Chapter 25 - Felix
Felix
Isank deeper into the sofa cushions, trying to fill the Kit-shaped hole that gaped inside of me.
The rest of the team were gathered in the basement, and it felt wrong without him—too empty, like someone had sucked all the warmth out of the air.
Every second that ticked by felt like another weight added to the growing pile of dread inside me.
The memory of Wren zip-tied to that chair flashed through my mind, his face pale and confused as Seb interrogated him.
Maybe I should have fought harder against that.
Should have done more than simply stand there watching while they treated my friend like a criminal.
Every second since Kit disappeared had been one nightmare after another.
“Emma is coming here, voluntarily, to talk to us all,” Priya continued, her hands knotted together in her lap.
Flynn made a noise of agreement, but it was strained. Even his usual buoyant energy hadn’t survived all of this.
A moment earlier, Priya explained to us the events of yesterday evening.
She’d gone home to Emma’s, walking through the door sobbing over Kit, and finally cracked under the weight of one lie too many.
She’d told Emma everything—about Kit’s disappearance, about us, about what we really did here, about everything she’d been hiding for months.
She couldn’t bear it anymore, she’d said.
Couldn’t keep pretending when the world was falling apart around us.
Emma’s reaction had been strange, according to Priya, but she’d been too consumed by grief to pay proper attention at the time. It was only today, when Emma had texted asking her to call immediately because she needed to talk about Kit, that the pieces had started clicking together in Priya’s mind.
She’d left Seb’s office to take that call, and when she’d returned five minutes later, her face had been ashen.
Now Emma was moments away from arriving to talk to us all in person, and we were making plans like we were preparing for war instead of welcoming Priya’s girlfriend.
“So we’ll sit right here in the basement, just like usual,” Priya added, voice carefully controlled.
Seb looked ready to argue, his jaw tight with barely contained tension.
“You can always lock her up afterwards, Seb,” Rory said with a casualness that almost made me laugh.
“We’re not locking Emma up anywhere!” Flynn protested. “I’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding.”
Priya stared at her lap, shoulders hunched. She twisted her purple scarf in her fingers. “Listen, I wouldn’t be so sure, Flynn.”
“But… but it’s Emma!” Flynn said, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Emma!”
“Yes, thank you, Flynn, I know the name of my own bloody girlfriend,” Priya snapped.
Seb made a warning sound in his throat, but the damage was already done. Flynn was fuming, Priya looked like she might cry, and Rory had gone back to staring blankly at the wall, which he’d been doing more and more since Kit disappeared.
“Um… shall I go make tea?” I suggested. “How does Emma take it?”
Priya sighed in relief, her shoulders dropping slightly. “Yes, thank you, Felix. Tea would be great. Milk, no sugar.”
I scurried off to be blissfully alone in the kitchen, grateful for even a few minutes away from the suffocating tension.
The good china came out—delicate cups with tiny blue flowers.
But somehow Kit’s favourite mug ended up in my hands instead, as if my fingers had moved without permission.
There was a tiny chip in the stony grey ceramic near the handle where Kit had dropped it, cursing under his breath whilst we’d all tried not to laugh.
By the time the tea was all ready to go on the silver tray, the sound of the door opening reached the kitchen. Priya’s hushed tone drifted down from the lobby—urgent whispers I couldn’t quite make out.
I cleared my throat loudly in the kitchen doorway to let them know I could hear them, just in case they were making plans to escape or something before Seb locked Emma up.
“Felix,” Emma said, seeming almost relieved to see me. Her face was blotchy and puffy, like she’d been crying, and her black hair, usually arranged in artful spikes, was now a messy halo of stress.
Her voice echoed in my head from that phone call, where she’d practically begged me to tell her the truth about what we really did here. The guilt consumed me all over again.
As we descended the stairs to the basement, the others fell silent, studying Emma with varying degrees of wariness. Priya tugged her over to a sofa, clutching her hand tightly. Emma repeatedly glanced between everyone—taking in Seb’s severe expression, Flynn’s worried face, Rory’s blank stare.
The awkwardness was already slowly killing me. I set the tray down on the coffee table, then reached for my tea just to have something to do with my hands.
Rory’s gaze instantly caught on my mug—Kit’s mug. He frowned, deeply. Great. Another conversation I definitely wasn’t ready for. Your brother is actually my mate, and I’m falling apart without him, so let me drink out of his mug in peace. I’m sure Rory’s reaction would be priceless.
