Chapter 16
STILL MONDAY
IN WHICH DESSA HATES RIDDLES
Achill ran from Dessa’s fingertips to her collarbone as the breeze raced through the room.
The door slammed shut behind them a breath later, the click of a lock bouncing off the walls.
Crap. The collective’s flair for the dramatic combined with their desire to control literally everything was such an annoying combination.
They could very well be staying here longer than they intended, and the thick musk of Hexxer magic was enough to smother her.
After the death threat, she now carried two pop-stakes in her bag and a silver pocketknife on her keychain, but she very much didn’t want to use them.
The realization transported her back six years, when she’d stood in a similar room with Alana, Zach, and Peter, and their failure had been foretold.
The grisly question still dangled in her mind if the Hexxer had genuinely predicted their fate, or if their fate had been the price for asking.
Or perhaps it had nothing to do with fate, and the Hexxers had orchestrated the disappearances from the beginning.
“Your reports are seven months behind. We need an account of your newest members and any who’ve left,” Dessa said, projecting her voice over the clacking of bones overhead.
“Yes, yes,” Grittes replied. “That is AzRIO’s request, but what do you wish to ask? Perhaps with my help, you can peel back Jamison Kane’s mask. Or your own? Your fears and uncertainties now that you’re so alone.”
Dessa took a deep breath and shifted closer to Jamison, but she wasn’t sure if it was to protect him or for her own reassurance.
Either way, she was determined not to let the words wriggle under her skin.
Jamison put a hand on the small of her back as if to steady her, and she let herself lean into his solid presence.
There were questions she needed to ask, but would those too come at a cost? Perhaps. But she couldn’t let the fear control her decisions—especially not when lives hung in the balance.
“What do you know about the disappearance of Carly Jowett?” she asked.
“Oh, Dessa.” Grittes smiled, the words musical as they rolled from his tongue. “Always losing friends thither and yon, but will you pay the price to move on?”
“If you have any information on an AzRIO case, the law requires that you answer direct questions related to the event,” Jamison said.
Dessa’s brows shot up, and she glanced sideways at Jamison’s firm profile. Someone had been doing their homework, and warm gratitude swelled through Dessa.
Grittes outright chuckled. “Oh, the irony of a Kane asking about the missing; especially when death seems to follow whoever you’re kissing.” The man leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Are you sure this isn’t one of your graves? Or perhaps one of your slaves?”
Jamison’s fists clenched at his sides, his face gone white in the pale glow of Grittes’s scrying bowl. “I didn’t even know Carly.”
“But perhaps she knew you and your kind; it certainly doesn’t sit well on the mind.” Grittes looked between the two of them, joy gleaming in his silvery eyes. “But one thing I can tell, your past sorrows are nothing to the death you’ll soon knell.”
“Stop dodging the question,” Dessa said. “I know that Carly came here two weeks before she went missing. What did she talk to you about?”
The man drew a long, lazy finger through the water.
“What does anyone ask of us? Love, hate, and the rest of their muss.” He flashed her a feral grin, and Dessa could’ve sworn she saw Peter in the ripples through the bowl.
“You know, if you’re so desperate to know these ends, perhaps it’s best if you ask your friends. ”
“Is that…Peter?” Jamison asked, brow wrinkling. “She can’t ask him if he’s dead.”
“But I can ask him for her. I can give you a bargain for just a few stirs.” Grittes’s finger swirled the water again. “Are you afraid of old loves lost? Or of the price a new love may cost?”
“I—” Dessa started, sweat beading on her temple. “What about Zach? You didn’t mention talking to Zach. Is that because he’s alive?”
“Ask your friend, Kane. If he’s your new partner, that’s his lane.”
Dessa cocked her head, trying to see the truth through the rhymes, but though she knew the Hexxers had power, their condescending verses hadn’t helped her last time either. She gritted her teeth. “This is all nonsense. If you’d just answer the questions, we could get out of here.”
“When searching for vipers, check your own nest before calling yourselves one of our guests. Unless you’d like to enter our fold and find what it’s like to never grow old.”
“No thanks.” Dessa stabbed a finger at the door behind them. “We’re ready to leave now.”
