“Tied at three each.” Mateo turned a page and sat up straighter. “What was the name of that asylum upstate? The one where your friend who sees the past was committed when he got stuck in his magic?”
Sebastian wracked his memory for a moment. “Hyde Gardens. Why?”
Mateo set the open newspaper on the mattress and pointed to a column. Sebastian stepped over to see it for himself.
“Hyde Gardens reopens after September’s mass escape,” he read aloud. “I didn’t hear about this.”
Mateo was still scanning the article. “Not many details.”
“You hear things though, about asylums,” Sebastian said. “Inmates may have had good reasons to escape. Rory did.”
“That could have been me,” Mateo said, “except I had you.”
Sebastian swallowed. This was exactly why he had to get used to the brooch, because subordinate paranormals like Rory and Mateo could end up trapped in their own magic, their minds lost. With the brooch, Sebastian might be able to help them. “The binding on your magic is still holding, yes?”
“Ugh, stop,” Mateo said. “I can practically hear your thoughts.”
“What thoughts?”
“You’ve been repressing my magic since I was eleven,” Mateo said. “We’re family. Just because you bound my magic doesn’t mean you can do it with someone else. Do you really think you need to grind yourself into the ground with that brooch over a chance you can help subordinate paranormals?”
“But that’s just it—why am I so tired?” Sebastian said. “No other paranormal I have known with a relic has had this problem. And it doesn’t matter if I want to get rid of it; it has to be stolen during a murder and I hope it would be obvious that I don’t want anyonemurdered.”
“Isn’t Fine going to help you find a way to get rid of it?”
“Wesley was barely thrown into the paranormal world a few weeks ago,” Sebastian said. “It’s way too much, too soon, to ask him to help with a relic.”
“Estas hablando como papí,” Mateo said. “Dad is the one who always talks about the family legacy, like non-magical people are some helpless and completely separate species, but it’s not really like that. Haven’t you had any girlfriends without magic?”
“Por qué todo el mundo creen que he tenido tantas novias? I really haven’t dated that many people,” Sebastian said, so he wouldn’t have to answer.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” Mateo said. “I dare you to suggest to Fine’s face that he can’t handle the paranormal world.”
Sebastian could picture Wesley’s reaction. He winced. “Don’t tell Wesley I said any of this.”
“Can I tell him you’re being stupid?” said Mateo. “Let your boyfriend help you get rid of the brooch. Let Miss Robbins and Mr. Zhang and the others help you.”
Mateo made it sound so easy. Wesley was straightforward and steady and he didn’t rattle easily; there probably wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. But Sebastian had gone into the army at eighteen and then into service for Baron Zeppler. He’d been on his own a long time; asking people for help meant remembering he had people to ask in the first place.
“I don’t think Wesley is my boyfriend,” Sebastian said, instead of voicing those thoughts. “I mean, we’ve never talked about it.”
“But you’re not going to call Loretta from the passenger terminal because you have Lord Fine,” Mateo said shrewdly. “So what are the two of you, then?”
“Going to see a man I once held at gunpoint, apparently,” Sebastian said. “I think I will always feel awkward around Arthur and Rory.”
Judging by Mateo’s expression, he knew Sebastian was dodging the question, but he let it go. “How do Lord Fine and Arthur Kenzie know each other, anyway?”
“They’re friends,” said Sebastian. “I don’t know how they became friends, but Arthur’s father is a congressman and Wesley is a viscount. They went to the same wedding here in New York in February, so their social circles overlap; maybe it was easy for them to meet in London.”
“Arthur Kenzie is the one with magic in his aura?” said Mateo. “The magic of the asylum escapee who sees history and has the ring relic, Rory Brodigan?”
Sebastian nodded. “Those two are also very good friends.”
“They would have to be, for magic to work like that.” Mateo tapped his lips. “So Lord Fine has avery good friendfrom his social circle, who’s athletic and handsome, according to you, and that man is nowvery good friendswith a different man?”
“Yes.”
“And all of them arejustfriends?”
