Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Eliana grabbed a water bottle from the fridge in the break room two doors down from the locker room. The small space housed a kitchenette and always smelled like old lasagna, no matter how often the microwave was cleaned.
She twisted off the cap and sipped slowly, trying not to think about the dead man with his tongue cut out.
How did her mom do this?
Part of her wanted to text her parents on their group thread, but they were currently on a case in Alaska.
The couple of messages she’d had said they were in the thick of something big.
If she told them what she’d found, they’d drop everything and swoop in, rescuing her and solving this case.
She would rather they lived their lives, and she was going to live hers, which involved not purposely trying to find a killer.
“There you are.” Sylvia stepped in and looked around, discovering it as empty as Eliana had a moment ago.
Except that now there were two people in here.
Eliana lifted her chin. “You were looking for me?”
“Let’s sit.” Sylvia motioned to the small round table with four chairs. In the other arm, she carried a wooden box about the size of a cash box, with an emblem burned into the side. “How are you doing? That can’t have been easy for you, discovering Doctor Splitfield like that.”
Eliana set the water bottle on the table, then closed her eyes for a second. “I’d rather talk about nearly anything else.”
Sylvia flushed, smiling. “Good, because I wanted to ask you about that police officer. Ryson.” She leaned forward as if reaching for some juicy gossip off a shelf. “It seemed like the two of you know each other.”
Okay, make that two things she’d rather not talk about. But Eliana had walked herself into this corner and she needed to get herself out of it.
“Carlos is a family friend,” she explained.
“His dad is friends with my parents, and we kind of grew up together. Seeing each other in the summer or over the holidays. I went to his high school for a while, as well.” She didn’t want to talk about the reason it didn’t last long, or the fact she’d put a crimp in her parents’ plans for her to graduate.
Eliana had found other ways to fulfill the requirements. But only out of desperation, and ugly crying over the heartbreak the entire time. All she felt for him now was annoyance.
“Right, I recall that from the files on your parents.” Sylvia nodded. “Your mother did a good job of keeping Javier and Valentina Ryson out of the spotlight for Dominatus. And you, of course.”
Only in the sense that becoming their leader meant she’d been able to control the narrative.
Kenna Banbury had spent years dismantling them from the inside out after the massacre in Chicago that cost her the life of someone she’d considered a mentor.
A man that Elizabeth, Eliana’s grandma, had spoken about.
“No urges to solve this murder?”
Eliana scrunched up her nose. “No, thankfully.” She smiled and took a sip of water. “I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“That’s a shame. I mean, you know, he was upset lately.”
Did she know that?
“They weren’t making any progress on his research,” Sylvia continued. “They were beginning to think they’d never get anywhere with the—” She cut herself off, or so it seemed.
Eliana bit her lip, fighting the urge to ask about that. She refused to be manipulated into anything, even purely out of curiosity. She’d always been nosier than most people.
“Never mind.” Sylvia waved a hand. “I’ll…ah…alert the scientists that they can quit taking bets on how long it will take you to find the killer.”
Eliana started. “Are you serious?”
Sylvia tipped her head to the side, smiling. Her right earring glinted in the overhead light. “There’s already a whole lot of names on the spreadsheet. But don’t worry, I’ll tell them all you don’t have any intention of investigating.”
Why did the director look almost disappointed by that?
“As long as no one quits answering my questions when I have them,” Eliana said. “I was upfront about why I’m here.”
Sometimes Eliana wondered if they thought she was her mother. Like she was some kind of reincarnation—which didn’t make sense anyway—and not a completely new person.
“In the spirit of being upfront, I wasn’t entirely sure about you when you agreed to take the job. But the Board isn’t often wrong about these things.” Sylvia smiled. “You’ve been an asset to the security team, and I’m happy to be completely wrong about you.”
Eliana wondered just how incorrect Sylvia would turn out to be. But as long as she got the answers she’d come here looking for, did it matter?
“I have something for you.” Sylvia touched the lid of the wooden box.
“The Board of Governors for the Shrine met last week. When someone has been working here for a while, they give that person a gift.” She paused.
“I know you were hoping to get the head of security position, but it really is for the best that Tony take the job. Given who you are, the risk is too great for you to be in that role.”
Eliana managed to choke out, “I…understand.”
But did she?
All she knew was that Tony now had access to the vault, and she never would.
Sylvia slid the box toward her. “Wait until you’re alone to open it. What the Board bestows is personal, and for you alone. It’s an honor.”