“So, Emma,” Seb began, his voice carefully neutral. “Priya told you about us last night.”
“It was… it was a lot to take in,” Emma said, then looked towards me. “Priya said you didn’t believe it all either, at first, Felix.”
I nodded, because really, who would believe that we were a ragtag group of freaks hanging out in a haunted hotel, policing London’s streets from supernatural crime?
“It took Priya’s teaspoon telekinesis to convince me,” Emma admitted.
Flynn laughed—a small, strained sound—and Emma turned to him. “I can’t believe that you also kept all of this from me. This whole time.”
“It was Priya’s decision,” Flynn said softly, shooting an apologetic look at Priya.
“Anyway,” Emma interrupted, “I still can’t get my head around vampires and…
and… wolves.” She glanced nervously between Seb and Rory.
“And all the other things Priya is claiming are actually real. But there’s time for me to learn more about all that later.
” Emma straightened in her seat, her grip tightening on Priya’s hand.
“Right now, I need to tell you what happened.”
Seb leaned forward slightly. “What do you mean?”
Emma took a large, unsteady breath. “Before I begin, you all need to understand that Seb and I didn’t get off to a great start.” Flynn grimaced as she continued. “I thought he was some kind of gangster attacking Flynn in a dark alley. The fact that Flynn told me he had a gun sealed the deal.”
Seb remained as still as stone.
“Anyway, fast forward a couple of months, obviously I got to know Priya, and you all a bit more. Like when you had me round for Christmas.”
We all cringed in perfect unison. That disaster of a party had involved Rory placing Dolly at the head of the Christmas dinner table before cracking vampire jokes, Flynn spiking Seb’s mulled wine with his blood, and Kit randomly stabbing the table before storming out of the room.
“But, to be honest, I never believed your bullshit about being renovators. You all tried your best to be convincing, like how Felix told Wren he was actually here working on some innovative coding software for electricians.” Emma’s eyes flicked to me.
“As time went on, I became more and more convinced Priya was lying to me.”
Priya hung her head, her fingers thoroughly tangled in her scarf.
“I can just about forgive her, sort of, because of the absolutely bonkers nature of the revelation,” Emma continued.
“What’s this all got to do with Kit?” Seb interrupted.
Flynn’s leg shot out to kick him. “Don’t be rude.”
“I’m getting to that. So, about two months ago, there was a knock on the door of my flat.
I opened it, and it was a man and a woman, smartly dressed in suits.
They flashed badges at me and basically pushed their way into my flat.
We sat down, and they explained they were there because they believed that I could be in grave danger. That Priya was in grave danger.”
Rory sat up straighter. Flynn’s face paled. Seb looked like he was calculating how many people he could murder before dinner.
“They told me that Sebastián had a pattern of grooming young men and women, manipulating and using them for illegal means. That he was one of the Met’s most wanted.
That this hotel was a front for criminal activity, that you definitely weren’t historical renovation specialists.
And then they said that if I helped them, in exchange they would make sure that Priya was completely protected when they busted you all. ”
The silence that followed was deafening. My pulse hammered against my eardrums.
“So you agreed to that,” Rory said flatly.
Emma flushed bright red. “They were very convincing.”
“I’m sure,” Flynn said, his voice tight.
Seb’s face turned thunderous. I’d never seen him quite this mad. After the day we’d had, I didn’t blame him. “Go on,” he hissed through a clenched jaw.
“So, yeah, I agreed. I started asking Priya more and more questions—casual ones about your personal lives, trying to find out more about you all. I was careful not to probe too obviously, in case she suspected something. But Priya never gave me anything to pass on that they seemed particularly interested in. The biggest thing, though…” Emma’s voice faltered, and she took a moment.
“They… they got me to plant that device here. The one you found yesterday.”
Absolute silence.
Emma’s confession lingered in the air, a physical weight pressing down on our lungs. Every circuit in my head screamed: Infection. Breach. Payload deployed.
The quiet stretched. No one moved.
“When?” Seb finally spat out.
“Like… a week after they first came,” she whispered.
Flynn pushed up out of his armchair, reaching across to hug Emma. “Oh, Emma. That’s absolutely awful.”
Seb looked far from amused. I wasn’t feeling particularly sympathetic either, if I was being honest.
