, and she unleashed the dragon’s breath on the intruder, who dove out of the way just in time. Flames crashed into the far wall and engulfed everything even remotely flammable—which was basically everything in the log cabin.
I caught Maddy by the arm and spun her around to face me, but she wrenched free and stormed toward the woman as she regained her footing. Whoever she was, she seemed totally unfazed by Maddy’s attack. A whirring sound filled the room, followed by a gust of wind so strong it knocked Maddy back into me. I did little to stop her trajectory, and I was soon cast back into Aidan. He must have braced himself for the impact because he managed to hold fast against the gale, but I could feel his footing slipping with every passing second. In my periphery, I saw Rhys grab Sarah and dive into the path of the magical wind to help Aidan. The woman held us in place with her hurricane and smiled, though there was little mirth to be found in it.
“If you would let me finish,” she said, brushing dust off her dark brown leather pants.
“You can finish when you’re dead,” Maddy growled, and I heard the dragon leaking through, her voice deeper and scarier than ever.
“Maddy,” I cautioned, “if you breathe fire at her now, it’ll roast us!”
“Then maybe I’ll just stomp her into the ground instead—”
“And let my death take the answers you seek along with it?” the woman countered, a note of challenge in her voice. “That hardly seems wise, does it, Madeline? And I heard you were the smart one—”
“Hey!” I shouted, but it didn’t derail her.
“And you, Celine,” she continued, “all emotion and no thought. What a pair the two of you make.”
“Not helping, lady,” I growled as I dug my fingers into Maddy’s arms and tried my best to keep her beast in check. Along with my anger.
“Then there’s you two,” she said, her gaze drifting to the boys at my back. “A fey lord and the heir to a heritage now lost. How is it that neither of you can see what is going on here?”
“I see someone whose life will be cut short momentarily,” Aidan replied, his voice too steady. Too controlled. I had zero doubt that his black-eyed magic was about to be released, his malum side having had enough of this shit. And that, combined with Maddy’s dragon on the verge of emerging, would add gasoline to the fire while we stood in the tinderbox. The woman’s winds might have snuffed out Maddy’s initial attack, but I wasn't sure they’d be enough to stop a full-blown onslaught.
“And I see an angry boy bent on revenge because his parents loved power, security, and money more than they loved him.”
Aidan went silent.
My anger raged, and if I'd had a dragon inside me, there would have been no stopping it. But I didn't have a dragon; I had fury and sadness and myriad other emotions to let loose. My father’s death had created a cacophony of complicated feelings that I couldn’t fully understand or process, but they were strong and raw and perfect for weaponizing. Action had always been the balm for dealing with things I wasn’t ready to—wasn’t able to. And the perfect outlet stood across the room from me.
I looked at the woman and smiled. Then I let loose a scream that could have shattered glass.
The wind died the second she hit the floor, clutching her head and writhing in pain. I walked toward her, thrusting all the emotional shit my father’s death had stirred up at her until my knees finally gave out and I collapsed only feet away. But my knees never hit the rough wood floor. Instead, strong arms hooked under mine and hauled me to my feet. A muscled arm snaked around my waist, pinning my back against Aidan’s chest as he breathed hard.
“You’re going to tell us what you did,” I said, my voice hoarse and scary. “You’re going to tell us everything, or I promise you, we w
ill make your final moments a living hell.”
Maddy crouched down next to the woman, who was still incapacitated by my attack, and dared a glance up at me. Then she turned to the leather-clad woman.
“What did you do to our father?” Trails of smoke wafted from the corners of her mouth in warning—a reminder to our captive of what she was. What she could do if provoked any further.
“I didn’t kill him, per se ,” she replied, grinding the words out through clenched teeth. “I would have if I'd had to, but it wasn’t necessary because he was already dead in the car when I arrived. So I took on his likeness so I could get to you.”
“Why?” my sister pressed. “Why would you do that?”
“Because we have mutual interests when it comes to the Council—we both want them dead.”
Surprise washed over me, and I pulled back my emotional assault.
“We don’t want them dead,” I replied.
At least not yet. ..
Her acerbic laugh echoed through the room. “They’ll either kill you or put you back in that prison if they catch you. And since you’ve already escaped once, I’m betting your fate would be the former, not the latter.”
“Why do you want them dead?” Rhys asked, a healthy dose of suspicion in his tone.
“Because they took something from me.” She slowly pushed herself to her feet, and we took a step back. Green, shimmering magic appeared before us, shielding us from our attacker, and midnight tentacles jutted through it to wrap around the woman’s throat.
“Took what?” Aidan asked.
Her bright green eyes narrowed at him, then darted to me. “Something I love more than anything in this world and the worlds beyond.”
Sarah moved to my left, leaning closer to Rhys’s shield, as if to examine the being Aidan held in place.
“Who are you?” she asked as she searched the woman’s face for the answer.
“I am known as Kimbra, fey girl.”
Sarah gasped and retreated into me. Her hand shot back and clamped around my wrist.
Rogue Reformatory: Breakout (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 3) Page 7
