The rest of the day passed in a blur. I must have faked normal well enough because people stopped asking if I was okay. Or perhaps they were all upset that I was still alive. Either way, I found myself stretched out on a blanket with Alex in the middle of Raventhorpe’s massive back lawn. Full night had fallen, but the twin moons hadn’t risen yet, so the sky was inky black and sprinkled with stars.
I could hear low murmurs from the other people around us, but the words were lost to the open air. We were out to enjoy the first night of the meteor shower, but it seemed that most people had paired up, more interested in what was happening on the ground than in the sky. Ying had lured Joseph onto her blanket. They were somewhere to our left, far enough away that I could barely hear them.
Alex lay next to me. He’d been attentive but strangely distant since the accident. A bright green streak burned across the sky. My breath caught as more and more meteors appeared, painting the sky with flashes of color.
It was spectacular.
An hour later, couples started moving back inside as the air turned chilly. Ying stopped by, the light in her com on the lowest setting. “Are you coming?”
I was cold, but I wasn’t ready to head in. I didn’t know when I’d get to see something like this again. “No, not yet. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I was so caught up in the meteors that it took me a long time to realize Alex had shifted onto his side. He was staring at me instead of the sky. I flicked a glance at him, and he met my eyes.
Last night’s suspicion came back to me. “You can see,” I whispered.
He leaned in, his voice as soft as mine. “So can you.”
That was the problem with observant people—they noticed things you’d rather they didn’t. I went back to watching the sky while I tried to figure out if there was a way I could ask him about it without getting asked in return. And if there was a way I could ask him to keep the information to himself without making a big deal of it.
He seemingly read my mind. “Your secret is safe with me.”
I breathed through the panic. He was fishing. I could do the same. I turned to him. “Oh? Is your ability a secret then?”
He chuckled and the husky sound sent shivers racing over my skin. “My secret is safe with you, too, whether you admit it or not. Mutually assured destruction.”
“You trust me to keep your secret?”
He was quiet for a long time. Finally, he said, “I trust you to look out for your own self-interest. If you reveal my secret, then you risk me revealing yours. I don’t think you’ll take that risk.”
He wasn’t wrong, but it stung to be laid bare so casually and brutally.
My panic faded, replaced by intense curiosity. I stared, unseeing, at the sky. How could he see in the dark? Did he know? Had he gone through the same thing I had? I knew my genetics had been altered, but no one had explained exactly how—or why. I assumed it was to cure my sickness, and the ability to become a weapon for the House had just been a lucky side effect, but I didn’t know. And now I couldn’t very well ask without a whole lot of uncomfortable questions.
“Does Bianca know?” Alex asked.
I surreptitiously looked around. There was no one in view and Alex’s voice was low. We were in our own little bubble, so I shook my head. “No one knows. You?”
“I don’t think so. But she has surprised me before.”
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “Do you know why you’re the way you are?”
Shock and surprise flashed across his face. “You don’t?”
We were getting dangerously close to secrets that I didn’t want to reveal, even to someone with secrets of his own. “Did you and Joseph find anything this afternoon?”
He clearly didn’t want to let the subject change stand, but he ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “Nothing definitive. Unsurprisingly, the diagnostic box was unsalvageable, but the main maintenance computer did record a lockdown override just prior to your crash. But there’s no way to know where it came from.”
“We need to find proof quickly and get out. I told Ying to be careful. It’s possible they are trying to send our Houses into war by pinning the blame for my death on her or vice versa. Otherwise, why would they try to kill me? It serves no purpose.”
“It prevents you from digging around further and provides a powerful distraction.”
“You think they’re hiding something else?”
Alex shrugged. “Could be. Attempting to kill you on their own property is a dangerous tactic. If they suspected you knew about their involvement in Ferdinand’s abduction, they could just remove all proof from the house. You either have them extremely rattled, or they were planning to use your death to their own advantage. We just need to figure out which it is.”
“If I died, Father would send the RCDF to investigate. House James would have to be certain that they could withstand the investigation—or that the results wouldn’t matter.”
I mulled it over while watching meteors blaze colorful trails overhead, but the motivation didn’t become any clearer. House James had upped the stakes far more than I had expected and I didn’t know why.
And not knowing drove me crazy.
