Page 16 of Bound By the Sleeper’s Harp

I exhaled, all the fight leaving me. “Am I under arrest or something? Are you an undercover cop? Are the Fae trying to bring me in? Do I need to hire a lawyer? Should I⁠—”

“Enough!” Bastian growled. “I’m a bounty hunter…of sorts. All of this is off record—for now. But yes, I’m looking for Professor Miller’s killer. I admit, you’re at the top of my list.” He set his empty glass on the side table and leaned forward, resting his tattooed forearms on his knees.

My skin itched beneath his severe gaze. When I opened my mouth to speak, nothing but a choking sound came out. “I… I didn’t do it. This is…” A deranged laugh bubbled up from my chest. “It’s ridiculous. I haven’t spoken to Jane in two years.”

“So you do know her.”

“I do—did. Years ago.”

“Uh-huh. And why haven’t you spoken to her since?”

Guilt slipped into my gut, hot and uncomfortable, making my nausea rise. “I… We fell out of touch.”

“Right.” He leaned back, his gaze showing obvious mistrust. “What was the nature of your relationship? How did you know each other? Why would she leave everything to you?”

“I knew her from the university,” I said, my voice faint.

“How so?”

I gave him an idiotic glare. “How do you think? I was a student there.”

This was insane. Why would she leave everything to me? I knew she was somewhat estranged from her family—in that she didn’t talk to them much. But… Why me?

“Right,” Bastian gritted out. “Funny thing about that, when I looked through the university records, there was no trace of Eleanor Rose Kennedy.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Shit.” Bastian’s expression spoke volumes as his assessing gaze raked over me. Like he’d already made his mind up about me and was merely playing along.

“I can promise you, I was a student there.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You think I’m lying?” The notion burrowed beneath my skin, making my muscles tighten. I didn’t mind being misjudged by people, but I hated, absolutely hated, when someone didn’t believe me. Luke had never believed me. He’d never taken me seriously.

“I’m sure you look at me and all you see is a party girl with pink hair who has no greater ambition than exotic dancing⁠—”

“Woah, woah, woah, sugar.” He held up his hands, placating. “I never said that.”

“—but once upon a time I was a master’s student at WU, working on my thesis.”

Back in those days, I had a passion for art history and archeology—studying what people found beautiful, what survived through the ages. All of it was taken from me.

By Luke.

“A master’s student.” He lifted an eyebrow.

“Look, asshole,” I hissed. “I had no idea Jane successfully removed me from the records. I knew she was going to try. I never followed up.”

“That raises plenty of additional questions. But we’ll table it, for now.” His voice was calm, like my words had no effect. “Let’s say I believe you. Let’s say you were a student at WU and what, got your master’s degree? Then what?”

I swallowed. “I never finished—never got my degree. I left the university.”

“To do what?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” When his expression didn’t change, I tutted, gesturing to my hair and outfit. “You sure you’re the right person to track down her killer?”

He didn’t rise to my bait. “So you’ve been working at Vortex ever since?”