“Sometimes people look for answers in the wrong places!” Rhys snaps. “Or they refuse to find the right answers because it might hurt!”
“Sometimes other people don’t want to help you get answers because they’re being selfish and think they know better than you do what you need!”
“Sometimes other people’s parents are both dead and they can’t ever talk to them again, so excuse them if they think their boyfriend should talk to his own mother instead of consulting Watcher texts for what seems to be a family issue!”
“Sometimes you should mind your own business!”
“That’s it! I’m not researching a thing for you until you stop pouting and go speak to your mother!”
I can feel my anger rising, and I don’t have time to deal with wanting to murder someone. Especially not two of my best friends. “Can you two focus?”
“No!” they both shout, turning to me.
Rhys recovers first, looking back down at his book. “Nina, Leo let his mother come here, knowing she was a demon. He let her prey on us. And yes, he helped us in the end, but I don’t think that wipes his slate clean. That day when he told the truth, I was helping him because that meant helping you. And now I’m not going to help you, because it’s the only way I know to help you. Leo is poison. You’ve not been yourself since he ‘died.’ We can pretend otherwise, but it’s true. I don’t want to see how you’ll change now that he’s back. We’ll all be better off once he gets well and we can send him away forever.”
“You know that’s not going to fix things. We have to face our problems. Pretending issues aren’t there when they so obviously are is what got Watchers where we are today. Nowhere. Gone. I’m not going to pretend like Leo isn’t here, or wait for him to get better and leave. He’s one of us, Rhys. If your dad had been a demon, I wouldn’t turn my back on you. If Cillian’s mom turns out to be mixed up in something bad, we’re not turning our back on him.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“It’s perfectly relevant!”
“You haven’t had to watch yourself suffer for the last few months! He hurt you, and now he’s back, and I won’t see you hurt again!”
I laugh, a sharp, harsh sound. “I didn’t have to watch myself suffer, I had to feel myself suffer. I had to live it. You don’t know what’s best for me.”
Rhys adjusts his glasses again. “My mind is made up. There’s a reason Slayers had Watchers. Sometimes someone less close to the problem needs to make the decision.”
Cillian drops his book on the floor. He may as well have slapped Rhys. Rhys stares in horror, but Cillian leans back, folding his arms. “Maybe some people need to decide for themselves what will help them be better off.” Then he slowly, deliberately puts his feet on top of the book like it’s a footrest.
Rhys stands, sputtering. “Get out of my library!”
“Gladly! Nina, let’s go.”
“Where are you going?” Rhys demands.
“Why don’t you research to find out?”
I follow Cillian. I have to figure out where Leo is on my own, and I’m so mad at everyone in this garbage castle for thinking they know what I need more than I do. We nearly run into Jade. One look at her face shows she’s in as bad a way as we are, at least emotionally.
“Misery, meet company. Come on,” Cillian says, gesturing to the massive front door. “We’re going out.”
Jade never gives up a chance to sleep. She spends most afternoons napping. So I’m surprised when she twitches and then nods. “Yeah. I wanna come.”
Jessi peers out the door to the gym. “Where are you all going?”
“Out. Wanna come?”
“Yes, I’d be happy to leave three innocent children alone so they can get themselves fed dinner and bathed and tucked into bed with a story and a kiss. Honestly. If I had any powers left, you’d—” She slams the door.
“I’m not really sorry she passed,” Cillian says.
“Yeah, me neither.” I link my arm through his and we walk straight out of the castle. A figure is lurking right outside the door, and I have a stake in hand immediately.
“There’s gonna be a lot of blood to clean up if you stake me.” Maricruz peels herself free from the shadowy alcove of the castle steps. “Needed some air. I’m assuming that’s okay?”
Taylor, her blond shadow, is nowhere to be seen. “Come with us,” Jade said.
“Am I in trouble?”
Cillian looks determined. “Not yet, but the afternoon is young.”
The car is where we parked it outside the garage. I have the phone with me, and I’m powerless until Artemis calls back. Might as well kill some time. I toss the keys to Cillian. He starts the car and we peel out. He does a terrible job street parking on the cobblestones in front of his shop, but it’s Shancoom. Traffic is like something out of a fairy tale here. Far away and make-believe.
He unlocks the shop and we tumble in. I love it in here. It used to be a magic supply shop, but when magic died and Cillian’s mother took off, Cillian needed a way for it to make money. He converted it to a soda and sweets shop. Shancoom gets a mild number of tourists, which means he sells just enough to keep the lights on at his house.
“Oh! I have fifty thousand pounds!” The fact that I almost forgot is a testament to how much else has been going on the last few days. Oz brought the bag in before he left, and I tucked it away in the gym. Without telling my mother, maybe a little because I felt like the fact that I had a freshly murdered man’s money might not reflect very well on my innocence.
“Then why the hell are we at Cillian’s soda shop and not on a tropical island?” Jade gestures at her heavily coated self. “I look really good in a bikini! I think. I’ve never actually owned one.”
“Bikinis not standard Watcher-issued clothing?” Cillian asks, pulling out several glass bottles of Coke from his fridge and popping the lids off. He also grabs a root beer, which he keeps on hand only for me because no one in this country appreciates the delicious American taste.
“They don’t come in tweed,” I snort, imagining Rhys in tweed board shorts. Cillian must be doing the same, because he collapses with giggles.
“Instead of a three-piece suit, he’d wear a three-piece swimsuit.” Cillian gasps for air, and I lean over the counter, holding my stomach.
“You two are ridiculous.” Jade takes a long swig of her Coke. Her eyes are heavily lined with turquoise, maybe to distract from the bags under them. She looks rough. “Seriously, though, where did you get fifty thousand pounds and what are you going to do with it?”
“I share this question.” Maricruz sits at the counter and looks around the room.
“Got it from the rich dead guy because I won his hunt. And I’m going to use it to fund Sanctuary for the next few months until we figure out ways to generate more income.”
“Well, that’s … responsible, I guess.” Maricruz taps her black fingernails against the side of her Coke bottle. Then her face lights up and she raises one eyebrow. “Too responsible. I’ll be back.” She slips out the door. Cillian, Jade, and I shrug at one another, then proceed to design Rhys’s ideal bathing suit. I check my phone obsessively, but it remains stubbornly blank.