Alex had moved close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. I wished I could turn to him and lose myself in mindless pleasure for a few hours. I needed the release—both literal and figurative. Nearly dying had put me on edge. Frustration made it worse.
I kept my hands to myself and sat up. “Ready to go inside?”
He stood with fluid ease, then offered me a hand up. I healed fast, but my left shoulder was still a little tender, so I gave him my right hand and let him haul me to my feet. I turned on the light on my com while he gathered and folded the blanket.
“Are the others still up? Do you want to join them?” Alex asked.
It was just after midnight. Most people had probably sought their beds, with or without company. “No and no.”
A shadow moved in the dark. I spun and lifted my light. Aoife squinted as I blinded her. “Do you mind?”
I dropped the light back to the ground and ordered my pulse to slow. “I thought you went to bed.”
“I was patrolling. And watching the meteors. And eavesdropping.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
“You might have been the only couple who was actually here for stargazing.”
I laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never hooked up in the dark. It’s practically a requirement at a party like this.”
Alex growled something too low for me to catch and Aoife laughed.
My com vibrated. When I checked the screen, my breath caught.
“What is it?” Alex demanded.
“It’s an alert from the security com monitoring the bugs. Sentiment analysis on the recording from the study found raised, angry voices.”
Alex stepped closer. “What are they saying?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tap into the stream remotely. Why don’t we go find out? We can stumble in on them.”
“Absolutely not,” Alex and Aoife both said at the same time. They hadn’t realized that I had been joking—mostly.
I turned and headed toward the house. “It’s creepy when you do that. You know that, right?”
Alex fell into step beside me. “You have no idea who or what is in there. It could be a trap. It could be Lord and Lady James arguing about the roast they served for dinner. Barging in blind would be a mistake. You have the recording. Listen to it, then decide what to do.”
“I’m going to.”
“You shouldn’t—wait, what?”
“Barging in blind would be a mistake. I’m agreeing with you.” I smiled at him. “Is that so hard to believe?”
His expression told me that he didn’t quite trust me. And he was right to be suspicious. While I might not be planning to enter the study, I certainly planned to walk past it. Slowly.
Alex protested quietly when I turned from the main door and headed for the kitchen. I ignored him, and he and Aoife followed me.
I slipped through the kitchen door and snagged an apple from the basket on the counter. I didn’t think I would be caught, but if I was, then I had an excuse to be in this part of the house because the main entrance led into a hallway that bypassed the kitchen and study entirely.
I settled firmly into my public persona, looped my arm through Alex’s, and swept us out into the hallway that led past the study. The study door was firmly closed, but light glowed from under the edge. I walked as slowly as I could manage, leaning on Alex like I was still injured and a little drunk.
A trio of raised voices could be heard through the door—two masculine, one feminine. I couldn’t make out their words, and the voices cut in and out, as if they were in a malfunctioning silence field, but one of the men had the lilting accent common to the Silva family. The Silvas ran the Syndicate, the largest crime organization in the universe. The Consortium had spent years trying to wipe them out, to no avail.
I could only hope that my bug was still recording because if a Silva had risked coming here in person, then House James was either deeply in debt to them or planning something big.
We were almost back to the main hall when I heard the study door start to open. I backed into a shadowed art niche set into the wall and pulled Alex with me. Aoife eased through the doorway into the main hall before silently melting into the shadows.
I tugged Alex’s head down to mine as an unknown person stepped out of the study. “Kiss me,” I murmured.
He hesitated for a heartbeat, his eyes questioning, then his lips covered mine, softly, slowly, barely touching. I’d meant for it to be a platonic kiss between friends, a way to deflect suspicion about why we were in the hallway.
I’d thought I had it under control. Instead, I ignited.
I pressed up toward him, desperate for more. His mouth opened, or mine did, and then his tongue slid against my own. His kiss reflected his personality: slow, deliberate, thorough. I moaned and lost myself in the delicious sensations. Distantly, I heard footsteps but they didn’t register for several long seconds. When Alex pulled back, I realized the footsteps were heading away from our hiding place and this might be my only opportunity to see who had been in the study.
I leaned past Alex and peeked down the hall but only caught a glimpse of a dark-haired man in a suit disappearing into the kitchen. It could have been anyone.
