I had fallen behind while I’d had a mental conversation with Jerome. “I’m still a big disoriented. My face and a car had a disagreement not so long ago.” I joined Sash. Despite my years there, I had rarely entered or left through the main door. It was a big, heavy door. The large metal knocker had the face of a gargoyle. Most welcoming to children.
An old man with white stringy hair opened the door. He wore a tattered brown suit. “Can I help you?”
“Sash Huff,” Sash said. “I believe Director Wells is expecting me.”
The old man opened the door wide to allow us in.
“And I’m Rune Russell,” I told him. “And you are?”
“Ger Travis.” He offered his hand, and I shook it. “I don’t understand why you are involved. Shouldn’t the police be taking care of the investigation?”
“Lead us to Director Wells’s office, please,” Sash said.
Travis shrugged then turned to lead the way, with Sash a half-step behind. I hesitated, then hurried to catch up with Travis and fell in step alongside him, wanting to question him. I still had no idea what had happened.
“Given the circumstances, you can understand why the police aren’t qualified to handle this,” I said to Travis.
Travis glanced across at me. “So you guys are, what, like private investigators except for supernaturals. What did Mayor Maxwell call them? Shades, right?”
“That’s us,” I said. “Shade Investigators. Not PIs but SIs. So what can you tell me about what happened?”
“To my mind, those children just seem to have gone crazy. Especially that first girl. But I don’t know anything about magic. It’s a whole new world, isn’t it?”
“You said it, brother. A crazy new world.”
“When you get to as old as me, you think you’ve seen everything. I sure didn’t see this coming. They say these shades can transform into beasts.”
“You’re not as old as all that. You don’t look a day over fifty.” He looked seventy, but it was always good to underestimate.
Travis chuckled. “I’ve got underpants that are fifty years old.”
“Eww,” Sash said from behind us.
Travis stopped outside the office of the orphanage director. This was a door I was much more familiar with, having been sent to the director numerous times, and usually left waiting outside for a long time before being summoned inside for a reprimand. “I’ll see if he’s ready for you.” Travis knocked on the door, then stepped inside, leaving the door ajar.
“Why are you flirting with the janitor,” Sash whispered to me.
“Why do you ask? Are you jealous?” I asked.
Travis returned. “I’m the facilities manager, not the janitor.” He held the door open. “Go right in.” Once we were inside, he shut the door with a slight slam, then fading footsteps came from the hallway as he walked away.
Director Wells stood to greet us. Both his body and face were long and thin, making him look elongated, like a normal person through a carnival mirrors. “Sash Huff and ...” He shook Sash’s hand.
“Rune,” I said. “Rune Russell.”
He shook my hand, then folded his long limbs back onto his chair. “I’m Director Wells. Have a seat, both of you.” He gestured at two chairs in front of him. “This has all been most upsetting for everyone.”
I scanned the office, noting differences from the last time I had been here, looking for clues to the new director’s personality. Several ancient-looking maps hung on the walls, one of which was centered in Mesopotamia. On one windowsill sat a white crystalline rock mounted on a wooden base.
“I’d prefer to get straight to work.” Sash didn’t move to sit. “Can you take me directly to the patients?”
The director’s arm hung in mid-air for a moment, still indicating where he wanted us to sit. He blinked several times, as if trying to process what Sash had said, then he bobbed his head. “Of course, as you wish. I’ve been told to give you every assistance.”
“And would you give me every assistance if you hadn’t been told,” Sash asked.
“Of course.” He blinked rapidly again as if reconsidering. “Though I guess it would depend on your authority. We couldn’t let everyone who wanted to roam around the orphanage.” He chuckled. “Especially not now.” He stood, his thin frame towering over us.
“You ever play basketball?” I asked.
“No, no.” He led the way out of his office. “No coordination, you know. Never been good at sports.”
“What are you good at instead?” I asked.
“Oh, you know.” He waved his hand vaguely and didn’t reply, leading the way down the corridor. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist, so I fell behind to walk alongside Sash.
“Does Director Wells seem like he has something to hide to you?” Sash asked me, speaking loud enough that it was obvious she wanted to be heard. The director stiffened but didn’t turn.
I shrugged. I had been just thinking how nervous he was, but I didn’t understand why Sash had said what he had. Perhaps she wanted to see his response to accusation without making one directly.
I quickly figured out where we going. I had taken this route from the director’s office to the solitary cells a number of times. The corridors felt quieter than they should, for I expected to hear distant whispering from the orphan’s bedrooms. The dim florescent lighting didn’t fully banish the darkness.
Approaching the partition to the solitary cells, I noticed something else was different. The surface of the wall in front of me had a metallic sheen, reflecting the light dully.
At the door, Wells took a fist of keys from his pocket and began to sort through them. I reached forward and ran my fingers along the thin metal plates that had been riveted to the wall. “Titanium plating?” I asked.
“Yes. We didn’t know what to do at first until we were put in contact with your organization.” Wells chose a key and inserted it into the door. “It has worked, improved the situation. We don’t get fires any more.” He pushed open the door, then guided us though. He ducked underneath the lintel, following behind us. The door was also plated with titanium.
