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I shrug. “I guess that’s what we need to find out.”
Ayden nods. “You should get some rest first and take care of your mom.”
He kisses my hair, and I nestle up to him again.
“I’m glad you’re here and that you’re talking to me again.” Isense a part of him close off to me, and suddenly there’s this distance between us. He’s still holding me in his arms, but their soothing effect is gone.
“I told you I’m here for you if you need me,” he says quietly. “We can talk about everything else later.”
“I’ll stay a while,” says my mother, as we’re standing beside Charles’ grave a few days later. He was buried in a city cemetery, not the hunter cemetery, because there’s no place for him there as a traitor. I don’t know what to think about all this. I’m torn. On one hand, I despised Charles for using my mother. He hurt her. And he wormed his way into my life and gained my trust too. But he saved Mom’s life. And what he said to her when she was unconscious – somehow, I actually believe him. Why did he have to end it all like that?
“Are you sure?” I ask her.
She nods and gives me and Ayden a sad smile. I’m glad he came, although I know he only did it for me. He doesn’t think much of Charles anymore.
“You two go. I’d like to stay here a while longer. I’ll make my own way home.”
I’m about to try to convince her to come with us, but when I look into her eyes, I understand that this is important to her, and she knows what she’s doing. So I head home with Ayden.
“I talked to my father about Arthur,” he begins.
It’s a cool day and it rained a few hours ago. The sky still looks gray, heavy, and oppressive. A cool breeze makes me shiver, and I wrap my arms around myself.
“As I expected, he listened to what I had to say, but he has his doubts. I obviously couldn’t tell him everything; he doesn’t know about Frida’s room. So the information I could give him was limited. But he’s going to keep tabs on him. That’s all he can do.”
I nod. We anticipated that kind of response, so it comes as nosurprise.
“What now?” I ask.
He shrugs. “We don’t want to provoke him. Right now he’s probably on high alert and being cautious. We’ll just watch him in the hope that he eventually makes a mistake.”
I snort angrily. Ayden’s right, of course. But it’s hard for me to sit tight. I look at the side of his face, his striking profile. There’s a hardness to it that I’ve seen a lot in the last few days. When I was at the hospital with my mother, I hoped that maybe we had turned a corner, but I now know better.
“Do you want to talk about the Noah thing again?” I ask.
He sighs irritably, is silent for a moment, and then says, “I have a meeting with the hunters.”
I nod sadly. “Patrol?”
“A briefing. We’re planning a deployment to lure out and eliminate a few Noctu.”
My heart contracts. I know it’s unlikely that anything will happen to him and that these deployments are a daily occurrence for the hunters, but there’s always a chance that something could go wrong. I nod mutely and a chilly feeling sloshes inside me like icy seawater. It spreads out through my veins, and every muscle in my body tenses. But I don’t know what to say.
When we arrive back at school, Ayden kisses the top of my head and disappears down one of the corridors. I weigh up whether to go to my room or go to class after all. I’ve been excused from classes for the rest of the day because of the funeral, but the idea of sitting alone in my room makes me shudder.
So I gather up my school things and make my way to biology. My friends are surprised when I show up to class, but they’re pleased. They know about the funeral, and they try to take my mind off things as best they can.
“Today must have been tough for you.” Kate puts a comfortingarm around me. “I was meaning to ask if you want to hang out tonight. We could go to the movies or something.” She studies my face.
I shake my head. “I could definitely use a distraction, but I’d prefer to have a quiet evening.”
“Then let’s go to my room and watch a couple of movies on Netflix and pig out on ice cream and chips. It’ll be fun.”
I nod and smile. “Sounds good. How about you guys?” I ask Lucia and Max.
“Yeah, you should come too. It’ll be a real girls’ night,” says Kate.
Max and Lucia exchange a brief glance, then Max says, “We have plans to go out. There’s a band playing tonight at Nude, and it’s gonna go off.”
