Amity Hope [Malice 02] Avenge (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.I met with Councilwoman Lebeau herself.She was as prickly as always.But she did thank me for my services.”“Do they have any news on Tristan and Jude?” I asked.The moment the question was out, I knew I shouldn’t have asked.If there was news, Alex would’ve likely been bursting to share it.He shook his head.“Sorry, Sam.I asked.Either they honestly don’t know, or they’re refusing to tell.”“So what’s bothering you then?” Finola asked.“What do you mean?” He frowned at her.She pointed to the napkin he’d meticulously shredded to bits without even realizing it.He hurriedly brushed the bits into a neat little pile.Then he tucked his hands under the table, as if afraid they’d continue to give his nervousness away.I realized he was scanning The Rush again.“Who are you looking for?” I whispered.He glanced my way and shook his head.“I wish I knew.” He leaned across the table so he was closer to Daphne and I.Finola followed his movement.“I don’t really think we should be talking in public anymore.I saw a file.It was left on The Councilwoman’s desk when she was called out of the office for a moment.”“And…?” Daphne impatiently prodded.“And there was this odd note on the side.It said ‘Estimated Strigan population of Granite Falls: seventy-six’.”The three of us stared at him for a second.“Seventy-six?” Daphne whispered loudly.“Estimated,” he clarified.In the town with a population of roughly fifteen thousand, that number didn’t sound like a whole lot.On the other hand, when we’d been led to believe that the Striga were dying out, seventy-six sounded like an awful lot.I rubbed my forehead.I couldn’t help but wonder if Tristan was one of the estimated.Did The Council know about him? If they knew that he was Striga, did they know what else he was hiding?“Do you know what’s odd about that?” Finola asked.“That there are Striga in our town?” Daphne sarcastically guessed.Finola shook her head.“No.What I find odd is that Granite Falls has a relatively low crime rate.When is the last time you heard of black magic being used here? Aside from what Levi did?”“Um, never?” Daphne guessed again.“Because in most cases it’s punishable by death.”We all thought about that for a moment.All Strigan magic was considered dark magic.It was only considered black magic when certain lines were crossed.However, we’d all grown up thinking that black magic for the Strigan population was the norm.I did not like thinking about black magic in relation to Tristan.But the truth was, he was capable of it.The thought that he could make a misstep and face a punishment by death made me nauseous.Not that I thought he would do that.He was very cautious with his magic.He would never do it on purpose, but on accident—or in self-defense, even—I couldn’t let my mind go there.“What I’m saying,” Finola proceeded to explain, “is that they must be keeping pretty low-key.”“That would make sense, if they’re in hiding,” Daphne agreed.“What else did this file say?” I asked Alex.“It seems odd she was careless enough to leave it out,” Daphne said.Alex’s ears reddened.“Fine.She didn’t exactly leave it out.I may have done a bit of looking around.I thought maybe they had more information on Tristan and Jude than they let on.And they may, but I didn’t find anything.She had stuffed the file under a stack of binders.She probably didn’t think she’d be called out of the room.I was able to flip the file open.There was a list of names but I didn’t get a chance to read it because I heard her coming back.”“So that number might not be just a guess.It sounds like they have an actual list to substantiate it,” Finola said.“Right.I don’t know for a fact but I wonder if they suspect that one or more of those people helped Levi,” Alex guessed.“Are you sure you didn’t see any of the names?” Daphne asked.“Do they know about…?” I trailed off, sure Alex would know I was asking about Tristan.He shrugged apologetically.“I was in such a rush.I was sure I was going to get caught.I just opened the file, realized it was a list and had to close it, stuff it back under the stack and get myself back in my chair before she came back.”“I can’t believe they let our town be overrun by those…people,” Daphne grumbled.Now she was the one searching The Rush, just as Alex had been.It was as if the two of them thought that a Striga might be here now, its eyes glowing crimson for the whole town to see.“Maybe,” I said cautiously, “those people aren’t all bad.”Daphne and Finola looked at me with matching blank looks on their faces.Alex raised his eyebrows.“I’m just saying…maybe they’re like…you know who…a certain friend of ours?” Was I actually defending the Striga? Wow, how my life had changed over the last month or so.“I don’t know, sweetie,” Finola said as she reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.“I think you know who might be one of a kind.”She was right [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne