Page 79

Isobel checked her phone. “My dad still has no idea what’s happening; he’s trying to find out, but he said Callum was released on bail this morning.”

“He can’t find us here, right?” Maya looked terrified for the first time since they had fled from Ironside.

Elijah only shook his head. It was Kalen who spoke up.

“I don’t think the danger is that he’ll find us straight away—he’ll go for our weak spots, first. People we care about who might know where we are.

The easiest person to reach would be Isobel’s father or Bellamy’s father, because there’s no way he can just walk into one of the settlements right now. ”

“Our fathers aren’t exactly easy to get to, though,” Isobel pointed out.

Kalen nodded. “That’s why he’ll try to persuade them, instead. He’ll probably go to Braun. Keep your eye on that,” he said, nodding to the phone clutched in Isobel’s hand.

Two hours later, it finally vibrated. Her father had linked her to a news alert.

Emergency services responded to a shooting at Ironside Academy earlier this morning. The apartment is registered to Andrew Frisk, a known relative of Olivia Frisk, a member of the newly established Unified Council. There was a minor by the name of Mary Frisk occupying the apartment at the time.

Early reports suggest that Callum Rowe, the former Director of the Ironside Group, who was released on bail just this morning, may have been involved in the incident, along with Olivia Frisk and Mary Frisk.

No fatalities have been confirmed at this time.

Neither the Paris Police Prefecture nor the Unified Council have issued official statements.

More to come as this story develops.

“Olivia Frisk?” Isobel whispered after reading the alert out loud to everyone.

“She was close to Callum.” Elijah jumped to his feet again, talking fast, already processing the news, while everyone else just sat in shock.

“She had intimate knowledge of everything he knew, and access to his files—but she’s an assistant, so she slips under the radar, nobody really pays that much attention to her. ”

Isobel bounced her feet on the ground in nervousness and agitation, rereading the alert. No fatalities have been confirmed at this time.

“We need more information,” Gabriel growled, falling down in front of Elijah’s computer and tapping away rapidly at the keys.

Isobel fell back against the wall, trying to marry the image she had of Olivia Frisk inside her head to the mysterious person who had set up all the dominos to topple the Stone Dahlia.

Frisk had seemed … cold. Cruel and unemotional.

Or perhaps not cruel, but there was a lack about her.

A lack of empathy, a lack of thought, almost like she was operating on autopilot.

Three excruciating hours later, there was another alert. Gabriel—who had refused to move from the laptop—called them back into the room, where they gathered to read his screen.

CALLUM ROWE IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER SHOOTING IN PARIS APARTMENT.

Authorities have now confirmed that Callum Rowe, former Director of the Ironside Group, was critically wounded in a shooting incident earlier today outside Paris.

The shooting occurred at approximately 9:08 a.m. local time inside a private residence within Ironside Academy.

The academy has since been secured by the Brigade de Recherche et d’Intervention.

Sources within the Unified Council have confirmed that Olivia Frisk, former executive assistant to Callum Rowe, was present at the scene. A second female civilian, an intern at the “Ironside Show,” believed to be Frisk’s younger cousin, Mary Frisk, was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Callum Rowe was transported to H?pital de la Salpêtrière under armed guard, where he remains in critical condition. Authorities have not confirmed whether charges will be filed.

The Unified Council has declined to answer further questions on the nature of the incident but issued a short statement:

“Our priority is the safety of all Gifted and human individuals. We urge the public to allow all investigations to proceed without speculation or interference.”

Protesters have begun gathering outside the hospital and the Ironside Academy campuses in the United States and France. Social media activity under the hashtags #RoweDown and #GiftedJustice has spiked sharply in the last hour.

“He went after Frisk’s weak spot.” Elijah straightened away from the screen, his tone tight with disgust.

“And someone shot him,” Isobel said, also moving away from the screen. Almost immediately, her phone began ringing, and she answered without checking the caller ID, walking into the hallway for privacy. “Dad. Tell me you didn’t shoot Callum Rowe.”

Her father scoffed. “I wouldn’t have missed.”

“How anti-loyalist of you.”

“We don’t use that term anymore.”

“Already? It’s been a week.”

