by Amity Hope
“Nothing that woman has done makes sense to me,” Tristan admitted.
“She did not look pleased when you mentioned your father.”
“She didn’t,” he agreed. “I also think she was lying. I think she knows exactly where he is.”
I leaned back to look at him. His expression was troubled. “What makes you think that?”
“I don’t even know. It was just a feeling I had.”
I nodded. “Mom is very adamant that we should trust our hunches.”
He scoffed. “Then I’m in trouble because my hunch tells me Elyse is not at all the person she claims to be. I just hope that’s the last I see of her.”
“And your father? You had mentioned that you wanted to confront him. That you wanted it to be on your terms. Do you still feel that way?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I meant what I said at dinner. One long-lost parent surfacing is enough. I don’t think I could handle another one right now. Besides,” he said as his tone lightened, “I don’t need anything from either of them. I have Cecily. I have you, and your family, that’s enough for me.”
“And friends,” I reminded him. “You have friends.”
“You have friends,” he said.
“Alex, Finola, and Daphne, they helped me because they wanted to help you,” I assured. “Riley and Caleb…they’re good people. Prime friend material once you get to know them. Trust me.”
“It’s ironic. I thought that if my secret ever got out, it would be the end of me. Instead, now that everyone knows I feel like it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
Chapter 21
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. We’d been sitting in Eleanor Lebeau’s office for more than half an hour now. Several days ago she’d spoken with Mom and insisted that we come in. Cecily had insisted that she join us.
Now here we sat.
“Your recent trip to Crescent City violated the rules of The Council,” Mrs. Lebeau stated. Her gaze cut in to me.
“How so?” Mom interjected.
“The investigation into Tristan’s disappearance was ongoing. She meddled in it.”
Cecily scoffed. “By ‘meddle’ you mean that she found the missing boys when you could not. Tristan and Jude are back with their families because of the work of Samara and her friends. I wouldn’t say meddling was a bad thing.”
Mrs. Lebeau seemed to ignore Cecily. She leveled her gaze on me. “I realize that while you were not alone in the actions, you were the ringleader.”
I wasn’t going to argue with her so I remained silent. Caleb and Riley had already been sentenced to what Caleb referred to as “magical lockdown”. Their biggest offense was leaving town without permission. Daphne and Finola had avoided notice of The Council.
Daphne had finagled her way out of any trouble with her parents.
Finola’s parents had told her how incredibly disappointed in her they were. She’d never really lied to them before. She’d certainly never traveled to a different city without their knowledge before. Nor had she skipped school before. She’d received a lengthy lecture and that was all. Their disappointment sufficed as her punishment.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Cecily cut in again. “It was at my request that Samara and her friends traveled to Crescent City. As her elder, I believe that if anyone should be punished it should be me.”
“That’s not how these things work,” Lebeau said.
“Then you should perhaps explain how things do work because I have a few questions of my own.” Cecily leaned forward in her chair, making her small frame somehow appear imposing. “I would like to know why you weren’t working harder to find Tristan. If Sam and her friends found him, surely with your resources you could have found him much more quickly.”
I tried not to fidget. I did not want it to come out that we only found Tristan because Alex had managed to dig around in Lebeau’s office.
“Furthermore,” Cecily continued, “you never did give me a satisfactory answer as to why you showed up at The Bella Luna. You had no business trying to take Tristan’s spirit from our home. I know for a fact that you did not make the same request of Jude’s parents.”
“My reasons are not of your concern,” Lebeau coolly replied.
“As his guardian, it is very much my concern. Now I will say this again, Samara acted under my direction. If there are consequences to pay, then I should be the one to pay them. I am the one who asked that she bring my grandson back to me. I realize that to you, this was an ongoing investigation. To us, it was a family affair. We were never told that we couldn’t try to find Tristan on our own. And again, Jude’s family elicited the help of the Graysons. They asked Alex to help find Jude. And yet the Graysons are not sitting in this office, facing you.” Cecily huffed out a breath of frustration. “To me it seems as if you have something against my grandson.”
My eyes darted back and forth between Cecily and Eleanor. Before this meeting, I’d had no idea what to expect. Mom had assured me that she’d do her best to support me, but thus far Mom had barely uttered a word.
“That’s absurd. I have nothing against Tristan, personally,” she said.
“Just the Striga population in general,” Cecily pressed. “And because Tristan is Striga I feel like you have been treating him fairly by default. I have no way to prove this but I have a hunch that if you’d been given the chance, you would’ve seen to it that his spirit was not reunited with his body.”
“You’re correct. You would have no way to prove that.” Lebeau forced a smile. “But that’s not why we’re here.”
“Why are we here?” Mom asked. Her tone was crisp but respectful. I could tell she’d had just about enough of this too.
“I am giving your daughter fair warning. We will be keeping an eye on her, as well as her friends. I care about this town and I don’t want there to be any more trouble,” she said.
“With all due respect, I didn’t instigate any of the problems that arose. I simply tried to help,” I said.
