Page 125 of Storm Caller

“Our headquarters,” Danica says. “Come on. They’re waiting for you.”

She takes us through the apartment, and we enter what must serve as a rec room, with numerous plush chairs, a pool table, a pinball machine, and even a bar stocked with bottles of alcohol. I see a few people I recognize from the Fog, including Ada, Henry, and Brooklyn.

Seated on a chair at the far end of the room is Edward.

“Poet!” he says when he sees me, standing up and rushing over. We hug tightly before we pull apart. He looks much better than the last time I saw him, with his skin back to its usual healthy hue and his hair shiny and brushed. Someone has found him a fresh black shirt and pants.

“I’m so happy to see you,” I say before he hugs Rook, too. “We both are.”

“So relieved,” Rook agrees. “How are you?”

Edward shakes his head as we all take our seats. “I’m not really sure I know how to answer that.”

“Edward has had a difficult week,” Ada says. “We’ve had to move him several times over the last few days to avoid discovery, but he should be safe enough here for now.”

“And then what?” I ask.

“That will be up to him.”

We all turn to Edward, who’s sitting forward with his elbows on his knees.

“You all want to know what I found out, right?” Edward asks. “That’s what they wanted to know, too.”

“If you’re ready to talk about it,” Henry says. “We understand this must be traumatic.”

Edward huffs out a wry snort and leans back in his seat. He seems different. There’s a darker light in his eyes. Something harder in his expression. Like something was taken, or maybe he found a new purpose trapped in that cell. Maybe he was forced to grow up a little. I think we all have.

“They tried to get it out of me,” he says. “I could tell they didn’t know for sure if I’d seen anything because I covered my tracks perfectly that night.”

He says it with a touch of pride and a hint of defiance.

“What did they do to you?” Rook asks.

“Knocked me around a bit,” he says, gesturing to the bruises on his face. I try not to react, but the thought makes me sick. “Threatened to do much worse if I didn’t cooperate. I think they were trying to scare me, and I have to admit, at first, it was working.”

“And then what?” Rook asks.

Edward shrugs, his posture loose and casual as he hooks an ankle over his knee. “I realized I didn’t care. They could try to beat it out of me, but I wouldn’t break. They’re scared. They’re hiding something, and I don’t know how to explain it, but it offered me a sort of power to make them sweat. If I died for it, then so be it.”

“Who questioned you?” Henry asks. “Who was in the room?”

“I don’t know. They were either masked or shone a light in my face. They wanted to stay hidden.”

I notice that everyone around the room shares a look.

“Did you tell them anything?” Henry asks. “How did you explain what you were doing that night?”

“I told them about the video I showed to Poet. I claimed we were just looking for more information about Raine’s death. I said she was having trouble coming to terms with it and she hoped there was some evidence of the people who took his body.” He scoffs. “I’m sure they knew it was all bullshit.”

“It was kind of true,” I say.

“I think they believed me because of that. It might be why I’m still alive.”

“What made them think you’d found something else?” I ask.

“I covered most of my tracks, but I was working quickly and left behind a few digital artifacts. Not enough to suggest anything specific, though. Plus, I knew there were cameras positioned on the screens,” he says. “Mr. Robins told me about them when I went to visit him at work. So, I’d moved the monitors just enough that they couldn’t catch what I was doing. Obviously, that made them suspicious.”

“Smart,” Henry says, and Edward shrugs again, like none of this is bothering him. I’m trying to make sense of this boy I once knew. It feels like he became a man overnight.