Was it strange that I had just been in a life and death fight with Pencil, psychotic leader of a band of superhuman serial killers, twelve hours earlier, and I was still more anxious about going to this dinner? I supposed, to be fair, that was probably because I had more time to be anxious about it. In the moment back in that fight all I'd been able to do was act. There wasn't much time for obsessing over what was happening. It wasn't like I had planned to confront Pencil by myself. My adrenaline had seen me through most of it, and by the time I had been able to really think, it was all over. Well, aside from what happened with Cup afterward, and that had mostly just left me confused and a little sick inside, not nervous.
Besides, the worst thing Pencil would have done there was kill me. Kent, on the other hand, could take my memories and erase the person I was. He had already done it once before, when my parents thought they were helping. Maybe that was why I was so much more anxious about this. I had only just regained the memories he took away from me the first time, had only just come to an actual understanding about the person I was and wanted to be. If something went terribly wrong here, it could conceivably result in me losing that person. Not just my better understanding of who I was, but everything about Paintball, the team, all of it. I would still be walking around, but how would the others bring my memory back? How would they fix it? And until they did, what person would I be? Last time it had taken five years and a whole lot of outside influence for my memory to return. And the stakes for me forgetting anything at this point were so much higher than they had been before.
Kent could destroy who I was so much more effectively than simple death.
Needless to say, those thoughts were running pretty strongly through my head as I stepped out of the rideshare car I had summoned to take me to the Jackson house. On the way, I had called the field hospital where we’d left Bobby. Once again, all they could tell me was that he was recovering nicely but still needed more time to be back on his feet. Honestly, I was just glad that he was taking the need to rest seriously. I’d half-expected to hear that he ignored the doctors’ orders and took off on his own.
The guard at the gate waved me through, and I tried my best not to look like a prisoner walking to execution as I headed up the driveway to the front door. It was okay, it would be okay. This was just dinner, that’s all. I could smile and make polite conversation. And to be honest, if there was anything off about me, they’d probably just assume it was because of all the emotions I was feeling about my parents being sick. Yeah, that was right, they had absolutely no reason to suspect I knew anything. Of course I would be off right now. They couldn't possibly expect me to be completely normal. Not with all this going on. Okay, this was okay. If I seemed off or distant, it was because my mom and dad had been in the hospital for all this time. That was a good cover.
Right, and of course now I felt even worse for thinking of it like that. My parents being sick and in the hospital was good cover?! What the fuck was wrong with me? My stomach was twisting itself into knots from the guilt over being such a horrible person. Just great, I was going to throw up. I was absolutely going to stagger over to the bushes and heave right into the--
“Cassidy!” The door opened, revealing the tall, elegant-yet-somehow-also-punk blonde figure of Mills Jackson, Tomas’s mother. She gave me a beaming smile which melted into a somber expression as she offered both hands to me. “I’m so glad you made it. I can’t believe it’s taken so long for us to have you over. I--your parents are…” She trailed off, grimacing a little before exhaling as I hesitantly and somewhat reluctantly took her offered hands. “How are you doing, Cassidy? Are you alright?”
“I mean, my parents are in the hospital with a potentially incurable disease that was forced on them by some sort of terrorist,” I pointed out a little dryly. I had been going for a bit of dark humor but it just came out bitterly, so I forced myself to stop. “Sorry, I’m okay. I mean, as okay as I can be. Really, I mean, the doctors are doing everything for them, right?”
Mills gave a short nod, squeezing both of my hands as she offered me a soft, reassuring smile. “Absolutely. And we know that for a fact. Kent went over there the other day just to make sure. Elena and Sterling have always been proper mates to us whenever we needed anything. The least we can do is check in on them, make sure no one’s cutting any corners over there. Though I feel like we should have had you come stay with us until they recover.” She paused then, clearly actually considering the idea. Which made a horrifying rush of thoughts about how completely screwed I would be if I somehow got stuck living here rush through my head. It left me dizzy.
“I'm okay for now,” I quickly put in, trying not to sound too freaked out by the possibility. “But thanks. It’s nice to know if things get too lonely there's someplace Izzy and I can go.” There, drop that little reminder that I wasn’t alone, no matter how busy Simon happened to be. And, with any luck, remind them that they probably didn’t want a member of the Minority snooping around their house or seeing who came and went. “Right now I think being able to stay in my own room is more important. Believe me, if I was here, I’d just keep waking everyone up by walking around all the time.” And there was a bit to make her worry that if I was here I’d wander where I wasn’t supposed to be and maybe see something bad. With any luck that would put a stop to any thoughts she’d been having about convincing me to come stay with them. Because I would quite honestly rather run away from home and deal with the consequences of going missing than live in this house.
