Chapter 28 #2
Halfway under the desk was the fat folder labeled Revenge.
I eagerly dug through everything. Stamped across the top of each paper was a status: Recovered, Deceased, or In Progress.
I scanned each name, searching desperately.
I flipped past the unfamiliar names as quickly as possible, desperate for more information, and then—
Brielle Holloway: Deceased
The shock wave of hearing the news of my mother’s death crashed over me all over again.
I shoved the paper back and tried to blink back tears, still digging through the file.
If only these were as well organized as the rest of the Employer’s office had been.
I skimmed past name after name until I found another familiar one.
Tavrek Holloway: Recovered
A sigh of relief slipped out of my mouth.
Ambrose had said that my father was alive and had been sold to a wealthy family.
Perhaps that was why the Employer didn’t want a bounty out on my father.
I clung to that hope. No matter what had happened to my mother, I still had at least one family member still alive.
Now to find the final one. My optimism dwindled as I neared the end of the file, but just as I was about to give up hope, I saw her name.
Nora Holloway: Recovered
I pulled out the paper and stared hungrily at it.
Nora’s status was also recovered. That must mean that Ambrose knew something about Nora now.
He might even have had an update that he intended to tell me before the Nightsworn came to raid.
I had to find him and ask. I’d put a bounty on my father; why hadn’t I done the same for my sister?
Just as I was about to shove the drawer closed, the last paper in the file caught my eye.
Jillian Holloway: In Progress.
Puzzled, I pulled it out. The paper with my name lacked information found on the others. Could it be another Jillian? It was a common enough name. But the line on age said six years old, and the paper was dated some sixteen years previous. Someone was looking for me.
Questions exploded one after the other in my head. I’d never been sold until Lochlan had me go undercover. I’d been left behind when my family was taken. Had this document been forged? But how could anyone have known my name and age? Had they questioned my parents or sister and forced them to tell?
I kept looking at the documents, my brow knit in confusion, until I heard the sound of someone hammering on the street outside. I jumped and went back to Lochlan in the next room.
“I found them,” I told him, and showed him the papers. “Dahlia was right—my mother died. But my father is alive and I think Ambrose might have new information on my sister. And look, there was a document for me, too. See?”
Lochlan was staring out the window, glancing up and down the street. “Good, good,” he murmured distractedly. “We need to go. People are out there and they’re putting up notices.”
“We can get out through the back window,” I told him. “You won’t fit through the compost chute.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” he agreed, heading toward the back. “We need to go before anyone sees us here.”
“Did you hear what I said?” I asked as we cracked open the window and slipped out. “There was a paper with my name on it.”
“What?” Lochlan turned. “What do you mean?”
I handed it over. “See? They had the information from when my family was taken.”
“That’s strange,” Lochlan murmured, looking at the paper, then his head shot up. “Get down.” He steered me across the street while shielding me from view. “Someone’s over there.”
We ducked around the corner and Lochlan leaned back to look. “The Nightsworn are putting up some sort of notice. They posted several more while you were searching,” he reported in an undertone. After a moment, he added, “And now they’re leaving. I don’t think they saw us.”
I clutched the papers containing my family’s information. My father had been recovered. Was the Employer connected with the wealthy family who’d bought him? Had the family reported that my father was safe?
“Let’s go,” Lochlan said, heading down the street. “Roderick’s going to wonder where we’ve been all this…all this…”
He stared at the poster that had just been put up. “Oh no,” he breathed.
I followed his gaze and my knees almost buckled. The Nightsworn had put up another wanted poster, and the face pictured there was mine.
The name Gil was scrawled at the top of the page, and Elvin’s style was unmistakable in the portrait.
The worst part was that he knew my face all too well.
In the section for aliases in the middle, “Jillian Holloway” was listed.
There was no way I could hide now. Elvin must have drawn it, but he had been working for the Syndicate…
unless he had been a double agent all this time, feeding information to the Nightsworn.
That would explain why Elvin wanted to get so close to Ambrose and why the Nightsworn had taken Ambrose right as Elvin left. His whistling could’ve been the signal.
But it still didn’t add up. Elvin didn’t know I was a girl. Neither did Brent or Ambrose or any of them. How could they have known?