“You tried to help by interfering. I am giving you one warning. I won’t stand for you overstepping your boundaries again.” She gave me a hard look that I assumed was meant to silence me. She didn’t have to worry. I had no more to say. I just wanted to get out of her office so I could put this entire meeting behind me.
“Speaking of instigating,” she said as she leaned back in her seat and switched her gaze to Mom, “you might be interested to know that we did investigate your ex-husband.”
Mom shot daggers at Lebeau before looking apologetically at me.
“I was able to use the information you gave me to track him down. He was living just outside of Goodhope, where he met Mr. Devane. We weren’t able to file any charges against him for this particular case. Gossiping about a family member is hardly a crime. However, we did some digging around and it looks as if Mr. Cavanaugh will be spending a little bit of time in a cell next to Mr. Devane’s.” Her tone was so blasé she could’ve been reading off a lunch menu.
“What is he being charged with?” Mom asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say at this point,” Lebeau answered.
“Of course not,” Mom replied with a tight smile.
“Does this wrap up our meeting?” Cecily asked. She was already getting to her feet.
“It does,” Lebeau replied.
Mom and I got up and followed Cecily to the door.
“Don’t forget, Samara, we will be keeping an eye on you. You, Tristan, and the rest of your friends,” Lebeau warned.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Lebeau,” Mom said. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
She ushered Cecily and I into the hallway.
“You turned Dad in?” I asked.
Mom nodded as we strode toward the front doors. “I did. Jane told me where he could be found. I had wanted to talk to you about it myself. I’m sorry that you had to hear it from her. I was waiting until I had more information to pass along to you. I should’ve known she�
�d want to address it at our meeting.” Mom sighed. “I’m sorry but I felt it was the right thing to do. I wasn’t acting out of spite.”
“Don’t apologize,” I said. “I agree that he should pay for all of the trouble he caused.”
We said nothing more until we were in Mom’s car. I, for one, wouldn’t have been surprised if the building was magically bugged. I didn’t want to give The Council anything they could use against us.
“Well that went better than I expected,” Mom said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Cecily countered. “I think that woman is all talk. I know she was miffed. I’m also pretty sure she couldn’t come up with anything concrete to charge Samara and her friends with.”
I thought Cecily was right. I was pretty sure that if Lebeau could’ve made me pay for my interference, she would have.
Instead I was just going to have her looking over my shoulder. I would’ve almost rather have paid a consequence and been done with it.
When Mom had finally addressed what I’d done she’d been torn. She wasn’t happy that I’d gone to another city without her permission. She’d lectured me on the dangers involved. She’d been none too happy with Cecily, either, for putting me up to it. I would’ve gone without Cecily’s urging. However, Cecily had stepped in again on my behalf. She’d apologized to Mom. She had been so consumed by her worry about Tristan that she hadn’t been thinking clearly.
Mom admitted she couldn’t decide whether or not to punish me, or congratulate me. In the end she’d let it go. She decided we had all been through enough.
Tristan was home.
Our family was safe.
Those were the things that really mattered.
~*~*~
The bonfire crackled and roared, nearly drowning out the sound of the waves crashing in behind us. We sat circling the fire. The amber glow of the flames flickered across my friends’ faces.
The larger party was now taking place behind us. It mostly consisted of Xavier and his friends. We’d started the night together, all mingling. But our small group had eventually broken off, gathering together by the fire.
Tristan sat behind me, his legs stretched out on either side of me as I leaned my back into his chest.
“So this is how you spend your time?” Tristan asked. He’d leaned in so his words were next to my ear.
I felt the urge to move closer to him, though I was already pressed against him. It really wasn’t possible to get much closer.
“Sometimes,” I answered.
We had drawn quite a few curious glances. None of our classmates had ever seen Tristan at a party of any size before tonight. I’d asked in the past, he’d always declined. Tonight I hadn’t been the only one that insisted that he come. Daphne, Finola, and Alex had all backed me up when I’d begged him to go. Ironically, it was Daphne who finally convinced him. She and Xavier threw parties frequently. Daphne told Tristan that she’d take it as a personal offense if he ignored her personal invite.
“No offense,” Caleb said, “but this is a group I never imagined being a part of.”
“Why is that?” Daphne asked. She sounded offended enough for all of us.
Caleb chuckled. “Because I thought all of you, especially you,” he jabbed his finger toward Tristan, “were a bunch of goody goodies. I never thought that this would be the group that pissed off the almighty Eleanor Lebeau.”
“Hang on!” I said. I raised my hands in the air and concentrated on my magic. A blue sheen spread out, bubbling over the top of us.
“Now, feel free to say whatever you’d like,” I said to Caleb.
“Are you sure this works?” he motioned to the magic in the air. I had never created a magical privacy bubble of this size before.
“Pretty sure,” I said with a grin.
He shifted around as he got ready to test it out.
“Hey, pretty boy!” he bellowed.
We all knew his words were aimed at Xavier. Xavier didn’t flinch. He was busy, each arm wrapped around a girl.