“So… we think this has to do with Kit?” I managed to ask.
Emma nodded miserably. “Those people—who never really told me who they were, but made out to be law enforcement of some type, I guess—seemed especially interested in Kit. They tried not to make it too obvious, but it was clear after a while. And, with that device, they wanted me to put it somewhere where it had the best chance of recording him.”
My stomach dropped.
“I told them I had no idea how I’d do that, that I’d only been to the hotel once before.”
“That time it was raining,” Priya said softly. “You dropped by the hotel after your shift, saying it was too wet to walk home. Everyone was out or upstairs. I told you to wait in the basement, and I went to make tea…”
Emma nodded. “I noticed your cameras more that time around. You can probably see me making it super obvious, glancing about the place. I had to pray that I wouldn’t be caught installing it on the staircase. God, you don’t know how sick I felt doing it.”
“Oh, we can imagine,” Seb said sarcastically.
“But… but…” Flynn said. “But you’re so short!”
Emma offered him a weak half smile. “I had to stand on the handrail. It was quite a feat. I was sure I was going to slip and break my neck.”
Seb’s head swivelled to glare at me. “Why didn’t we find this when we searched the camera feeds? Emma, alone in the basement, at least?”
If Kit was here, this would be the moment he’d leap in to defend me. But no Kit anymore. I had to defend myself.
“Well, I’ve only had one day and lots of interruptions,” I said. “You know, what with first being asked to dismantle the device, then today torturing Wren and being called to your office.”
“Torturing Wren?!” Emma exclaimed.
“Hold on…” Priya said slowly, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Emma, I’m thinking back to our conversation ages ago, where you said you’d maybe like to take up running. You were asking about Kit’s running routes. Was that all a farce?”
No. Every muscle in my body went rigid. Emma had basically handed Kit to these unknown enemies on a plate.
At this, Rory abruptly shot to his feet, all eyes locking onto him. Without a word, he walked towards the staircase, his movements mechanical and hollow. His footsteps pounded as he climbed each step.
I didn’t blame him for leaving. I was finding it increasingly hard to listen to all of this without screaming.
Emma buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. “Oh God. Oh God, I’m so sorry.”
Nervous glances ricocheted around the basement. Seb’s lips pressed together so tightly they disappeared. Priya reached for Emma’s shoulder, but her hand hovered uncertainly in the air.
Flynn mumbled, “I’ll go see if he’s okay,” and followed Rory out of the basement.
The quiet that followed was smothering. I gripped Kit’s mug tighter, every breath sandpaper in my lungs.
“Will…” Emma’s voice cracked. She lifted her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Will all of that information help you find Kit, at least? I can write down everything I can remember about the two agents. Every single question they asked. Every piece of information they wanted. Everything I gave them.”
“When did you last have contact with them?” asked Seb.
Emma wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Um… like a week ago, maybe? After that first time, I never saw them again, they rang me on a private number.”
Seb’s expression grew thoughtful. “If they ring again, you could demand to meet with them. Then I could appear as a surprise.” He paused, running his tongue over his teeth. “But likely, they won’t fall for that, now they have Kit.”
The words now they have Kit sent my heart into freefall. The certainty in Seb’s voice made it real in a way I’d been desperately trying to avoid.
Seb’s gaze pierced Emma. “I’ll await the document with everything you can give us. But you need to go now.”
Emma nodded frantically. “Yes, of course. I’m… I’m so, so sorry. Truly. I don’t know what else to say, apart from I’ll do anything I can to fix this.”
There wasn’t anything else to say. Sorry wouldn’t bring Kit back. Sorry wouldn’t undo the listening device or erase the running routes or fix any of this mess.
Priya stood, Emma copying her movements like a mirror. They headed towards the staircase, Priya’s hand hovering protectively on Emma’s elbow.
After their footsteps faded, Seb turned to me.
“It’s awful that Emma told them Kit’s running routes, but I don’t think that actually got him abducted,” I said.
“Indeed,” said Seb. “We know he entered Clapham North station to meet that vampire, which Kit told Priya when he said goodbye to her that evening. A conversation very likely caught by the listening device.”
I nod, the motion feeling disconnected from my body. An image of Kit’s gentle smile as he said goodnight to Priya burst into my mind.
“So the question is,” Seb continued, stroking his chin. “Is this the work of Marcus’s vampires, or our secret listeners?”