Grittes smiled. “But you’re the one who wanted this meeting, pet, and you haven’t gotten what you wanted yet. If you want to see whose blood will spill, I think you’ll stay a while still.”
“She said open the door.” Jamison strode toward Grittes, only to recoil as if electrocuted. His body contorted, and he grimaced in pain.
“Leave him alone,” Dessa said, pulling Jamison back from whatever magic barrier Grittes had constructed.
“Every request comes at a cost. Surely you remember, after what you’ve lost,” Grittes singsonged.
Ignoring Grittes, Dessa leaned closer to Jamison. “Are you okay?”
Jamison straightened. “Yeah, I’m fine. Want me to try to bust down the door? I’m definitely sick of this place.”
Dessa swallowed. Though her uncle had always warned her not to go to the Hexxers’ commune alone, she hadn’t thought they’d be so bold as to detain two AzRIO agents. Especially with one as high profile as Jamison Kane. Was this proof that they really were abducting—
The door burst open behind them, and Dessa screamed as Jamison stepped in front of her, shielding her from whatever attacked them from the rear. But his body relaxed almost as quickly as he’d tensed.
“Arthur?” he asked, disbelief plain in his tone.
“What?” Dessa peeked around him to see it was indeed Arthur standing backlit in the hall, with nothing less than a stack of papers in his hands. “What are you doing here?”
“I knew you’d get distracted and forget about the reports.” Arthur entered the room on swift legs, like a sheepdog herding two lambs lost from its herd. “It’s a busy day in the office so it’s high time you got back to it.”
“Oh my, Arthur is here to play,” Grittes crooned from behind them. “I knew you couldn’t stay away.”
Stay away? Dessa’s head jerked back to Arthur. Was he a Hexxer? Dessa had known Melba since childhood, and even Jamison since middle school, but she suddenly realized she’d never even thought to check into Arthur’s background. Now Grittes’s talk of vipers was all starting to make more sense.
Yet here he was, practically shooing them out of a room as he called over his shoulder, “Oh, stuff it, Edgar.”
Arthur steered them back through the opulent lobby at his usual outrageous speed and didn’t stop until they were outside under the bright sunshine. Dessa looked around for Arthur’s car only to find he’d parked in between the gates so that they couldn’t close. The sight froze her in her tracks.
But Jamison wasted no time before turning on Arthur. “Sooo, you knew that guy?”
“Unfortunately.” Arthur took a pair of oversized sunglasses from his pocket and slipped them on, his lips a flat line. “But now we must go.”
“But they don’t allow any outsiders here.” Dessa tapped her lips, trying to fit the pieces together even as Arthur urged her toward Jamison’s car. “And you don’t feel like a Hexxer.”
Arthur opened the passenger door and gestured impatiently for her to get in. Honestly, he looked one step away from tossing her in himself. When he saw she wasn’t going, he huffed out a beleaguered sigh. “Yes, I will tell you, but only if you get in and drive me to my vehicle.”
Temporarily mollified, Dessa and Jamison got into the car, but as soon as her butt hit the leather, she twisted in her seat, pinning Arthur with her glare. “Well? Out with it.”
Arthur crossed his arms like a sulky child as he glared at the Hexxer clubhouse. “If you’d read my paperwork, you would know.”
“C’mon, Arthur, please?” she asked as Jamison started the car and pulled away. “I swear I’ll do my activity report first thing when we get back if you do. Otherwise, I’ll have to read your file first and who knows how long that’ll take?”
“Oh, all right.” Another sigh, but this time he rolled his head in her direction.
“I had the misfortune of being born and raised here, but I had no magical aptitude and was promptly labeled a ‘slow’ child—useful for menial labor and perhaps a worse fate down the road. Thankfully, my mother loved me enough to send me to live with my grandmother when I was fourteen. She gave me a proper education, and here I am.”
For a moment, Dessa only stared at him, wondering what kind of horrors he’d witnessed in this place. How could they label him “slow” when the guy was obviously brilliant? She sagged. “I’m so sorry, Arthur.”
Jamison pulled up next to Arthur’s car just outside the gate and turned around, his own words gentle. “What about your mom? Or your dad?”