“Huh, what do you know? It works.”
“I would like to ask how your meeting with Lebeau went,” Riley said.
I grimaced. “Thanks to me, she said she’s going to be keeping a close eye on not just me, but all of you.”
Riley shrugged. “That’s nothing new. Not for us, anyway.”
Daphne wrinkled her nose. “Just how close of an eye is she planning on keeping?”
“Just don’t skip town through a magical portal and you’ll probably be fine,” Caleb said with a wink.
“It was worth it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” Daphne said. “To hell with The Council. Jude looks good, don’t you think?”
Her question was directed at Riley. Riley turned pink before saying, “I think he’s recovering just fine.”
He had taken an extra week off of school. Now he, Bree, and Tristan were all back.
“I hope he thanked you for rescuing him,” Daphne said. “You know, with a big, sloppy kiss.”
“Daphne!” Riley said with a giggle.
“Oh, my gosh. I was kidding but he totally did, didn’t he?” Daphne grinned. “Why isn’t he here tonight?” She glanced around at the party behind us, outside of the confines of our bubble, to see if perhaps she’d missed him.
“He wasn’t feeling up to going out tonight,” Riley said. “He’s still recovering.”
Caleb groaned theatrically. “Subject change, please!”
It was Tristan who spoke next. “I want you to tell me everything you know about The Council. And about the House of Negrescu. How they really fell, where their leader is now. I want to know what the Jaeger family is really like.”
Caleb smirked. “Trying to play catch up must suck. Tell ya what, stop by my house any time. My parents would love to fill you in. They know more about this stuff than I do. You want details? They have them. And they love to talk, as long as it’s to the right people.”
“I’ll do that,” Tristan said.
“Even though they know a lot, I’m pretty sure they don’t know where the Jaegers are now,” he offered up. “The family seems to still be lying low.”
“Can’t really blame them for that,” Finola said.
Alex caught my eye but kept his expression impassive. He was the only one in the group that knew Tristan’s secret. While he trusted them with the knowledge that he was Striga, being Jaeger took that to a whole new level.
I don’t think he was worried that the group would fear him. I think he was worried that Caleb would latch on to the information and out him to the entire magical world.
I grabbed Tristan’s hand and threaded my fingers through his.
“I’ve heard rumors for years that the House of Negrescu is regrouping. Is that true? Or is The Council spreading those rumors to create fear among the Lamia?” I asked.
“Good question,” Alex piped up.
Caleb shot us all his cocky grin. “The truth? The Striga are spreading those rumors. It’s not to cause fear among the Lamia. It’s to draw the support of the other Striga. It’s more truth than rumor.”
“Just a month ago that would’ve scared the pants right off me,” Daphne admitted. “Now, I feel like grabbing a pair of pompoms and cheering them on.”
“Really?” Caleb asked as he cocked a brow. “You’re a Striga supporter now? Better be damn careful who you trust that information with.”
“Maybe not a supporter, exactly,” Daphne backtracked. “But I no longer want to be an oppressor.”
“At least that’s a step in the right direction,” Caleb said. “I think big changes are coming our way. These things move slowly but I think before too long, people are going to have to pick sides.”
Tristan’s arm tightened around my waist. “What side are you going to be on, Sammy?”
I turned around to look him in the eye. “I’m going to be on your side, just like I’ve always been.”
Epilogue
Seven months later…
The rest o
f senior year was blissfully uneventful. It passed by in a whirlwind of homework, tutoring sessions, time with friends and formal dances. As soon as Caleb and Riley’s magical lockdown ended, they joined us for long sessions of magic practice.
Tristan soon came to trust the both of them just as much as I did. He and Caleb had a lot in common. Both were ridiculously smart. Tristan had adopted Caleb’s suspicion of The Council, of their motives and their methods. He was still adjusting to the idea that Lebeau was keeping tabs on him.
For the past seven months, we hadn’t given Lebeau anything to worry about. At least not intentionally. She’d made it clear a few times that she didn’t approve of us all using and strengthening our magic. Since there weren’t explicit laws against it, she couldn’t do much more than gripe about it.
Caleb, Alex, and Tristan had spent countless hours—days on end, even—discussing The Council and The House of Albescu’s place in ruling them.
Caleb and Daphne had developed an on again, off again relationship. It verged on love-hate and was typically more off than on.
After Jude’s recovery, he slowly joined our group as he began to spend more and more time with Riley.
Alex and Fin were as strong as ever.
Just like Tristan and me.
We didn’t see Elyse again but she checked in periodically. Her desire for Tristan to have his magic stripped never changed. Tristan had become adept at ignoring her request.
Each and every time that Tristan confided that she’d contacted him, my heart twisted a little more. Since the day she’d left I had hoped that seeing Tristan again would’ve sparked her maternal instinct.
Today, of all days, I had hoped that she would step up. I had hoped that she would prove that she was a fraction of the loving, concerned parent that Cecily had painted her out to be throughout Tristan’s childhood.
