38. Evelyn
38
Evelyn
A s we descended the stairs, raised voices drifted from the living room. Entering, we found Lucien pacing, his scowl deeper than usual. Rafe perched on the edge of an armchair, his wings twitching. While Ryker stood in the corner, arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Finally,” Lucien remarked. “Nice of you to join us.”
Heat crept up my cheeks, but Alister just raised an eyebrow. “What’s the emergency?”
Lucien stopped pacing, fixing us with a hard stare. “We might have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” I asked, my earlier contentment dissolving.
“The kind where people are asking questions about what happened at the warehouse,” Rafe said softly.
Chad sat on the couch. “So exploding buildings and mysterious disappearances attract attention. Who knew?”
I sank onto the couch next to Chad, my mind racing. “So, what do we do?”
“We can’t say or do anything.” Lucien resumed pacing. “Not without exposing ourselves and everything we’ve been trying to keep secret.”
Alister’s expression darkened. “Who’s asking these questions? The Supernatural Law Enforcement Agency?”
Ryker’s deep voice rumbled through the room. “Not just them. My father’s people are sniffing around, too. He wants me to meet him later tonight.”
A chill ran down my spine. “Please be careful,” I tell Ryker.
Rafe shook his head. “The good news is that we covered everything. The human police and our own agents, plus whoever is behind this, will not find anything that links us to what happened there.”
“And if they do, we say what?” I asked, frustration creeping into my voice. “Sorry, officer, we were just having a friendly magical duel that got out of hand?”
“We tell a version of the truth,” Alister said, his voice calm and measured. “We were investigating suspicious activity and were attacked. We defended ourselves. End of story.”
“And the exploding building? How do we explain that?” Lucien added.
“We don’t,” Ryker said. “Nobody knows it was us. Without evidence, they can’t prove anything.”
I chewed my lip, considering our options. “Okay, but what about the civilians who were there? The ones under the spell?”
“I’ve taken care of that,” Lucien said, his tone grim. “Memory modification potion. They won’t remember anything useful.”
Part of me wanted to protest the ethics of messing with people’s memories, but I knew we had little choice. “Alright. But how were they alerted to us in the first place?”
“It was our first location, where the body was found. It had a rudimentary alert spell for anyone who went sniffing,” Lucien said. “We’ll have to be more careful next time.”
“So, what’s our next move?”
“We stay low until it blows over. Ryker can check with his father if they know anything more,” Lucien clarified.
“Okay, let’s go with that for now,” I say unconvincingly.