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“Well, the way I heard it,” the blonde interjected, “was that he was a pirate. Sailing around and pillaging coastal towns until one day, he saw the daughter of a mayor of one of those towns. Saw her through a telescope and fell in love the moment he laid eyes on her. Instead of attacking the town, he decided to woo her. He became a lovesick puppy dog, trying to get her to wed him. She rejected him and broke his heart. I think maybe he went off looking for vampires to turn him. Like, purposely tried to make himself into a vampire. All to come back and turn her into one, too, forcing her to be his.” She waved a hand through the air. “All gossip, though. Who knows?”
After knowing Von these last few weeks, I highly doubted he was everlovesickfor anyone. At best, if that story was remotely true, the mayor’s daughter was probably someone Von had wanted a wild romp with—a notch on his bedpost and nothing more. Maybe she’d said no and hurt his pride. This tale was a good start, but nothing solid.
“Well, it was lovely talking to you ladies. I’ll let you two get back to your break. Sorry to interrupt you.” I stood and headed toward the door.
“Bye. It was nice talking to you,” the blonde said.
“Yeah, good luck today,” the brunette added.
I waved and ducked back into the mansion. Von’s message last night had said there’d be some Q&A thing with the fans today. My free time was running out. I had no idea what time the thing was supposed to start. I might have time to talk to one more person if I hurried.
Before yesterday, I hadn’t even realized there was a basement area until Von led me to the ballroom. Maybe there was more to find down there. It was worth a shot.
After finding the staircase, I hurried down and turned right instead of left toward the ballroom. There were more doors, but most were locked or just supply closets. One room looked like some sort of trophy room, with thick leather chairs, velvet wallpaper, and at least two dozen mounted heads around the wall. There were tiger, elk, and wolf heads, a massive elephant head, and also a basilisk head, a griffin, and what was either a minotaur or an actual bull. The back of the room was lined with glass cases that held multiple types of firearms and magical weapons. It was interesting, but there were no people, and that was what I needed to find.
Moving down the hall, I finally hit paydirt when I glanced into a room whose door was ajar. It looked like a monitor room, with multiple computer terminals playing video feeds. This must be where they edited the video footage.
Inside, a lone warlock sat fiddling with some dials, rewinding a video of J.D. and Abel at breakfast. If this was the editing room, it must have some form of communication with the outside world. The showrunners and staff had to be able to converse with outside people when they were cutting clips for the show.
Before I could search, I had to get that guy out of the way first. I bumped the door with my shoulder, knocking it fully open. The sound and movement caught the warlock’s attention. His head snapped around, and he pinned me with his eyes. I gave him an awkward smile, unsure what else to do.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.
In a split second, I formulated my plan and implemented it. “Um, yeah, Mr. Thornton was looking for you.”
The warlock paled and put a hand on his chest. “Me?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Yup. He looked kind of pissed about something. Didn’t even bother asking the staff. I was the closest, so he sent me down here.” I leaned farther into the room, looking into his eyes. “He isnothappy about something. You probably want to hurry.”
An anxious look passed over the guy’s face. “Oh, shit. Okay.”
The warlock rushed out the door, not bothering to lock the room or even glance at me as he hurried down the hall toward the stairs to search for Von. I’d have five or ten minutes, maybe longer. The mansion was huge, but the staff probably knew better where to find Von than I did.
With one last glance around the hall to make sure it was clear, I slipped inside and latched the door behind me. I hesitated for a moment, then went ahead and locked it, too.
The equipment was mostly stuff I’d never seen before. Instead of poking around with it and wasting time, I sat at a console and scanned the files on the desktop. Most of the programs weren’t even password-protected, and I scrolled through at will.
It took a few minutes until I found what I’d come searching for: a voiceover internet protocol program. It turned the computer into a cell phone. All I had to do was connect it to the number I wanted. A quick scan of the history showed a ton of calls going to a number in Fangmore City. I did a reverse look-up with the computer’s internet and found it wasThe Reject Projecthome office number. Each call was anywhere from one to twenty minutes long. That meant it worked.
I punched in Kolton’s number, activated the minicam, and video-called him. When the connection was successful and Kolton’s phone rang, I almost shouted for joy. A few seconds later, his face appeared. A confused scowl transformed into a shocked smile when he saw me on his screen.
“Wyatt? What the hell?”
“I know,” I said. “Had to pull out all my tricks to make this happen.”
“Shit,” Kolton hissed. He looked to be in a store of some kind. He tucked himself between two aisles and lowered his voice. “How is this possible? You guys aren’t supposed to have any contact with the outside world.”
“Good to see you, too,” I said sarcastically.
Kolton winced. “Fuck, sorry. Good to see you, man. Dude, are you gonna get in trouble for this? There’s no way they’ll let this fly.” He squinted into the screen, trying to see what was behind me. “Where the hell are you, anyway?”
I snorted a laugh. “I don’t know how I could get into more trouble besides being on this show. I’m in an editing room. I snuck in, and I’m using their computer to call you. If they find me…” I shrugged. “Maybe they’ll try to get me killed faster.”
“You’re right about that. I know you can’t see the feed they show us, but it’s freaking obvious the showrunners have it out for you and Kira. Even the commercials for each episode talk about making sure to tune in because you guys might be eliminated at any time. It’s crazy.” Kolton glanced around, then looked at me again, his expression more serious. “The way they’re editing the show is weird, too. They’re making you and Kira look like total assholes. You can tell it’s pieced together to push the narrative they want, but it doesn’t add up.”
“Not surprising,” I said. “They want us to be the bad guys instead of the show itself. They probably want to tip fans toward hating us instead of liking us. Then there won’t be as much backlash when they finally figure out how to knock us off. Don’t worry about us, though. I’m still protecting Kira as best I can.”
“I know. I can tell. They can’t edit out everything. That changeling thing was fucking messed up. Even though they showed us which one of you was the imposter, it still freaked me out seeing my sister turn into that thing. It messed with my head.”
