Caleb shuffled toward Jeremy and leaned in, “Do you think those are Derek’s parents?”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy whispered back.
“Moira,’ Mr. Lemaire put on a winning smile that did not reach his eyes, “Everyone was wondering where you were. Nobody had heard from you or your aunt and uncle.”
“Yeah, because my first instinct while the world as we know it is ending is to call up my dad’s old friends to let them know that my uncle won’t be able to make the charity poker tournament this year.” Moira snarked, “I’m more curious to know where Derek has been. Have you heard from him? Did you even get the message I left you?”
“What message?” Mr. Lemaire glanced at his wife, then pressed his lips together, “Moira, you know that we asked you not to contact Derek - ”
“Yeah, and you know that Derek told you to go fuck yourselves when you said that, so…” She crossed her arms, “Where is he? Why are you at the hospital?”
Jeremy was practically holding his breath at this point. Moira had not been lying when she said she did not get along with Derek’s family. Mr. Lemaire’s face darkened.
“It’s none of your buisn – “
“He was in a car accident, darling.” Mrs. Lemaire put a hand on her husband’s chest and stepped forward, “They’ve had him in a medically induced coma for a few days now. We managed to get a flight here just before the airlines were shut down.”
“How…how did…” Moira sputtered, then drew herself up and set her jaw, “How did you know about it?”
“The hospital called us. We are listed as his emergency contacts through the university.”
There was a moment of silence that was once again filled with Moira’s building angry vibrations. Jeremy and Caleb glanced at each other. Sean looked on with a thinly veiled expression of amusement. His lips quirked up, and his eyes were alight. Zanie sidled over to Jeremy’s other side and mirrored Caleb by leaning in.
“What is going on?” She whispered.
“I’ll fill you in later,” Jeremy murmured back.
“But you disowned him!” Moira shrieked, “How are you his emergency contacts, not me?”
“Moira, darling, you know we did not actually disown him.” Mrs. Lemaire chided, “We all mutually decided that he needed to take a break from the business. It was his idea to go to college. Eventually, he would have come around.”
“You mean it was his idea to start dating me.”
Mrs. Lemaire’s expression did not change. She said nothing, which was about as good as a confirmation. Moira huffed and looked away. Mr. Lemaire seemed done with the conversation. He pulled a pair of keys out of his pocket and shook them deliberately.
“Well, this has been a fun reunion.” He deadpanned, “But we need to be going.”
Moira stepped forward as they turned away, “Wait, can you tell me how he is?”
Mrs. Lemaire turned to look at her as she was led off on her husband’s arm, “He’s in a medically induced coma, darling.”
“I know that!” Moira burst out, “But medically induced. Are they going to wake him up? Why haven’t they done healing magic on him?”
But Mrs. Lemaire did not comment. She and her husband disappeared among the cars. Sean stepped up beside Moira and schooled his expression into something that would seem vaguely empathetic on anybody else.
“I’m sure they won’t tell you anything because they don’t know anything themselves.” He reassured Moira.
“That’s a lie, and you know it.” She hissed. “They got you fixed up in no time. If he’s been here since before everything went to shit, why haven’t they healed him yet?”
“They are giving priority to the most severe patients.” Leon answered, “If Derek is in a medically induced coma, he is probably pretty stable and not at the top of their priority list.”
“Derek’s a good guy, Moira.” Sean said, “I can call the director of the hospital and pull some strings, but I’m sure his parents have already done that.”
Moira grumbled but accepted the logic for now. She hugged her arms around herself. “When he wakes up and immediately asks for me instead of his parents, I’d like to see their faces.”
“That’s right, darling.” Sean patted her on the shoulder. She shrugged him off and started marching away again. Jeremy jogged to catch up with her.
“Hey, at least you know now.” He said, “And it’s not totally bad news.”
She glared at him and sped up to get away, muttering as she went. “Of all the fucking…I can’t believe he got hurt before all this bullshit…I’m going to kill him when he wakes up…He better fucking wake up…”
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Jermy fell back into step with Caleb and Zanie.
“So…” Zanie said, “Who is she?”
Jeremy sighed.
“I got this.” Caleb smiled, “She is the sole owner of SMNG, which was a very impressive fashion and luxury goods conglomerate before the world ended. I’m not sure what it counts for now. But anyway, her aunt and uncle tried to kill her and Jer-bear here in order to sacrifice them to the spell that kept a lid on magic. Obviously, they failed and were killed themselves, leaving her the sole owner of the multi-billion-dollar corporation. Since then, Jer has been trying to help her track down her boyfriend, who, if I’m not mistaken, must be Derek Lemaire…which… Derek isn’t really a very French name, is it?... Anyway, the Lemaire’s own a competing luxury goods conglomerate, which explains all the drama, I suppose.”
Jeremy and Zanie listened to him ramble on with twin expressions of skepticism.
“How do you know all this?” Jeremy asked him. He had known Moira for longer than Caleb, and he had no idea what rich-ass conglomerate she owned to be able to have a mansion and family who owned a castle in Scotland.
“You know me and my conspiracy theories.” Caleb knocked his shoulder into Jeremy’s, “Although nothing comes close to the actual reality, am I right? Zanie, these one-percenters are all on this super-secret council of people who have been able to use magic for centuries, and that is how they got and stayed rich. Unbelievable. Am I right, Sean?”
