19
The Accident
For a moment, Kerrigan was disoriented as she burst into her rooms. Everything in her life had looked almost exactly the same since she arrived in the House of Dragons. Two twin beds with a chest of drawers and an armoire. Over the years, they had accumulated more useless stuff to fill the spaces—old books, sheets of parchment, a kite, a virtual treasure trove of makeup and hair pieces and the like—covering all the nooks and crannies. Now, the room was spotless, save for Kerrigan’s bed and clothes. Darby had only been in here for a few hours, and already, the place looked empty, except for her three friends crowding the space.
“Whoa,” she whispered when she stepped inside.
“Oh, Kerrigan, you made it,” Darby said. She looked around the room, flustered.
“You… packed quickly.”
“I’m supposed to move out tonight,” she said. “I would have packed your clothes up, but I didn’t know where you were moving.”
Except she wasn’t moving. Not for another month at least.
“No, this is… this is fine,” Kerrigan said evenly.
Hadrian sighed and paced another step. “Can we get back to the topic at hand?”
“I still think he’s just drunk somewhere.” Clover lazily leaned back on Kerrigan’s bed as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
She always got so confrontational around Hadrian. It didn’t help that he seemed so reticent that Kerrigan was friends with someone from the Wastes.
“He’s not just drunk!” Hadrian cried, rising to the bait.
Clover quirked an unconcerned half-smile in his direction. “Pretty boy likes to party.”
“He does like to party,” Darby whispered.
Hadrian looked at her in distress. “He does, but that’s not… he wouldn’t just stay out.”
“He followed me,” Kerrigan interrupted before the conversation could get destructive.
“What do you mean?” Hadrian asked.
“Last night, I left the party early. I snuck out the back gate and went to the Wastes.” She gestured to Clover. “We were out all night.”
Clover shrugged. “Yeah, but Lyam wasn’t with us.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“How do you know he followed you then?” Hadrian asked.
“Did you purposely lose him?” Darby asked softly.
“No, I didn’t even know. Usually, I can tell when he’s tailing me, but I couldn’t last night. I talked to Fordham and he saw Lyam leave after me.”
“You did?” Hadrian said.
Clover laughed. “So, that’s why you were wearing his cloak last night.”
“You were wearing his cloak?” Darby asked, suddenly all too interested.
“No. Yes. Wait, none of that matters.” Kerrigan sighed and took a seat next to Clover on the bed. “When I left the party, Fordham gave me his cloak because I was still in my pink dress and very conspicuous. That’s all.”
“All right,” Clover said with a wink.
Kerrigan sighed. “Back to Lyam.”
“You never saw him following you?” Hadrian asked.
“No.”
“We’re going to have to tell someone,” Darby whispered.
“Wait… why?” Clover asked.
“Because he’s missing,” Darby said vehemently. Then, she realized she had yelled at Clover, and she quickly averted her gaze.
“He’s not missing. He hasn’t even been gone for twenty-four hours. We have no clue where he went or if he even really followed Kerrigan. He could be anywhere. He could purposely not want to be in the mountain,” Clover said with a raised eyebrow. “It’s possible to not want to be here, you know.”
While her friends bickered, all Kerrigan could think about was the conversation she’d had with Lyam last night. How he had confessed to knowing about her visions and how good she had felt to finally have someone else to confide in about them. Someone who wasn’t Dozan Rook… or even Helly. Was it a coincidence that the night he’d told her what he knew… he disappeared? All her life, Helly had told her that if anyone else knew about her visions, they would be in danger. She would be in danger. And now… this.
“I have to tell Helly,” Kerrigan finally concluded.
“Kerrigan, you don’t have to tell anyone,” Clover said.
But Kerrigan rose to her feet. “I know I’m likely going to be in trouble—again—for leaving the party last night. But if Lyam is missing, then we should probably have the Guard out looking for him. We should probably let Kenris know.”
“I think it’s the right move,” Hadrian said, running a hand back through his blue hair.
“Of course you do,” Clover snapped.
“Stop,” Kerrigan said. “Just stop.”
Darby put her hand on Kerrigan’s sleeve. “We’ll go with you. It’ll be okay. We’ll find Lyam.”
Kerrigan nodded reassuringly. She could tell Hadrian must have really been on edge if he couldn’t even see that she needed reassurance. Clover got under his skin so easily.
“Thank you.”
Darby fought for a comforting smile, but she just looked scared. And Kerrigan was scared, but she couldn’t look it. That was how their friendship worked. Kerrigan put on a brave face. She led the way to victory and adventure, as she always had. Today was no different.
“All right,” she said, more to herself than anything.
Then, the four of them left the room and headed out of the House of Dragons. Before they even got all the way out, Mistress Moran appeared in the hallway. She looked crumpled. Normally, she was so immaculate. Her black robes pressed and clean. Her hair a tight bun. But this hardly even looked like her.
“Kerrigan, Darby, Hadrian,” she said gently, “I was coming to collect you. I wasn’t sure if you had already left to stay in your new homes.”
“No,” Kerrigan said uneasily. “We have to go talk to Helly.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Moran said.
“Why not?” Hadrian asked.
Moran’s eyes darted between them. It was a sign of how out of it she was that she didn’t even comment on Clover’s appearance with the group inside the mountain.
“I… I came to find you because, unfortunately, I have… I have terrible news.”
Kerrigan looked at Hadrian and Darby in confusion. “What terrible news?”
“I hate to tell you this, and I know that it is going to come as quite a shock, but Lyam has been found.” She swallowed hard. “He was found dead.”
Darby gasped next to her. Clover’s face hardened into something resolute. Hadrian just looked thunderstruck, as if he hadn’t quite heard her right. But Kerrigan… Kerrigan felt all of her fears escalate in that moment. A low buzzing filled her ears. As if everything was suddenly and inexplicably underwater. Lyam had told her he knew about her visions. He’d followed her out of the party. And now, he was dead… because of her.
“I am so sorry,” Moran said. “It’s a tragic accident.”