He just waved her off. “We got our goodbyes in. It’s all good. Thanks for that, actually. It was pretty great until about two seconds ago.”
While she couldn’t be entirely certain, Aurora felt a twinge at the timing. Just as she was getting emotional about the handsome wolf slinking away, Reavis had gone berserk. She wasn’t certain yet, but she suspected there might be a connection.
“Aw, come on! Are you kidding me?”
From the sound of things, Ronun was on the porch tugging at the doorknob, but the house wouldn’t let him in. The pretty door knocker Louie had given the house echoed all the way downstairs. By the time Aurora made it up to the kitchen, Kelly was already hustling blearily from upstairs.
“Open up,” she commanded. “Just let him in already.”
At Kelly’s command, the door flew open and Ronun stomped in.
“This fucking place, always playing pranks. There’s a time and a place, man.”
“What were you doing outside, anyway, babe?”
“Nothing. Some werewolf was out there saying some shit about rotten flowers. Didn’t seem dangerous, but I told him to scram anyway.”
Aurora hung in the shadows, eavesdropping. Hollow House hadn’t been playing a prank on Ronun. She was certain of it. The house had been protecting her. Something about that wolf terrified her and excited her at the same time. Regardless, her emotions were right on the surface when Ronun got locked out. And when she’d made Nathan dance. And when the mouse had pooped on his head.
There must be a connection.
Shaking herself, she did what she could to banish Dane from her mind. She had no room in her life to get twisted up over some guy. Honing her powers and proving her family wrong was all that mattered.
At least for now.
Six
“Smart money says it’ll get thrown out.” Percival shoved his glasses up the bridge of his nose and leaned over a densely typed legal brief. He was forever straying from the work at hand and ferreting into other files. Aurora bent hard over her own notes and tried to shut out the rest of the juniors.
“Like hell it will.” Dion laughed. “They’ve got too much on the old goat. At least one of the charges will stick.” There was a general rumble of assent, and Aurora burned that she seemed to be the only one even remotely interested in the particulars of the work they had actually been assigned.
“Hey, you said money, Percy. What do you say we actually make this interesting?” Eric loomed over the reedy little fae, using his shifter heft to put the pressure on. He had been captain of his high school football team and lived like he was still some kind of star.
“None of us are really making much money…” Squirming slightly in his chair, Percival was looking for any way out of this.
If she had been in a more generous mood, Aurora might have met his eyes or even piped up. They weren’t even talking about the potion theft case they’d been working on. She’d been so wrapped up in her own work, she hadn’t even heard how the whole mess started.
With the exception of Aurora, the rest of the room was watching to see how the scene would play out. Seven sets of eyes watched as Eric flexed his imagined might over the milky little sap, who was bound to buckle any second.
It’s a wonder anything ever gets done around here.
Nine junior investigators were wedged into a bullpen that would have been crowded at half that number. To make matters worse, they seemed far more interested in horsing around than preparing the briefs for the DA to take to court. Aurora felt sick at the thought that she might be perceived as one of these ragtag jokers.
Just when she thought she might despair, the door swung wide, and Paul strode into their midst. Usually, he barely registered the juniors, but now he surveyed their faces as he crossed the room. His eyes flickered when they finally landed on Aurora, and she swallowed hard.
“You,” he jabbed a square-tipped finger at her. “Office.” Without missing a step, he crossed the room and thumped through the door.
Aurora’s breath became shallow and her knees trembled slightly as she stood. A chorus of low snickers rippled through the air as each of her compatriots took silent pleasure in her being called out. In an instant, her pulse shot through the roof, and she did everything she could not to betray her anxiety.
Smoothing her green tweed skirt over the tops of her thighs, she arranged her work into a neat pile as quickly as she could. More than anything, the little activity gave her a second to center herself. If she was going to be rebuked, she might as well catch her breath first.
Was she about to be fired? Ticking through the files in her brain, she strained to figure out what it could be for. Maybe because she was a necromancer who hadn’t raised a human yet? While she couldn’t fathom what that might have to do with her job at the Judiciary, it was the only genuine failing she could find in herself.
Maybe that lapse showed a weakness in her character. After all, how could she be expected to handle herself in this world if she couldn’t fulfill the calling of her kind? How terrible would it be for her mother to be right after all?
Tapping lightly on Paul’s door, she cast a look back over her shoulder. Every expectant face carried a nasty little smirk, none more than Heather Shelley. Once she was the only woman left in the pit, it would be even easier to stand out.
“Get in here, Rhonelle!”
She turned the knob with a damp palm and stepped into his office, which was far less cluttered than she’d expected. Files lay on Paul’s desk, but while she expected grubby stacks and multiple coffee cups, everything was arranged in neat piles.
“Take a seat.” He waved vaguely at a chair just in front of his desk.
Swallowing again, Aurora inched over and sat down. He watched her the entire way, and it dawned on her that this was the most direct attention she’d ever received from one of her superiors. A wry smile tugged at the corner of the investigator’s mouth.
“You nervous?” His blue eyes fixed on hers, and she managed a tiny nod.
“A little.” Her voice was even smaller than her nod.
As soon as it was said, Keenan rolled back in his chair and broke into an actual smile. It was the first one she could remember ever seeing on him.
“Don’t be.” His shift into an almost collegial manner was so sudden, Aurora was at odds with how she was supposed to react. “Tell me something, kiddo. How do you like working here?”
“Honestly?”
“Honest answers are the only kind I’m after.”
“I love it.” She might have been more effusive than she’d intended, but the tension she’d carried into the room let her guard down.
“Is that a fact? Even with those…contemporaries of yours?” There was an almost conspiratorial feeling to the way he dismissed the rest of her ilk.
“It can be a challenge,” she admitted. “But I like challenges.”
The lead investigator nodded approvingly.
“I’m glad to hear it. There’s been a bit of a situation, and we need your help.”
Aurora thrilled at his words. It was one thing for an upper level official to actually know who she was, but the fact that he was actually counting on her? She clung to her seat to keep from dancing.