Page 71 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

“A list of names with anyone who is, or was, registered as AB negative,” Gustave says.

“Gustave is right. That’s a must,” Arden says. “Additionally, any records about Meg, and data about our potential victims from this region. Let’s check if they were truly in that hospital for their bloodwork.”

“Got it,” I say. “I will inform Dad and Marius, and then Nox and I will discuss a way to break into the hospital.”

The others stare at us. “You can’t be serious,” Gustave mutters.

“We are,” Nox says.

“Zoé said it would be best if someone walked through the building with a camera attached to them,” I point out. “Like Emilien said, certain documents might not be digitalized. We will just waste time by doing the trial and error method. Let’s go directly to the hospital. You can still hack into their system, Zoé can get her map through the camera and guide us, and Nox and I will retrieve anything we need.”

“I can’t believe I’m about to agree to this,” Emilien mutters. “I need to get Eric’s okay, though.”

“Do that, please,” Arden says, not against the idea at all, much to my surprise. “You and Nox should discuss how you will go about this and how we’ll manage to get Zoé inside, too. I don’t want her to be involved in something too dangerous.”

“She just needs to be there with her laptop,” Nox says. “Aurelia and I will make sure she can have access.”

“Emilien, you said you could access the surveillance cameras, right?” I ask. “And the alarms?”

“Yes, I think that should be possible,” Emilien says.

“Good, come, Nox, let’s go and have lunch. I think I have an idea.”

“Almost feels like we are fifteen again.” He grins.

“What did you two do when you were fifteen?” Gustave asks.

“I think it’s better we keep that a secret,” I tease.

“Alright,” Leila interrupts us. “I’m hungry, too. Emilien and I will catch up with Eric for lunch and tell him about our progress.”

“Are you sure we can’t help with this?” I ask, gesturing towards the boxes with documents.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Arden reassures me. He gets up and pulls me into a kiss. “I prefer you meeting with your friends and planning the next steps with Nox.”

“After lunch, I will go through the police reports from six years ago,” Emilien says. “Mr. Simon said that there was another girl who was kidnapped.”

“Yes, he said they found her body only a couple of months after she was abducted,” I say. “Leila and I think her father might have been a rogue.”

“So far we don’t know if she fits the criteria, except for them being on the run, and no pack to care if they went missing or not,” Emilien says. “But it’s interesting enough to research on.”

While the others discuss a few details, I make calls to my father and brother, filling them in on everything. Marius is eager to help and promises me he will reach out to his contacts. With that set, we leave Arden with Gustave and Zoé and head to our lunch dates.

“Leila,” I say before we can go our separate ways. “There is something I wanted to ask you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Your gift… you are an oracle. Does it just come to you, or can you force your gift to appear?” I ask.

Leila sighs. “I knew someone would ask that eventually.” She exchanges a gaze with Emilien. “It’s not really a secret, but it does make me a bit inefficient. I should be able to control it,” she admits. “My gift, I mean. But due to my restrictive upbringing, I was never able to learn much about it.”

“I’m sure you will master it,” Emilien reassures her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” I say. “I just thought that you might find some leads for our case here.”

“I mean, I have seen Meg in a vision, so maybe I could try to focus on her and provoke a new one,” she admits. “But as I said, I’ve not mastered it. Emilien and Eric work with me on it, but it’s a process. I can’t make any promises.”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “We will proceed with our plans like we discussed. If you manage to see something, that’s awesome, but we’ll treat it as an…extra.”