The light in this part of the corridor flickered fitfully on and off. Once the director had locked the door again, he used his tall frame to reach up and tap the florescent tube. The light turned solidly on.
Halfway down the corridor, a chair had been placed against the wall and a woman sat on it. She stood and I recognized the long purple-red hair. It was Florence.
Florence hurried over, gave me a brief half-hug, then stepped back. “Rune. Good to see you again. I’m sorry I didn’t visit since, well, since, you know.”
“Since you took Alex and Jo off me,” I said.
“You agreed it was for the best,” Florence said defensively.
“I didn’t mean it as an accusation.” Except I kind of did.
“I couldn’t have known,” Florence said.
“And you are?” Sash interrupted us.
“Sorry, I’m Florence Lynn. I’m a social worker here at Gorlam’s. Are you the investigator? We have been at our wits end here. We don’t know what to do.”
A thump came from the inside the nearest cell, and I moved toward the door, a shiver running through me as I placed my palm against it. Usually Gorlam’s only had one orphan in solitary at any one time, and this was the first choice. I had only spent barely a couple of weeks total inside that cell over the course of many years, but it felt like I’d spent half a lifetime inside it. Time had a way of stretching out in solitary.
Wells leaned over my shoulder to pull back the slot on the door. A shadow from inside dashed straight at me, and I jerked away. Two arms emerged through the slot grabbing for my face. I stumbled further backward and careened off Sash. The body at the end of the arms thumped hard against the door.
I took a deep breath, swaying away from the arms, which continued to wave in front of my face, fingers clawing for me. Sash gave me a small shove as a complaint for banging into her.
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The arms were withdrawn, and a face appeared at the slot. She was a girl of about fourteen with wild black hair. She bared her teeth. “I will be free, and then you will all pay for keeping me locked up. Fire can’t be contained. It will be unleashed. I will be unleashed. Then you’ll all be sorry.”
My gaze was drawn to her eyes. She had black eyes just like Jo had when she’d been possessed. My mouth felt dry.
Director Wells leaned forward and snapped the slot closed.
“She’s been possessed by a fire elemental,” I said. I had started to suspect what I was going to find, but only now had confirmation.
“Can you cure her?” Florence asked.
Sash shook her head. “We aren’t here to help them. We have come to find out who is responsible and make sure it doesn’t keep happening.”
“What do we do about them? We can’t just keep them here,” Florence said. “It breaks my heart to watch them get worse and worse.”
“There are others?” I moved to the next door and leaned back as I opened the slot. When no one hurtled toward me, I hesitantly leaned forward to look inside. The sheets, blanket and pillow had been thrown off the bed. A figure lay huddled in the fetal position on the bare mattress. As he became aware of me watching him, he twisted his neck to look at me, a blank expression on his face. He was a boy of about eleven with a buzz cut. After a moment of looking at me, he curled his head back against his chest, returning to the fetal position. His eyes weren't black, so he wasn't in the midst of elemental possession. As I considered what the boy was going through, a horrible feeling sunk into the pit of my stomach.
I shut the slot, moving down to the next door. “What are their names?” I asked.
“The girl is Katie Jones,” Wells said. “The boy is Dennis Whitaker.”
“How many are there?” I asked, pausing at the third.
“Rune, stop,” Florence said. “There’s something I have to te—”
I opened the slot. I gasped. No, it couldn’t be. Not again. Inside the third cell, two girls sat on the bed opposite each other.
One of them was Jo.
Chapter 10
Monday 20:50
I thumped my fists against the door. Florence grabbed my upper arm. “Rune, calm down.”
I threw her hand off. “What’s going on? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Rune, Jo’s okay,” Florence said. “She hasn’t been possessed.”
“She hasn’t? What do you mean? Why is she in there if she hasn’t?”
“Rune, deep breaths,” Florence said. “Jo is fine.”
I wanted to scream, but I got myself under control. “She’s not possessed?”
“No. Her friend is. And she’s just visiting. Comforting her.”
I looked inside the room again. Jo didn’t seem glad to see me, which wasn’t surprising considering the circumstances upon which we last parted. The other girl had disappeared. I frowned, craning my neck to check all corners. I didn’t figure out where she had gone until I spotted the twitching of a limb under the bed.
“Visiting?” Wells asked. “It isn’t visiting hours. This is highly irregular.”
“What about this situation is regular?” Florence said. “There shouldn’t be any visiting in solitary, but these children didn’t do anything to deserve to be here. We have to comfort them while we still can.”
“Can I go in?” I nodded toward the door.
“Of course not,” Wells said. “It’s dangerous.”
“Then why is Jo in there?” I asked.
“Young Ally hasn’t shown herself to be dangerous yet,” Florence said. “And Jo insisted.”
“Are we taking orders from the orphans now?” Wells asked.
“Open the door then,” I said.
Wells blinked rapidly, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he composed his thoughts. “I can’t allow—”
“I thought you were glad we were here to investigate,” I said. “Now you are going to stand in our way.”
“It’s not about—” Wells started.
“Good. Then open the door.”
Wells sighed, then took out his fist of keys and started sorting through them.
