Kelly Meding - Requiem for the Dead

"Thank you. Give me Milo again."

The phone switched hands. "I promise to keep quiet, too, Evy," Milo said. "But goddamn, don't do that to me again."

"Sorry, pal."

"I'm glad your parents are safe."

"Thanks. Now listen up and stop playing junior detective. Your only job right now is to heal, you hear me?"

"I hear you."

"Excellent." Wyatt was making turning gestures with his hands, and I remembered why I'd wanted to make my own phone call. "Actually, while I have you, I need a favor."

With our transportation's ETA still thirty minutes out, we had some time to kill. Wyatt decided to kill it by staring at me like he wanted me to guess exactly what was on his mind, but I was too tired and stressed to play guessing games.

"What?" I snapped.

"Are you really certain that keeping up this charade of being dead is worth it?" His voice was measured and calm, asking without being confrontational. "Your parents are safe now, Evy."

"Elder Dane wants it this way."

"I understand that, and I understand his reasoning. But his decision affects Assembly politics much more than it affects the Watchtower. If Therians and humans begin fighting amongst themselves within the Watchtower because they believe you killed Elder Dane, it could have far reaching consequences."

Marcus's tense breathing on the phone before my announcement that his grandfather was alive came back like a slap of cold water. He'd been furious, and I could only imagine those few moments of thought between hearing I was alive and hearing I hadn't murdered Elder Dane.

Wyatt also had the uncanny ability to reframe a question in a way that got me to think harder, to really question my decisions. Had faking our deaths been correct at the time? Yes. Was keeping up the charade a good idea now?

"It's only for a day or two," I said.

"Lives change in a day or two, Evy, you know that. I know that the list of people you really trust is about as long as my index finger, but being part of an organization again is about trusting the people you work with to watch your back."

He was pulling an old Handler trick on me. "Being a Hunter was different."

"How?"

"We were—" I almost said "all human," bringing back a beaten-down prejudice that had sustained me for four years as a Triad Hunter. Hunters were always human, and we were trained to believe specific things about non-humans. We were to never trust them, and even the few non-humans I'd considered tentative allies were never really trusted friends.

"You were what?" Wyatt asked.

The Watchtower was very similar to the Triads in many ways: strength in numbers, in secrecy, and in maintaining anonymity. It also worked on trust—trusting the guy working with you to not get you killed. Everyone who was part of the Watchtower was there because we had a common goal, and we had promised to work together as a unit.

Shit.

"You have to be able to trust everyone at the Watchtower or this thing can't last," Wyatt said. "Telling them, your allies, that you and Elder Dane are alive won't affect the ransom demand from Vale. Keeping you off the radar and out of sight is still the plan. We'll just have a few more people in on the plan."

He was right. Very right. "I should still ask for Elder Dane's permission," I said.

"Agreed."

So I called Tybalt's phone, and the correct person answered. Once I explained why I was calling, he promised to pass my message along to Elder Dane right away and to call back as soon as he got an answer. It was better than nothing.

"Faking my own death was probably the most rash, un-thought-out plan ever," I said to Wyatt after I hung up with Tybalt.

"Your intentions were honorable." His words couldn't hide the twitch in his jaw that said he agreed with me and that he hadn't quite worked through his anger. Not that I blamed him. Wyatt deserved all kinds of emotional slack over this mess.

"At least this way I'll get to talk to the Frosts." Not that the idea thrilled me in any way, shape, or form. I had no idea what I was going to say to them about any of this. The whole "your daughter killed herself and I reincarnated into her body" truth wasn't happening. They'd have me committed to a nut house faster than a gargoyle turned to stone in sunlight.

"You look like you'd rather go six rounds with a shifted were-bear than talk to the Frosts."

"Am I that obvious?"

"Only to me."

My phone rang. The number was local, but not in my phone's memory. I hesitated, then answered, "Joe's Pizza, will this be pickup or delivery?"

"Is this Evangeline Stone? It's Demetrius."

Someone who had absolutely no reason to be calling me. "Yes, it's me. What's wrong?"

"The Coni are gone."

I jolted to my feet, heart pounding, stomach twisted hard. "What? Were they taken?"

"No, there is no sign of forced entry or removal. They simply left."

"Why the fuck would they leave? Joseph's dying."

Wyatt's raised eyebrows reminded me that I hadn't passed along that information yet.

"I don't know," Demetrius said. "I truly don't. Another guard told me he saw them shift together, and then fly away to the northwest."

This was bad in so many ways. Aurora felt abandoned by Phineas. She was waiting for Joseph to pass away from old age. She'd held my hand while I "died" in front of her—shit. "Shit! This is my fault."

"You don't—"

"Yes, I do. I should have told her I wasn't really dead. Fuck!"

Wyatt grabbed the phone before I sent it sailing across the living room. He spoke quietly to Demetrius while I raged at my own stupidity. I could rationally explain this to the people I worked with at the Watchtower. I hadn't given proper thought to what this must have been doing to Aurora. The poor woman had been through so much these last few months—the death of her husband, as well as her entire Clan. Being kidnapped twice. Enduring her child's kidnapping and watching Ava tortured into shifting too soon for her age. Losing Phineas to some idea of finding long-lost Coni relatives. Joseph's mortality.

I seriously considered giving the living room wall a fist-sized hole, but Wyatt got in my way. I didn't realize I was shaking until he pulled me into a hug, and the soft fabric of his t-shirt absorbed the tears that began falling. God, I was getting soft. But Ava was my goddaughter, and I couldn't protect her if I didn't know where she was.

"We'll find them, Evy," Wyatt whispered.

"How? What if Aurora takes them out of the city?"

He didn't reply.

"I did this, by not telling her I was alive," I said. "If anything happens to them, it's on me."

"Leaving the safety of the Dane compound was Aurora's choice."

"She wouldn't have left if she hadn't seen me die."

I knew he wanted to make me feel better, to make it all right, but he didn't patronize me by arguing my very valid points. "I don't know how we'll fix this, Evy, but we'll do our best. We'll try."

"Ava's still so young."

"I know, but she's strong like her mom. Like her Aluli ."

"I wish Phineas was here. She'd have stayed if he was here."

Wyatt tensed only a fraction, but I felt it. "Probably. Again, leaving was Phin's decision. We can't change what's happened."

"We just have to deal with it, yeah, I know."

"Demetrius had one bit of good news. The Assembly is calling an emergency meeting in the morning to discuss the new Felia Elder. Apparently with everything happening with Vale, electing a new Elder is a priority."

"That's something, I guess. I'm sick of sitting here in your apartment, hearing about everything second-hand. I hate not being part of things."

"I know." He kissed my forehead, and I inhaled the earthy, wet leaves and cinnamon scent of him. "But you have to admit, this is some personal growth for you."