Page 145 of Fractured Fates

So I keep my pace fast but constrained, all the way to my own damn bike. As soon as I’m seated on the thing, I hit the gas, speeding away, not caring who looks my way now, not caring about the speed limit, heading in the direction of Arrow Hart Academy.

I’m thumping on Stone’s cabin door 45 minutes later. They gave him this place out on the perimeter of the campus as some kind of sweetener to convince him to take up the position. The school board and the authorities both saw how useful a magical like Stone would be teaching at the school. They pretended to court him, although he never really had a choice. And the cabin, sold to him as some kind of luxury because it has a semblance of privacy the other teachers don’t enjoy, is run down and seriously crappy.

I don’t know if he’ll even be here or locked in his office up at the mansion.

I hammer again.

“Stone! Stone! Are you in there?”

I hear the floorboards within creak and then hear the locks on the door click back, and the door swing open.

“Shit!” I mumble when I get a look at my friend. Dark rings circle his eyes, his hair’s a mess and his jaw covered in untrimmed beard. He also stinks to high heaven of booze. I wave my hand in front of my face, noting the bottle of whisky he’s clutching in one hand and the way he sways on his feet. “What happened to you?”

“Bad night,” he mumbles, glaring at me.

“Wasn’t it Founders’ Night last night?” I ask with suspicion.

“What do you want?” he asks, rubbing at his temples.

I stomp inside his cabin, eyes swinging around the place.

“Where’s Blackwaters?”

Stone takes a swig straight from the neck of the bottle. “Not here. You didn’t seriously think she would be–”

“Where is she?”

“Why the fuck should I know?” he says with aggression, and my suspicion that his current state has something to do with the girl is only confirmed. I don’t have time to fuck about trying to uncover what’s happened though.

“We need to find her.”

Stone rests the whisky bottle onto a tabletop and leans against it. “You want to tell me why?”

“Renzo Barone.”

Stone blinks and a sobriety flickers across his face. “You think …”

“Why else would he be here?”

“For any number of reasons, man.”

“I’ve been strolling around downtown for the last two days. Showing my face. Letting the locals know I’m there. You think he’d show up in the city for just any old job when he knows I’m here?”

“And you think this job is special?”

“Of course it damn well is, Phoenix. This is personal.”

Stone scrubs his hands down his face. “Shit! Shit! We need to let York know.”

“No time. We need to find the girl. You know where she’ll be?”

“I thought you had a tracker on her phone.”

“It’s switched off. Do you know where she is?”

“Unlike you, I’m not tracking her around the school,” he says tersely and I raise an eyebrow at him. “Fuck off,” he mutters, because we both know he is.

He strolls to the sink and turns the tap on. He holds his palms under the flowing waters and leans forward, scrubbing the cold liquid over his face and his scalp. Then he stands up, shaking his head, water droplets flying through the air. “Come on, there are a few places she might be.”