114. Pax
Chapter 114
Pax
I ’m worried about Holden. He’s been more subdued than usual since our conversation about the journal. Talking about the party brought up bad memories for me. I know it has to be affecting him, too.
He gives me a careless shrug when I ask, “You good man?” But I don’t buy it. His shoulders are too tense. The door to the dining hall swings open and Thea enters, scanning the serving line for someone. She steps out of view while she waits for her order. When she finally passes our table, she’s carrying a tray loaded with food. She places half of it in front of Holden before heading over to her table. He doesn’t speak, and he’s still scanning his surroundings. He hasn’t eaten dining hall food in four days.
“If you wanna talk.” I say, trying to offer support.
“I don’t.”
I drop it because pressing Holden to talk about his feelings will get me nowhere. I take that back. It might get us fighting, but then that will lead nowhere. He picks up his phone and reads the message, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he looks over at Thea’s table.
I shift to see what he’s looking at. Thea’s shoulders shake as she types something into her phone. Holden’s pings again, and this time he curses under his breath. Another ping and he’s out of his seat, walking over to her table. She shrieks as he scoops her up and brings her back over to where we’re sitting, placing her on the table in front of him. He taps his tongue ring against his teeth as he places the fork in her hand.
Readjusting her grip on the utensil, Thea asks, “You think I won’t?”
He simply shrugs. I watch, fascinated, as she grips his jaw, leans forward, and says, “It’s safe to eat.”
Does she know? Has he shared with her what happened and why he’s refusing to eat anything he hasn’t purchased or prepared himself now?
She continues. “I haven’t eaten food from the community serving line since I came back. My personal chef makes all my meals and I watch him do it each and every time. That’s the only way I can eat when I’m here. Otherwise, the thought of eating food people have free access to sickens me, because that’s how they used to drug me.”
Holden finally speaks. “Me, too.”
She stabs the cucumber salad with her fork and studies it. I expect her to put it in her mouth, or give it to Holden, but she turns to me instead. “Open.” My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. She snickers and says, “Don’t look so shocked. If my cook was bribed, then I want to know about it. You foaming at the mouth would be karma since my food aversion started with your sperm donor.”
I open for her to insert the fork, then press my lips together as she drags the tines out of my mouth. I make a big production of chewing and swallowing, then open my mouth wide and wiggle my tongue so she can see I didn’t hide the food under it.
“Want me to eat anything else, Nem?”
She feeds me a fry next. I chomp on it close to where she’s holding it, letting my tongue graze her fingertips. “Next?”
“Holden, do you want him to try anything else that you want to eat?”
“What I’m thinking about eating right now doesn’t need a taste tester. But please continue with the food foreplay.”
She spins back around to face him. “If you don’t eat the food I’m providing here, you won’t have the strength to eat anything else on my private menu. So clean your plate, pretty boy.” She hops down from the table and goes back to hers like the last few minutes never happened.
Holden lifts his book and digs into his salad. He grunts in agreement when I say, “I’ll be her taste tester whenever she wants.”
Thea
I’m starting to feel like my whole life has been one big illusion to hide a conspiracy, and I have never been more proud of my mother’s unstable behavior than I am right now.
“There’s something I have to tell you.” I say to the three Coxsuckers on my couch. “But before I do, I want you to remember I don’t owe you answers, and I’m choosing to share this instead of keeping it to myself.”
“What is it, Pet?”
“Fountain Bluff and Knights Ridge are cities my mother always talked about moving to.”
They all look confused at my announcement. “You know, the places you found those team building clues.”
Holden says, “Go on.”
“Mom kept saying over and over again that those places would lead to a new life for me. That the towns were chosen to keep me safe.” I swallow around the lump in my throat. “I got older and dismissed it all as drunk ramblings. But the whole time she was doing this.” I say, pointing to the jewelry box.
Finn says, “I’m not following. What do you think your mother did? Pawned this jewelry box?”
Of course they’re not following. They don’t know what I know. They’re still giving me blank stares, so I explain, “My favorite doll and the name Holden found on the documents in the safe deposit box are the same. Imogen S. Cloudpuff.”
Now they’re looking at me like I’m crazy, and Pax says, “Why don’t you tell us what you’re seeing that we’re not.”
They’ve helped. Not him. He carried a few binders, but Holden and Finn have helped, so don’t I at least owe them an explanation about what they’re really searching for?
There’s a chance they’ll double cross me, but I have an advantage, now that I know what I’m looking for. “I think the team building challenge is actually the lead in to the bloodline challenge.”
Right on cue, negative nut sack says, “That’s a leap, since the team building challenge includes all year groups.”
“I understand why you’d say that, considering your family’s history with the bloodline challenge.” I retort.
Turning to Pax, Holden asks, “What’s she talking about?”
I’m actually shocked when Pax answers, “My father accepted the challenge one year, without his Trium. He says he found the item, but someone stole it from him before he could turn it in to the council.”
Finn asks, “What does any of that have to do with what’s happening now?”
Wolfe clears his throat, stepping further into the room. How long was he eavesdropping? He comes to stand next to me, his presence bolstering me to say what I need to say. Turning over the parchment from the box, I say, “Rumor has it that my mother was the one who stole whatever he found right before she disappeared.”
Holden finishes my train of thought. “You think she planted these clues?”
Finn asks, “If the team building challenge was the lead up to entering the bloodline challenge, then why were first year prospects put on the teams?”
Pax offers up a possible answer. “To help figure out the clues. Once they actually enter the next level of the challenge, they’d stop, including the first years. Of course, all that’s assuming they let the first years participate to begin with. Our team dismissed Thea as soon as we entered the crypt.”
Finn says, “My team did the same thing. They established their bullshit pecking order and second-year prospects and below were treated like wasted space. What about you, Holden?”
He says, “I was bored and barely paid attention. But same. The fourth years thought they knew it all, and everyone else just accepted what they said. The only other person who wasn’t involved was Gregory Lloyd, because he was upset about an article he found.”
Deacon has been listening to us brainstorm but now he says, “Before we run with the theory that the team building challenge was the entry fee for the bloodline challenge, can anyone think of anything else the clues could be pointing to?”
Holden responds, “I’m sure I could come up with several options.”
Deacon says, “Let’s do that before we jump to conclusions.” Before I can argue, he says, “I’m not saying you’re wrong, Thea. I’m saying we need to rule out other possibilities before we go down this road.”