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I blinked at her, suddenly touched. “Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate the warning. Was there anything specific you heard—”
She shook her head. “If there was, I’d tell you, I swear. It was just the general tone. The idea of the ‘problem’ needing to be ‘resolved.’ If I do hear anything specific, I’ll reach out.”
“That’s the most I can ask,” I said. My stomach had knotted. “I wish I could helpyoumore.”
“It’s all right. The fact that you let me in at all says a lot.” She sighed and got up. “I don’t want to impose on you any more than this.”
“It’s all right,” I said, standing with her. “I’ve already got two unexpected guests.” I wasn’t completely sure how I would have felt about her staying right here on the estate even after everything she’d said, but I wasn’t sure I could turn her away if she needed somewhere to hide out either. I couldn’t remember if she was consorted yet or not. Who knew what her parents might have arranged or be arranging for her?
“Thanks,” she said with another small smile. “But I really should be getting back. It’s a long drive… I told my parents I was visiting a friend. We’re supposed to be heading back home in a few days anyway.”
“Are you sureyou’renot in any danger?” Naomi said. My cousin knew how to get right to the point.
“Of course not,” Caroline said. “I can’t imagine…” A shiver ran through her. “No. It’s nothing like that.”
Was she really that sure? I grappled with what I could say and what I couldn’t as I walked her to the door. “If you ever do feel like you need somewhere to go,” I said. “I’d find a space for you here. Just so you know that.”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that, but thank you.” Her hands fidgeted with the hem of her blouse. Her nerves had returned, because of how she’d opened up with me or because of who she was heading back to, I didn’t know.
Naomi and I watched her walk back to her Mustang. I pressed the control inside the door to open the front gate for her. My cousin set her hands on her hips.
“Well, that was interesting,” she said.
More than just interesting. The things Caroline had said were still sinking in. She’d felt I was in danger—enough that she was willing to implicate her parents in telling me that. They were still talking about resolving the problem I posed, even though theoretically that problem had been resolved with the oath. I rubbed my arms, an uneasy chill running over my skin.
“We can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” I said. “Poking at leads without even being able to say what we’re looking for is getting us nowhere. We need to get real hard evidence. So what if Gabriel’s video didn’t work out? He wasn’t prepared. If we could just get back to the cliff, show everything from where it is on the property to the cave itself, maybe even try to talk to that creature— We need to show people just how far the Frankfords and their allies have gone. Just what kind of monsters they’re messing with.”
“It wasn’t that easy getting out there in the first place,” Naomi said. “How do you figure we’d manage it?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. The Frankfords will have that property so much more heavily guarded than before. They’d expect us to try something like that.” I bit my lip.
“Is there anything— I mean, I know you have more information than you’re allowed to talk to me about. Is there something in there that might give you an angle?”
By all that was lit and warm, I wished I could talk to her about the files we’d grabbed. Frustration coiled in my chest. But in this case there wasn’t much I could have told her anyway except, “Not that I’ve seen. We’d have jumped on that opportunity if we’d found it.” I knew the history of the property’s ownership, the calendar of their visits there, the old schedules the Frankfords had set up for rotating security, but they knew we’d seen all that. We couldn’t go in blithely hoping they’d left everything the same.
“Well, you know you’ve got me on your side no matter what, cuz,” Naomi said, slinging an arm around me. I hugged her back for a second, the frustration turning into an ache. She’d have to go home soon too. To her consort and the rest of my mother’s family—including my other aunt, Irene, who didn’t believe Naomi should be getting mixed up with me at all.
Somewhere in the depths of the house, one of our few landline phones rang. I shut the door and hurried to get it. It had barely rung since I’d gotten back—since the estate had become formally mine.
“Rose?” said the slightly familiar voice on the other end. “Oh, I suppose I should say Lady Hallowell now. It’s Herbert Landry.”
“Master Landry?” I said automatically. Most of my magical teaching had been done by James Courtland, who lived just outside town near us, but when I’d been particularly young, Landry had taken on some of my education. He’d moved down south—better for his old age, he’d said—and had only returned to Portland for occasional visits. I hadn’t seen him in years.
He chuckled. “I think you’re enough past being my student to drop that formality. I’m glad I reached you.”
“Why’s that?” I said. “What’s going on?” I had only pleasant memories of Landry, but he’d never called to chat with me before.
“Oh, it’s nothing terribly urgent, I merely— I just arrived in Portland for the week, and I dropped in on your father here. I hadn’t realized you’d fallen out so badly. You’ve banned him from the family estate?”
My hand clenched around the phone. Howdaremy father bring other people into this conflict when he knew I couldn’t properly accuse him of the things he’d done. “There are good reasons for that,” I said, my voice tight.
“I have trouble imagining you going to those lengths otherwise,” Landry said. “But in case there was any room for reconciliation… I’ve never seen him like this, Rose. He’s a shadow of the man he was. If you can find it in your heart to even attempt to discuss the matter with him…”
“We’ve already discussed it at length,” I said, only barely keeping myself from outright snapping. Landry didn’t have any idea what I’d been through, the way Dad had talked to me during our last real conversation when he’d tried to justify enslaving my magic so I’d be forced into some sort of service with those demons… But right then I hated my former teacher for making me remember it, for buying into Dad’s wounded act. “I don’t want to talk about it withanyoneanymore.”
“All right, all right. Just a concerned friend of the family, you know.”
“I know. I was actually in the middle of something. We’d better leave it at that.”
