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“A person never laid their eyes on a Dragun in my day,” he goes on. “This running raids out in the open, the way you young boys like to do, is no good. I’m going to have a word with the Council about this.”

“You do what you need to do, sir. Again, I apologize. I will get to the bottom of how this happened.”

He wags a finger at me. “This would never have happened on your father’s watch. If he would’ve been appointed, we’d be better for it.”

My jaw tics. “If there’s nothing else, I should be getting back.”

He huffs and stalks off. I blow out a breath, but it doesn’t help. Was Audubon helping Quell? And what about the woman in the chair? She is going to give me answers!

Twenty-Two

Quell

The chaos of Draguns flooding the ball, looking for me, precisely where I was looking for my mother, plays like a horror reel on repeat in my head as I escape. I could have been killed. Charlie pulls me along, running with a limp, looking more withered than the last time I saw him, just days ago.

My Anatomer disguise had dissolved the minute Draguns swallowed the dance floor. So I cloaked in the middle of the commotion and re-formed outside the hotel, watching the doors in case my mother fled as well. When Charlie ran out of the hotel and spotted me, he said Draguns were coming down the elevator behind him. He had urged me to follow him and stick close.

“Did you see her anywhere?” I ask, hurrying to keep up with him as he leads me down the alleyway behind the hotel.

“She’s not here, Quell,” he says, fiddling with his phone. “I’ve been patrolling for hours, waiting for you. Your mother didn’t show.”

My pace slows. My chest is heavy.

“Come on,” he says. “Almost there.”

The truth hits me. This was a trap. Did Abby know? She watched the dance floor flood with Draguns. She watched as Mynick gave the signal for them to surround me. And she just stood there and did nothing before running off! “Mynick set me up. He suggested I go to the ball, then ambushed me.”

“Don’t know the guy. But he didn’t want to try to capture you one on one. That isn’t a bad thing.”

That may be true, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. Rage burns in me, frigidly cold. There’s really no one left I can trust. Abby is as good as dead to me. How dare she and Mynick play me like that! Charlie’s head swivels as we cross an intersection to put more distance between us and the hotel.

“How’d you even know I’d be at the ball?”

He looks at me, bewildered. “Mother sent me to make sure you got out of there safely, of course.”

“How’d she know my plans?”

“Mother knows everything.” Charlie holds his side, wincing, before narrowly skirting a car laying on the horn as we cross another street.

“You don’t look so good. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine.” He tugs his jacket tight across his chest.

“Did you know the brotherhood would be here tonight?”

“Mother told me. It must have been a quiet raid. The guy leading it is as green as an Electus finding their kor the first time. He made a mess of that place. What an idiot.” Charlie laughs and it grates against my skin. How could anything be funny right now?

“I was almost killed.”

“Sorry.” He clears his throat.

The scent of Jordan lingers from the dance. Once my nerves wore off and I realized he wouldn’t know who I was, the music took us. For a breath, it felt like we were in on the same secret. Admitting that I enjoyed the dance sets my teeth on edge. Was he in on the raid? Did he know it was me all along? The chaos seemed to catch him off guard. My bones twitch with an ache, my toushana in a frenzy. Finally, we stop running; we rope arms on the back side of a convenience store, preparing to cloak.

I exhale, oddly relieved to be going back to Hartsboro.

* * *

The thrum of my heart is steady when I return to House of Perl. Beaulah is probably furious that I left without a word to her, but at least here I know I won’t be ambushed. Charlie escorts me to my room. When I enter, Beaulah is sitting in the armchair. A dog that looks too large to be a dog but too small to be a wolf is curled up by the fire. It rises when I enter, and my toushana unfurls, bleeding through my hands. The wolf pup growls.