I whirled on Lochlan. “Did you have any part in this? Only you know my real name.”
Lochlan ripped the poster down and stared. “Who issued this?”
“You just said the Nightsworn were putting it up. Be honest. Did you tell anyone?”
“No one you would know.”
My stomach spasmed in fear and I grabbed his arm in a death grip. “Lochlan! Who? Who did you tell?”
“My mother, okay? I wanted to tell her about you. She’s always asking.”
I stared into his eyes, willing them to appear truthful. “She must’ve told Elvin, and Elvin must’ve told the Nightsworn.”
Lochlan looked back down at the poster. “It looks like they think you’re worth quite a bit.”
I hadn’t even looked at the price on my head, and when I did, all the air vanished from my lungs.
The bounty was listed at five thousand gold shillings, more than any bounty I’d ever seen besides the one for the pixie blood.
And there at the bottom was an order that I was to be delivered immediately to the Nightsworn.
I looked up and down the street. Posters were already up everywhere.
It wouldn’t just be bounty hunters coming for me.
It would be anyone and everyone who wanted extra money.
Why would the Nightsworn be so keen on arresting me?
It didn’t make sense. I hadn’t done anything to the Nightsworn—not that they would know about, anyway.
I must’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way, or they’d seen me at the warehouse and knew I was somehow connected.
Had Elvin told them to put up the posters and told them I was a bounty hunter?
Chills ran through my body. “Lochlan, people will start coming after me. Everyone will want to turn me in.”
“They won’t know where to look.”
“You really think people like Elvin or Peter will turn down an offer like this? And even if they didn’t, hundreds of people have seen me at the market with you. They know my face. I have to leave Berkway. I can’t stay here.”
“No,” Lochlan said immediately. “What about your family?”
“It won’t matter. There aren’t any more leads, and I’ll never find them anyway if I’m locked up in a cell.” I stared down at the poster again. “I’d bet anything that Elvin drew this.”
“Figures,” Lochlan grumbled.
“He draws all the faces for the bounties,” I continued. “He doesn’t care who it is and my face would’ve been easy. He knows me well. Usually if the person asking for a bounty can describe the person, Elvin will sketch it out, but for this…”
Lochlan was chewing on the inside of his cheek, thinking hard then straightened decisively. “Put up your hood,” he said. “We can’t have anyone seeing you. Walk with me.” He nudged me to the right.
“Where are we going?”
“To Mable’s house,” Lochlan said promptly. “She lives fairly close. Once we aren’t out in the open, we can figure things out.”
I followed him, mind still racing. I couldn’t prevent myself from staring at the poster in Lochlan’s hand, my face staring right back at me, then at the paper I’d taken from the Syndicate.
Both the Employer and the Nightsworn must be hunting me down.
Who would find me first, and would I survive once they did?
“Don’t look up,” he instructed me. We passed through the market, where afternoon shoppers were cheerfully going about their business.
Lochlan’s hold around my shoulders stiffened. “There are more posters,” he whispered in my ear. “Keep your head down.”
I obeyed, terrified that once I looked up, everyone would recognize me. There would be a mob all eager to collect my reward. Too many people knew Gil.
“Do you think your mother told Elvin?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the ground.
“Yes, I’m sure she did. I’ll need to explain a few things to you.”
I jerked away and looked at him in horror. “You knew? You knew she would tell?”
“I have to explain—” Lochlan began, but there was a shout from behind him.
“It’s the one from the wanted poster! That’s Gil!”
So many of the people I’d smiled at and talked to during my time being Lochlan’s supposed apprentice now turned on me. “Call the Nightsworn!” a woman shouted.
“Run!” Lochlan said, snatching my hand and pulling me down a street. More shouts came from the market behind us, followed by the sound of boots thundering after us.
“Halt right there!”
I ignored them and kept running. A stitch burned in my side each time my foot struck the ground or I drew in another gasp of air, but I kept pushing on with Lochlan right beside me.
The unfamiliar alley twisted sharply ahead, narrower than the last, its walls leaning inward like they were determined to match the confined, trapped feeling that was becoming more prominent with each passing moment.
“Into that building, quick,” Lochlan said, pointing up ahead to a deserted-looking building. “I’ll answer all your questions, I promise.”