Eliana figured that meant she was supposed to be effusive with gratitude. Maybe send them a fancy handwritten notecard. “Thank you.”
“I’m sure you want to get home and rest after this morning.
” Sylvia started to get up from the chair, but hesitated.
“Unless you’re going to do some research into Doctor Splitfield, in which case I could provide you with a copy of his personnel file?
Under the purview of your position in security, of course. ”
“All I want is to forget today happened.”
Sylvia stood. “Understandable.” Then she wandered out.
Eliana slid the box over and looked at the Ψ symbol branded onto the side. It looked like a cup, but with a lid. Or the letter I—a capital—with wings. A quick internet search on her phone told her it was the Greek letter psi, meaning “mind” or “soul.” The origin of the word psychology in English.
Her mom would want to know about this as much as she’d want to know about the dead scientist. Which was why Eliana wasn’t going to bother them until their case was finished. Mom had told her many times how distraction could turn deadly, and she didn’t want that for her parents.
Today was a day full of things she didn’t want.
Dead bodies. Carlos all up in her business. His sister missing. Her parents at risk, going up against whatever crazy killer they were after now.
Alone in the break room, she could let the fear out of the box she kept it in.
Like the gift she’d received, it had a tight lid on it most of the time.
She knew how to control it—and all the ways she could stay safe living in a dangerous city, working with the remnants of a group her mom had spent so much time trying to take down.
But this wasn’t the lion’s den. It was the leftovers of a defunct organization that hadn’t been a threat for a long time.
Now they were just a story. History told as a caution—like every story she’d heard growing up.
Until the fear of what she couldn’t face swallowed her whole, she felt like she was drowning, and the nightmares started up all over again.
Please, no.
Eliana grabbed the box and stood in one move. She had to keep it under control, keep it all tight. Otherwise, she’d be back on the floor, suffering another panic attack.
The unknown was the worst of it. At least, the unknown she knew about. Those known-unknowns.
In the locker room, she sat on a flat wooden bench between the rows of lockers. No point waiting until she got home.
Eliana used her thumbs to shimmy up the lid, the wood shoved down snug. She wiggled it all the way free and set the lid on the bench.
On a bed of dark-blue velvet lay a long knife—a dagger—with detailing on the handle like swirls or scales. The blade had markings as well, as if it swirled molten under the surface of the metal itself. It looked like something her mom might carry. On a special occasion, maybe.
“Guess they think I’ll need to stab someone?”
Her words echoed in the empty room, making her shiver. What this had to do with psychology, she had no idea.
Eliana put the lid back on, shoved the box in her backpack, and shrugged it on her shoulders.
The key was to do something—keep moving—and let what was happening around her pull her from the spiral of her thoughts.
She was the only one who could control what was going on in her head, and she refused to be governed by her own anxiety.
At least as much as she could control it, that was absolutely what she was going to do.
Rather than use the quiet employee entrance, she opted to walk through the lobby.
She needed to see and hear people. To remember that regular folks existed in the world.
Everyone wasn’t either part of some great evil, or a hero here to take them down.
She could just be…her. She didn’t have to be better or more.
She could be who she was, and it was enough.
She skirted around a group of tourists huddled together, all of them wearing the smart glasses the Shrine used for the audio tour. Visual displays flashed in front of their eyes, an enhanced experience that came with a recording of her mom’s voice narrating the history of Dominatus.
Eliana smoothed down some hair from the wig beside her face, even though it was secure. It was enough that the employees here knew—and kept her secret. She didn’t need visitors realizing who she was. Not after the judgy way Carlos reacted to seeing her.
“…look at their system.”
Conversation drifted to her as a mixed group of young adults passed by.
Most appeared to be in their early twenties.
All of them looked at the displays in a way that caught her attention.
Not with interest, or curiosity. It was more that they seemed to be staring intently, as if trying to figure it out.
Eliana walked past them, then turned and looked at a display. One glance, and they’d know she was security, even with her jacket on over her shirt.
“Split up,” one of the guys said. He had long dark hair and wore a black hoodie over jeans. “Get what we need.”
The group dispersed in a way that had to be planned, going in all directions. Probably just a group of college students working on a project. That was all.
It had been a long day, with the body and Carlos—she wasn’t sure which had been worse—and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
A sense of freedom filled her as she headed for the entrance doors and out into the bright afternoon.
There wasn’t a better day she could think of to browse a used bookstore, see a tourist attraction, and enjoy a few hours away from work.
And forget all about things she wanted nothing to do with.