Thankfully, if that seemed to do the trick. Mills made me promise to let them know if I needed anything from now on, and told me to let Izzy know the same stood for her, even if they didn't know her yet. Then she let me into the house and toward the dining room. As we headed inside, she was saying, “Tomas is just showing Maki and our other guests around, I'm sure they'll be in soon. I hope you don’t mind having some extra company tonight?”
“Oh, uh, no of course not. It’s your house,” I pointed out. “I’m pretty sure you can have all the guests you want.” It made sense that Maki would be here, of course, being Tomas’s… boyfriend (did Tomas know they shifted sexes?) and all. But who were the other guests? Looking at the table, I could see a total of seven places set. Taking out the spots for Kent, Mills, Tomas, Maki, and me left two. Who else was going to be here for this dinner? Idly, I wondered what I would do if those other two guests ended up being a certain bear and raccoon pair who kept switching places. Boy, wouldn't that be a fun dinner to sit at?
Okay, I was trying to be sarcastic, but yeah, that actually did sound awesome. And might just make this whole dinner worth it.
But no, it wasn't them. The answer came quickly as the door on the other side of the room opened and two people came in together. My inner reactions to seeing each of them in turn could not have been more different. The first one I saw was Eits, Ryder. And when I saw him come through that door, I felt a sense of relief mixed with something else I couldn't really identify. But I was glad he was there. At least if worse came to absolute worst, I would have someone on my side who knew the truth.
Unfortunately, as relieved as seeing him made me feel, the person he was with made a groan do its level best to rise up in my throat. Arleigh. It was Arleigh. Why the hell was she here? And was it really too late to pretend to be sick? Sitting through this dinner with Kent was already going to be bad enough, but with Arleigh here as well, I wasn't completely certain I could stop myself from throwing something at one of them. Or possibly setting something on fire so I could escape. That was probably bad guest etiquette wasn’t it? I had a feeling it would have been frowned on.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
While all that was running through my head, Arleigh came dashing up and pulled me into an embrace without as much as a by your leave. I was simply yanked up against her and squeezed tightly as though we were the very best friends. “Cassie!” she blurted cheerfully, “you made it! That’s awesome! We’re gonna have so much fun.”
Matches, I needed some matches.
By that point, Tomas had come in behind Ryder and gave me an apologetic look while holding his hands up in a helpless gesture. Reading his expression, I could tell both that this hadn't been his idea and that he hadn't found out about it soon enough to warn me. Hell, if I knew Arleigh, she probably hadn’t left him alone for two seconds so he could text me since the moment she’d walked in the door.
“Uh, hey, Arleigh,” I managed, trying my best to be civil and not start anything. Especially considering the connection her family had to the Ministry. I really didn’t need to say or do anything that could be suspicious. No matter how tempting it would be to use black paint to silence her for just a little bit. And yes, the idea that super-rich elitist mean girl Arleigh Fosters was secretly hippy flower girl Clime for Sherwood was still hard to get my head around. It actually made me wonder, just briefly, which personality was the act. Or if the truth was some third personality and the other two were just masks she put on.
Well, if it was, I really wanted her to take the Arleigh mask off.
“You remember Ryder, right?” she was saying, turning while keeping one arm around me to point toward the boy in question with the other. “My tutor. He is so smart, seriously. And good at explaining things. If you ever need help with, like, anything in school, you absolutely have to hire him. Honestly,” she added in a whisper that wasn’t nearly quiet enough, “I think he needs the money.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I murmured, taking the excuse of her pointing out Ryder to extricate myself from her grip so I could walk up to extend my hand that way. “Nice to see you again.”
“Same,” he replied with a somewhat mischievous or amused glint in his eye as he squeezed my hand. “But please, don’t let her overhype me. I’m not that good of a tutor. I mean, not that I’m terrible, or like, you know, overcharging. I’m competent. I mean, for the stuff that we cover I’m just fine. I mean, not just fine as in just fine, but like just fine. Good. I’m good. Totally good, and I can shut up any time I want.”
Snickering a little at the boy, I gestured with a raised eyebrow. “Honestly I’m just impressed you could get through that entire spiel while pumping my hand up and down the whole time. It’s like you’re trying to teach me how to churn butter.” He really had been very rapidly and firmly shaking my hand throughout all that. And he was still going.
Blinking down blankly at our swiftly rising and falling clasped hands, Ryder stopped short. A cute blush crossed his face as he coughed and stepped back while releasing me. “Err, sorry about that, Miss Evans.”
“I told you, it’s just Cassidy. Or Cassie,” I reminded him, giving his foot a light kick before turning to Tomas. “Hey there, stranger. Is your boyfriend here yet?”