Following would be a bad idea, but I entertained it for a few seconds before sighing and turning away. Alex looked completely unruffled while heat still swirled through me, muddling my thoughts. I’d asked him to kiss me and he’d complied. Insecurity tried to rise, but I discarded it. His tongue had been in my mouth. No matter what mask he wore now, he’d wanted to kiss me.
And I’d wanted to kiss him.
This attraction was a complication I didn’t need. And now that I knew how good it would be, the temptation would be even worse.
I retreated behind my public persona and let out a nervous, slightly tipsy giggle. “Do you think they saw us?” I asked in a too-loud whisper. I wasn’t positive this hallway was under surveillance, but better to be safe.
“No.”
I pouted. “Too bad.”
Alex’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he fought not to laugh. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Aoife reappeared. She moved entirely too quietly for comfort. “Do you need help?” she asked.
“I’ve got her,” Alex said. He bent and easily lifted me into his arms. Thanks to my muscle mass, I was much heavier than I looked, but Alex didn’t even seem to notice. Aoife led us up the main stairs. The rest of the house was still, dark, and quiet.
When Alex showed no signs that he was tiring or uncomfortable, I snuggled into his arms and leaned my head against his shoulder. Not too many people could carry me so effortlessly, so I decided to enjoy it while I could. Plus, I hadn’t been entirely faking my limping walk earlier—I was sore and tired. Today had been a thousand hours long.
Aoife swept the room for bugs and trackers while Alex set me back on my feet. “Thanks for the lift,” I said.
“You’re welcome.”
We were both ignoring our scorching kiss. I tried to convince myself that it was for the best. I failed.
“The room is clean,” Aoife said.
“Did either of you see who left the study?” They both shook their heads. “Then let’s hope the video caught something.”
I sat down with the security com. Aoife paced. She’d been in constant motion since the attack and I didn’t know what to say to her to get her to settle. I had as much trouble reading her as I did Alex. I was so used to understanding people’s motivations that not knowing was super frustrating.
I turned my attention to the device in my lap. The security com automatically surfaced data the software had tagged as potentially important. Even with the filters, it was still a large amount of data. I jumped to the place where the sentiment analysis had first identified anger.
Both bugs in the study were set to stream data in real time rather than buffering it for later transmission. There were pros and cons for each option, but real-time streaming meant I might get some data before the bug was discovered. Buffering meant I might get everything, but if the bug was discovered before the designated transmission time, then I would get nothing.
Whoever was in the study was definitely using a silencer, but not a quality one because it kept cutting in and out, leaving me with choppy audio and still images. Silencers were rigidly regulated and getting caught with one without authorization meant an automatic ten-year sentence. As the daughter of a High House, I had permission. House James did not.
But the black market thrived for a reason.
It was difficult to piece the recorded conversation together from two-second clips interspersed with five seconds of silence. The tone was definitely angry, and they seemed to be talking about the hover bike failure.
Then a sentence caught my attention. I played it again.
“You—tarina von—dead b—o excuses—take car—myself.”
Trying to fill in the blanks was a guessing game, but based on the rest of the conversation, the man with the Silva accent was upset that I wasn’t dead already and he was planning to fix it. The other two were trying to placate him, but it wasn’t going well.
“That sounds like a threat,” Alex said from behind me.
I locked my muscles against the urge to jerk in surprise. I’d forgotten Alex and Aoife were hovering nearby. I had the com set to a low volume, but apparently it was loud enough for them to listen in.
“This audio is awful, but I agree. It seems pretty clear that they knew about the ‘accident’ and are upset that I’m not dead. The man sounds like a Silva, but it’s hard to say for sure. I’m hoping to find a picture.”
I turned my attention to the video clips, and Alex leaned over my shoulder to see the screen. I was excruciatingly aware of him, but I kept swiping through the video clips. Lord and Lady James were easy to spot. The dark-haired man was far more difficult because he spent most of his time facing away from the camera.
“Stop,” Alex said at the same time my hand froze above the screen. Finally, one frame showed the man’s face—and it was a face I recognized.
Alex cursed. “Pack your stuff. We need to leave, now.”
I closed my eyes against a wave of bright, burning anger. There was no mistaking Riccardo Silva’s face. He was one of the younger sons of the main branch of the Silva family. He was smart and cruel and power hungry.
And he was the man responsible for cutting out my oldest brother’s tongue.