“They were not so lucky, and now they’re both dead.” Arthur opened the door, his expression flat. “I’m sure if we’d stayed longer, Edgar would’ve asked me if I’d like to speak to their spirits as well.” His gaze hardened. “Word to the wise, never let a Hexxer lock a door behind you.”
“Thanks for coming to get us, Arthur,” Dessa said, offering him a smile. The guy barely emerged from his computer screen except under duress, but to leave the office to save them from his childhood tormentors? She’d underestimated him in so many ways.
“Yes, well, if you disappear, we’d all have to do more paperwork, and it didn’t occur to me until after you left that you might not be prepared for the commune’s growing audacity these days.
” Arthur climbed out of the car and waved the stack of documents at them.
“But you’d better have learned your lesson, because I won’t be doing it again, and I want the monthly reports on time from now on.
” With that, Arthur climbed into his car and peeled out.
Gravel sprayed before he turned onto the main road and gunned the engine into the distance.
“Dang, that guy has one speed—fast.” Jamison grinned at the retreating taillights as he too pulled out into the rural lane.
“I appreciate that about him more than ever now,” Dessa said, her mind still lost in what they’d learned…and what they hadn’t.
“Dessa…” Jamison glanced at her sideways, nerves tight in every line of his body. “About what that Grittes guy said though—”
Dessa gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Jamison. I know better than to trust what the Hexxers say at face value.”
Jamison tapped on the steering wheel, quiet for a second, but when he spoke again, his words were measured and heavy.
“No, Dessa. I want you to know that there was some truth to what he was saying.” His expression shifted with pained lines.
“When I said you could trust me, I wasn’t lying.
I don’t know what happened to Carly, but I could still be very dangerous to you, and not just because of my grandfather’s business. ”
“You’re talking about your curse,” Dessa said, and when he didn’t reply, she knew she was right.
“The one that killed those women.” The gears of her mind creaked as they turned in slow motion.
“And you’re afraid whatever happened to them will happen to me.
Is that why your grandfather wants you to leave AzRIO? To stay away from me?”
Jamison’s lips flattened into a thin line, but his gaze stayed on the road.
“I don’t think he’s anywhere near that magnanimous.
If anything, he probably would rather avoid another scandal.
But it is why my father has kept me in the house for the last six months.
And also why I’m so desperate to find my own answers.
I thought I might find them at the Hexxers’, but obviously that was a dead-end too.
I feel like I’m running out of places to look, and if I don’t find them soon, it might not be safe for me to stay at AzRIO, especially with what the Hexxer—”
“The Hexxers twist the truth to suit their own needs,” Dessa cut in. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the answer you’re looking for, but I’m not scared of you, Jamison, or curses. Of the two of us, I think I’m probably the one with a worse track record.”
Another beat of silence filled the car. The thought of Jamison leaving constricted Dessa’s chest with a force she didn’t want to examine too closely. She couldn’t imagine him walking away like everyone else. Not when it finally felt like someone had her back, for real.
When he spoke again, his voice was quiet. “So were you and Peter…together?”
Dessa laid her head on the cool glass of the window, suddenly exhausted. “No, but I wanted us to be. I thought we could be. I was trying to gather the courage to tell him when everything happened.”
“And could the Hexxers really let you talk to his ghost? Find out who killed him?”
“Even if they could, it wouldn’t be worth the price they exacted—likely my secrets as an Uncanny, and they would then use them against me.” Dessa’s eyes closed, the pane cool on her cheek. “But sometimes it feels like we’re going to pay either way, doesn’t it?”
“Is there another type of Magicker that can help?” Jamison asked. “Like Quinley at the café or something?”
“With Magickers being as secretive as they are, it would be hard to find someone with the right gift that could help us. Unless they came forward of their own volition, it would be difficult to find them.”
Jamison swore under his breath. “I’m not going to lie, I thought the whole magic thing would make this process easier.”
Dessa tried to smile, but it didn’t quite take as Grittes’s words haunted her in tandem with all her other ghosts. Oh, Dessa, always losing friends thither and yon.
“No,” she whispered. “It only ever gets harder.”