It was Arleigh who answered, voice fairly dismissive. “He's downstairs doing something in the locker room by the pool. Plucking his eyebrows or trimming his nose hair or something, who knows? He's been there for a while. Maybe he fell asleep.”
“He didn’t fall asleep,” Tomas replied a bit tiredly. “He’s just a bit overwhelmed right now.” It sounded like he'd been putting up with her for a bit too long. Which, to be fair, I would count as basically anything more than about ten seconds. On the other hand, there was a time that I would have thought the same about Paige. On the other other hand, I sincerely doubted Arleigh would have the same sort of reveal and turn around.
But hey, maybe that wasn’t fair. Yes, Arleigh was pretty bad in many ways. She had been a complete bitch to Jae just because her own boyfriend decided Jae was cute, and she was… well, Arleigh. Not to mention the whole supervillain thing. But that was her family. She’d been raised that way. Maybe it was just possible that there really was more to her and I shouldn’t completely dismiss the possibility out of hand.
“Overwhelmed?” Arleigh chose that moment to reply to Tomas. “What’s he got to be overwhelmed about? If he misses home so much we could order from King Wok.” She was grinning as she said that with an obviously awful accent, snickering before looking at our expressions. “Oh come on, it was just a joke. He’d get it. Or maybe he’d need another few hours alone. That was a joke too, chill out!”
Yeah, never mind, Arleigh was the worst. Please, please someone tell me why I couldn’t punch her in the face.
Deciding that getting into a whole thing with her right now, especially in this house, was probably a bad idea, I instead ignored her and turned to look at Mills. She’d been standing on the far side of the room talking to one of the cooks for the past couple minutes as she politely ignored us. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
Realizing I was addressing her, the woman glanced over before shaking her head with a quick smile. “No, no, don't be silly. You’re guests. Tommy, why don’t you take them through the back garden to see the sculpture you and Maki were working on? We should be ready to eat in about twenty minutes.”
So, the four of us headed through the house and out into the back yard. Like the three-story home itself, I assumed this was a pretty good-sized place for most people. It was also entirely surrounded by a ten-foot stone wall, which several armed guards were patrolling the exterior of. Not to mention the two snipers on the roof, upgraded from what had been one before. And from what Tomas had mentioned the other day, there was an emergency evacuation teleport system in one of the panic rooms that would take them to a secure location elsewhere in the city. The British embassy took protecting Kent Jackson and his family seriously, especially in the current situation.
We went to look at the stone statue Tomas and Maki had apparently been working on. It was a half-finished form of a buff guy holding a sword and shield, with chainmail. Honestly, it looked really good. Enough that I gave a low, impressed whistle. “You guys really know what you’re doing. Have you been holding out on me, Tomas?”
“It’s mostly Maki,” he assured me. “Bloke’s got a lot of skill.”
“Tomas helped more than he’ll admit.” That was Maki themself, stepping up to join us. They looked maybe a little paler than usual, but also like they were doing their best to appear normal. “The idea of the subject was his.”
“Well I’m not complaining,” Arleigh announced, practically salivating over what was done of the statue. “You can make all the big buff guy statues you want. Do you guys take special orders?”
Selectively ignoring that, Tomas and Maki both started to explain the process they were using for carving out the statue. That took a few minutes, until it was time to go back in to eat. On the way, I drifted back a bit to glance over at Ryder. He offered me a faint smile, even though neither of us really dared talk about anything important here with the others so close. Not even in a whisper. Still, he mouthed, ‘Pack’s fine.’ Which I gave him a quick, thankful nod for.
So, we joined Mills and Kent at the dinner table and had what was admittedly a very nice meal. They’d gone all out on this, and I was able to ignore both Kent and Arleigh fairly well, all things considered.
We were on dessert when Kent had to leave the room to take a phone call. A minute later, I felt a foot nudge me, and looked up from my plate to see Ryder subtly tapping his phone, which was on the table next to him. Realizing what he wanted, I maneuvered my own phone out of my pocket and glanced down at an incoming message. It was a transcript, I realized belatedly. A transcript from the call Kent Jackson was having right then.
KJ - Amanda Sanvers is in custody, how did she reach out to us?
Unknown - Through her lawyer, apparently. She knows the Ministry has the resources to end her if we choose. Or to aid in this attempt she’s making to ensure her relative freedom. She’s advocating for the latter.
KJ - (Laughing) And why does she think we would ever do that?
Unknown - Bargaining chip. The Overseer puppets. She says she’ll give them to us.
All we have to do is use every lawyer, judge, and other piece of the justice system we control to make sure she gets off practically scot-free for everything she did.