Sean sent him a thumbs-up and rolled his eyes.
“Is he serious?” Zanie asked Jeremy.
“Yes.” Jeremy rubbed a hand over his face, “You should probably know that if you come with us. I’m not sure if they are going to be helpful or not. There seems to be some tension about the fact that we were involved in the failed ritual. I don’t really know what we are walking into. If you’d rather stay at the hospital and wait for your friends, I get it.”
“What?” Zanie exclaimed, “No way. Not after hearing all that. Now I’m curious.”
Jeremy shook his head, “Suit yourself.”
When they caught up with her, Moira waited, slouched against the truck, her heel tapping an irritated rhythm on the sidewalk. The ride was tense. Leon drove while Sean sat in the passenger seat, and the rest of them squeezed into the back like sardines in a tin. They had to pull the bags out and throw them into the bed of the truck to make room.
Leon was not lying when he said they were heading somewhere only a few minutes away. They went back in the direction of the flooding, avoiding the roadblocks and going around the disaster area. It seemed chaos had reached this side of the city now. More accidents piled up along the way, but eventually Leon found a clear one-way road to go down.
They pulled into the parking lot of a river-front restaurant. It had a couple of docks to which several sailboats were tied. They no longer floated on the surface of the river, which had drained to be a mere puddle in the sediment. Instead, they lay tipped in all different directions where they rested in the mud. The restaurant was several stories and had a wrap-around veranda with seating on the side facing the water.
The whole place was not giving off the filthy rich impressions Jeremy had gotten everywhere else he went that was associated with the council. This looked like a regular restaurant slash bar. Outdoor lighting illuminated the sun-bleached paint on the wooden siding and decorative nets, anchors, and other water-faring paraphernalia were tacked to the walls or gathered artfully in corners of the porch.
As soon as they stopped, everyone spilled out of the truck and stretched. Not only had they been smushed into the vehicle like sardines in a tin, but they also smelled like they were sardines in a tin. Outside was worse, with the bottom of the river exposed to the air. It smelled like mud and muck and fish, but at least the stink of sweat and exhaustion was less concentrated out here.
Did you ever get a chance to call in that Howard Feldman’s penthouse is cleared?” Sean asked Leon as the other man slammed the driver's door shut and pocketed the keys.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Sean glared down at his ruined suit. “I cannot believe how terrible this night has been. I am going to take a shower and sleep for three days.”
Leon gave him an unimpressed look while he went around the truck to start grabbing bags. Moira muscled past him and grabbed her bag, then marched toward the restaurant without a backwards glance. The place did not look open. No light spilled from the windows and the parking lot was empty aside from their car, but the door pushed open easily enough when she reached it.
“I even lost my phone!” Sean mourned.
“Oh!” Jeremy shuffled Atticus from one arm to the other and reached into his pocket, “Here.”
Sean stared at the phone, then glared at Jeremy. He grabbed it and looked it over as if expecting some kind of damage. Jeremy shook his head, not sure what he expected. A thank you probably would have been a little out of character for Sean.
“You know, this is not really what I expected. I thought we were going to your secret headquarters.” Caleb chattered as they collected their things and followed in Moira’s footsteps. “What is this place?”
“It’s a restaurant,” Sean said, as unhelpful as ever. “Leon owns it.”
Caleb’s face scrunched up in disappointment. But when they entered the restaurant, he warmed to the idea. Along one wall of the seating area was a long bar with shelves of liquor bottles reflecting dim LED lighting. Moira sat on some of the stools, fiddling with her phone. Leon set the tubs of paperwork on the bar top and went through a swinging door into the back. A moment later, the overhead lights flipped on.
Caleb went over to sit by Moira while Jeremy plopped Atticus on the ground and walked around with her as she explored. For the first time ever, he wished she was a dog and would listen to commands so that he did not have to worry about keeping her leashed. Sean had disappeared upstairs to what Caleb assumed were some type of apartments or rooms over the restaurant, since he had been talking about a shower and bed.
“Can you make me a strawberry daiquiri?” Moira asked when Leon reappeared. Leon raised his eyebrows, but instead of telling her to fuck off, he turned to Caleb expectantly.
“Anything for you?”
“Sure, man. I’ll take a PBR.”
“And you?” He looked over at Zanie, who stood by the windows overlooking the river bed.
She glanced over her shoulder, “I’ll just take a water.”
Leon fixed Jeremy with a hard stare.
“Nothing for me, thanks.” He said.
Leon’s face was unreadable. He turned away from them and picked up a remote to turn on the TV that hung over the bar. Then, he started rifling around for the ingredients to make Moira’s drink. Jeremy was not sure what he expected, but this certainly wasn’t it.
Jeremy turned his attention to the tubs of paperwork sitting on the counter. Now was a good chance to read through some of them since he was not sure if he would ever get the chance to again. But when he approached them, Leon stalked over, grabbed them, and took them into the back. Jeremy sighed. Maybe they should have just taken the tubs and run back when Leon left them at the truck without supervision.
Leon came back out and finished prepping the drinks. He set them down on little square napkins in front of Caleb, Moira, and an empty spot for Zanie. Then he crossed his arms and frowned at them.
“Now.” He said, “Tell me how your Aunt and Uncle managed to screw things up this badly.”