“I suggested they come up with a list of words that went against the rights-affirming stance we’re to adopt on the Gifted people?—”

“Whose idea was that?” she interrupted, grinning a little, because she already knew the answer.

“Why can’t it be mine?” he protested, though it was half-hearted.

“Rights-affirming?” she repeated blandly. “That’s got Teak written all over it. Are you texting her under the table while you’re in these Unified Council meetings or something?” He was quiet for too long, and a laugh spilled from her throat. “Oh my god, you are, aren’t you?”

There was a pause on the line, then a shift in his voice to something lower and more serious. “Olivia Frisk is in custody.”

The laugh fell from her lips.

“She’s not speaking to anyone,” he continued. “She’s refusing a lawyer. Refusing medical treatment. The authorities won’t tell us anything else right now.”

“Refusing medical treatment? Is she okay?”

“We don’t know. The police extracted her. They won’t tell us shit. They have the entire academy on lockdown. The Unified Council has been stuck in a conference room for hours. We’re only allowed out for toilet breaks. That’s where I am now.”

Uneasiness swirled in her gut. “I don’t like this.”

His voice softened after a beat. “I’ll be fine, Isobel.”

She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her, and sank down to one of the spare mattresses in Kalen and Mikel’s bunk room. It was technically her mattress, but she had spent every night curled up with one of the other Alphas.

“Waiting is torture,” she found herself complaining, falling into easy conversation as though this man—this bully turned slightly less of a bully—was her friend .

“I think I would prefer to be back at the academy working my ass off and faking smiles again at this point. I mean the—” She quickly cut herself off, her eyes widening, lips pressing tight together.

She had been about to say, “I mean the woods are nice,” which would give away a hint to their location.

She trusted her father, but they were all under strict orders from Kalen to keep all details on their location a secret, no matter what.

“Go on,” her father said, sounding slightly shocked that she was rambling to him.

“Never mind,” she said, shaking her head. “I just hate waiting.”

“You never sat still, even as a little kid. Always wriggling, dancing and singing with your mom.”

“Never around you,” she said without thinking, more out of confusion than anything. How could he have noticed something he was never there for?

His scoff lacked strength. “Sometimes I watched without you two knowing I was there.”

“Creepy.”

“I assumed I wasn’t welcome.”

She was silent, playing with the hem of her shirt.

“I know,” he said, trying to force his voice to sound light, “I deserved it.”

“You did,” she agreed. There was no point in denying it.

“I’m glad you still had those moments.” He spoke so lowly now that she had to press the phone tighter to her ear. “Even if you had to hide them from me.”

“Maybe … I mean … I’m not going to sing or dance with you or anything, but maybe, after all this, we can find something else to do together?”

He cleared his throat. “What do you like to do?”

“I have no idea. I only work. What do you like to do?”

He barked out a humourless laugh. “I have no idea. I only work.” There was a loud knock in the background of his call, and he lowered his voice again. “I have to go. Talk soon.”

It was another three hours of excruciating waiting before Gabriel called them back to the laptop again.

Isobel slipped into his lap, not because she needed the comfort but because she was beginning to worry about how he refused to leave the chair, constantly scanning and searching for an update, rotating through website after website.

Elijah was itching to take back control of his laptop, stuck to the table just as Gabriel was.

Having Elijah in that state was bad enough, but now there were two of them.

Gabriel’s hands immediately settled on her thighs as she bent forward to read the news alert.

CALLUM ROWE PRONOUNCED DEAD FOLLOWING SHOOTING.

Callum Rowe has been declared deceased following this morning’s shooting at Ironside Academy. Medical staff at H?pital de la Salpêtrière reported that Rowe succumbed to complications stemming from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was under armed guard at the time of his death.

Shortly after confirmation of Rowe’s death, Olivia Frisk—former executive assistant to Rowe—broke her silence from within custody to release a personal statement, distributed publicly through her recently appointed attorney. The message reads:

“I am the whistleblower.

I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I wasn’t trying to make a stand or be the one to fix everything. I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted him to stop.

I told myself I wouldn’t take a life unless I had no other choice, that I would wait until it was clear that justice had failed. Unfortunately, in this world, it wasn’t a long wait.

Today, they released Callum Rowe, and I knew it was over.

So, I did it. I killed him, and I’m not sorry.