“I have a key.” Florence stepped in front of Wells and unlocked and opened the door. I stepped inside and she locked the door behind me.
Sash’s face appeared in the slot. “I’m going to get Wells to show me the titanium shielding, make sure there’s enough in place. I’ll leave the social worker to let you out. Meet me back in Wells’s office.”
I nodded, then turned toward Jo, who hadn’t moved since I’d first seen her. “So,” I said.
“So,” she agreed.
“How have you been?”
“Pretty shitty,” she said. “You?”
“Can’t complain.”
“Really? Tyler told me that you have been moping around in the attic the whole time.”
“When were you talking to Tyler?” I asked.
“We keep in contact,” she said.
An uncomfortable silence descended. I wanted to talk about what I had done, but the words keep getting stuck in my throat.
“Can you cure Ally?” Jo asked. “Like you did me?”
I bent down to get a better look at her under the bed, but all I saw was a jumble of limbs as Ally scrambled into the corner. “No. I don’t think I can.” I certainly couldn’t do anything inside the titanium shielding. And Sash had made it clear that she wasn’t going to stand for me using my magic, risking allowing more elementals to pass into the human world.
“Why not?” Jo asked.
There was another reason. “When I drew the elemental from you, I gave it to someone else. The policeman. I can’t do that to someone else.” Expelling the elemental without having somewhere to put it was even more dangerous.
“Did he deserve it? The policeman?” Jo asked.
“No one deserves that. I made a decision and have to live with it.” I hadn’t thought much about what I had done to Duffy, always shying away from the memory. When I had first expelled a fire elemental, resulting in the mansion fire that led to the death of Jo’s parents, I hadn’t known what I was doing. Sending those elementals into Duffy had been deliberate.
“Like how you have to live with what you did to Mom and Dad?” Jo’s voice cracked.
My knees felt weak. “May I sit?” I asked. Jo squirmed further down the bed, and I sat beside her. “I’m sorry,” I said.
“I would imagine so.”
“You got my email?”
“I read it. Very brave of you to send an email,” Jo said.
“It was the only way I could explain it. Even now, no words will come. All I can say is that I’m sorry for what I did. And I’m sorry I didn’t admit what I did earlier.
“Alex said everything that happened in those ten months living with you turned into a lie,” Jo said.
I shook my head. I felt tears gathering behind my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. “Only one thing was a lie. Everything else was real. More real than anything else I have ever known.”
“You did save me. That has to be worth something,” Jo said. “And I understand you didn’t deliberately harm my parents. But after everything else. How you kept it from us. Alex is right that the time we spent with you has become tainted. Like a reverse version of rose-tinted glasses.”
“Maybe one day you’ll be able to forgive me.”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not a no.” I smiled. Though I’d only met them a year earlier, Alex and Jo had become the only family I’d ever known. Just the possibility that the two of them, or even just Jo, could one day forgive me felt wonderful. “It’s more than I deserve.” I reached across to touch Jo’s hand. She pulled away, and I let my hand fall to the bed, my smile disappearing as fast as it had arrived. “Tell me about your friend under the bed?”
“She’s shy,” Jo said. “Stand up so I can try something.”
I stood and Jo did the same. She
pulled the bed away from the wall, then sat again. “Does Faustino want to come out and talk a bit?” she asked.
“Faustino?” I asked.
“Hush,” she said to me, then addressed the crack between the bed and wall. “This guy here wants to talk with Faustino. He thinks he might be able to help with his problems.”
A blue sock puppet with an orange nose crept up by the wall, raising its head above the level of the bed.
“You expect me to talk to the puppet?” Jo wasn’t kidding about the girl being shy.
Jo glared at me, then addressed the sock puppet. “How’s Faustino feeling?” Jo asked.
The puppet’s head bowed low.
“Sad,” Jo said. “Anything else?”
The puppet trembled.
“Scared too. I understand. That’s why we want to talk. This man here understands what you are going through.”
“Jo, I’m not talking to a bloody puppet.”
“It’s not a puppet, it’s Faustino,” Jo said. “And mind your language.”
I leaned forward. The only part of Ally I could see was of her forearm, pale and thing, with blue veins visible. No words came to mind. “What do you want me to say?”
“She’s got a strange creature inside her, and she’s scared. I talked to her about what I went through. Only a few can understand.”
Not everyone is lucky enough to have an elemental as pleasant as me, Jerome thought.
You are just pretending to be nice so I feel sorry for you, I thought back. Then when I let my guard down, you’ll try to possess me again.
You are a really untrusting fellow, you know that, Jerome thought.
I notice you didn’t deny it. I sat down on the bed. “Hi, Faustino.”
The puppet bobbed its head.
I took a deep breath. What did Jo expect me to say? She had said that I was one of the few who knew what the girl was going through, and it was true that Jerome had banished me to a gray nothingness and took control of my body for a time. It was a horrible prospect that I feared more than death. To have someone else controlling my body while I was trapped and powerless... I shivered. However, despite what he had done, later that day I had called a truce with Jerome. I wouldn’t have been able to save Jo without him.
Fire Summoning (The Sentinels Book 2) Page 5
