Chapter Thirty
Leonora
A knock on the door came far too early in the morning. Or night. Honestly, I'd lost track since the chaos of yesterday.
I sighed. “It's open.”
Hayes groaned from beside me and I wasn't too surprised to see Novalie walk in, guiding Emerson with her.
“Another one?” Since Hayes had bested Adrian, Em's visions had become more frequent, at least one an hour. Cal had theorised that everything was too in-flux, but I thought it was more likely that we'd raised more than a little hell and there would be consequences for it.
Novalie nodded. “Third one tonight.”
I bit my lip as another thought occurred to me. Had this been triggered by the power Hayes had wielded before? The last time Emerson had been like this, I'd inadvertently shocked her system with magick. I was bonded to Hayes so perhaps…
It was a puzzle for another time. “How lucid is she?”
“Barely. I can't get anything out of her that makes sense.”
Emerson's eyes cleared and she blinked. “Is he not here yet?”
“Who?” I asked, just as the door opened again and Rowan walked in.
“Gang’s all back together,” Hayes said, voice flat and Novalie folded her arms across her chest.
“I'm happy to see you,” she said, but held up a hand before Rowan could come closer. “But I'm still pissed that you killed Nora.”
“Bygones,” I murmured, but gave Rowan a long look. It was true that we were somewhat 'even' for killing each other. It didn't mean I trusted him, though. That would take time to rebuild. “You found something?”
“I found her .”
My breath caught. How had he managed to track Elowen down so fast? Though it was true that I hadn't been trying that hard when I'd gone AWOL. I'd mostly spent the time trying to get drunk. “Where is she?”
“Pretending to be human.”
I shared a look of confusion with Hayes before glancing back at Rowan. “As in...?”
“As in, she's changed her name again and is at some kind of commune.”
“That...” I opened and closed my mouth. Of all the things I'd expected him to say, that wasn't even close.
“Yeah. Weird, right? But I spent some time watching them and, this is the truly wild part, they know about us.” Rowan's face was alight with the kind of excitement he usually only showed over new books or a particularly juicy historical fact. “About vampires, I mean, not you personally because that would be?—”
I tuned him out, used to the babble that came with his excitement over a new discovery.
Elowen had run off to live with a group of humans that knew about vampires. She'd changed her name and was pretending to be human, but why ?
Hayes stood up and started pacing while we all watched, Novalie shooting me a look as if I should intervene but I shrugged. He was clearly working something out, better to let him get on with it.
“That's not all!” Rowan gestured and I swallowed a laugh. “She's looking for something these humans have. Some kind of stone.”
Hayes stopped walking and I frowned. It was as if all the pieces were present, but they were too scattered to make any sense yet.
“A stone? Or,” he said, turning to look at me meaningfully, “a gem?”
I shook my head. “No. Why would Elowen care about that? And how would the humans have it?”
“I don't know yet.” His hands clenched into fists and I moved to him, taking his balled hand in mine and squeezing gently until it relaxed. “None of this makes sense.”
Rowan cleared his throat, interjecting quietly. “Um, it might be helpful to know that when I said these humans know about vampires... Well, more specifically, they hunt them.”
There wasn't any humour in the situation, but I burst out laughing anyway. They stared at me like I was crazy and I tried to breathe out slowly so I could speak, because the pieces finally fit together. “What better place to hide the thing that could change vampire society as we know it, than with the people who hunt creatures like us?”
“You don't really mean...” Emerson frowned and I laughed again.
“Adrian gave the gem to the vampire hunters.”
“But why does Elowen want it?” Hayes resumed his pacing and I shrugged.
“I would say to control Adrian, but that doesn't make sense all things considered.” Rowan pointed to the door and looked nervous when we all stared at him. “What?”
“What do you mean, all things considered?” I said slowly and Rowan frowned.
“You mean you don't know? It's all anyone was talking about as I walked in.”
“ What, Rowan?”
“Well.” He cleared his throat and glanced at us again, eyes flicking between the four of us. “Adrian's dead. I assumed it had something to do with you.”
I looked to Hayes and found his accusing stare already on me. “Hey! Don't look at me like that. I didn't do this.”
“Well, neither did I,” he said, muscle in his jaw ticking as he watched me, measuring the validity of my words before nodding.
“We know there's at least one other murderer in the room,” Novalie said pointedly and Rowan grimaced.
“It wasn't me either, I literally just got here.”
“Or maybe that's just what you want us to think,” Emerson pointed out and Rowan sighed, pulling two orange cards from his pocket. “Oh. No, he really did only just get here. Twelve o'clock train from Sheffield.”
Novalie whistled. “Damn.”
“But if I didn't kill him, and you didn't kill him, and neither did Rowan...” I started, a creeping sensation rippling up my spine as Hayes met my eyes. “Then, who did?”