Илона Эндрюс - Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy)

Arabella frowned. “If these creepy nasties got into our car while we were at Stephen’s, why didn’t they sting us on the way home?”

“You weren’t the target,” Nevada said, her face grim. “They wanted Catalina, but she didn’t make it back to the car, so they rode here, sensed Regina, and took off.”

“Why did Grandma get stung then?” Arabella asked.

“Probably self-defense,” Connor said. “They are likely programmed to hide among machinery and Grandma Frida banged on it with a wrench.”

“It’s a stupid plan,” Leon said. “First, it points straight to Cheryl.”

“She isn’t thinking clearly,” I told him.

“Second, if Catalina died in the middle of this, there would be hell to pay. We would declare a feud on House Castellano.”

“So would House Rogan,” Connor said.

“Yes.” Leon nodded. “House Montgomery would go to war with her. Linus Duncan would go to war with her.”

“And the National Assembly would lose its shit if Catalina died,” Runa finished. “Considering Catalina is a Depu . . .” She slapped her hand over her mouth.

Oh no.

Nevada leaned forward, zeroing in on me. “Catalina, why would the National Assembly lose its shit?”

Connor’s face shut down. “I’m going to kill him.”

“That would be rather difficult.” Alessandro’s voice was cold. His expression turned calculating. A dangerous darkness filled his eyes, and deep within his irises, magic smoldered, waiting to burst into an inferno. The Artisan was back.

An imperceptible shift occurred within the room. My family realized there was a predator in their midst and they rapidly recalibrated to meet the new threat.

“And why is that?” Connor’s voice held no emotion.

“Because he’s Linus Duncan. Furthermore, if you attack the Warden, his Deputy will defend him to her death, and I’m sworn to protect her.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Leon demanded. “Can we all just take it down a notch or two, because I really don’t want to shoot anybody right now.”

Patricia stared at me. “You are the Deputy Warden of Texas.” It wasn’t a question.

I landed into the padded seat and looked at Runa.

“I’m sorry!” She waved her arms. “I’m emotionally compromised!”

“I swear, I will shoot the next person who says that,” Leon growled.

“You can’t shoot her,” Arabella told him. “She’s your brother’s girlfriend.”

“Everyone, shut up,” Mom barked in her sergeant voice.

The kitchen went silent as a tomb.

She turned to me. “Explain.”

“Linus is the Warden of Texas, I’m his Deputy, we investigate magical threats to humanity on behalf of the National Assembly, and we can’t talk about it, or the National Assembly will nuke us from orbit.”

“What was he thinking?” Connor bit off the words with controlled fury. “Warden mortality is seventy-five percent within the first ten years. I turned him down. Why did you accept?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“How long have you been doing it?” Connor asked.

“Six months. There’s no need to be so dramatic. I’m alive, I’m good at my job, and one day I will be the Warden of Texas.”

“Can you quit?” Grandma Frida asked.

“No. Also, I don’t want to quit.”

My grandmother studied me. “Do you like it?”

The mass grave flashed before me. “Not always. But it’s necessary. And important.”

Grandma Frida grinned. “Then do it. Don’t listen to them.”

“It’s not that simple,” Mom said.

“It is.” Grandma Frida looked at Alessandro. “Are you planning on sticking around and helping her?”

“I am.”

Connor opened his mouth, his expression harsh. Nevada rested her fingers on his arm. “You’re not going to talk her out of this. She’s protecting us.”

Connor frowned.

“I’ll explain later,” she said.

Arabella snapped her fingers. “So that’s where the money’s coming from. I was wondering why we’re suddenly bucks up.”

“How up?” Leon asked, suddenly excited.

“We’re making three times what we used to,” Arabella told him.

Leon gave me a thumbs-up.

“So that’s why,” Bern said.

“Why what?” Runa asked him.

“Why her answer is always yes.”

Runa waited.

“When we need something, the answer is yes,” Bern elaborated. “New sensors and camera system, yes.” He looked at Leon. “New Hawk 7 rifle and a new car, yes.” He looked at Patricia. “Additional personnel and upgraded vests, yes. We get all the toys, bells and whistles, because she’s a Deputy Warden and she is making all the new money for us.”

“Okay.” Mom crossed her arms on her chest. “This doesn’t leave the room. You don’t know she’s the Deputy Warden, you don’t know what a Warden is, and you think Linus is an old family friend. That’s all.”

Mom waited. Nobody said anything.

“I need a ‘yes, ma’am’ on this.”

“Yes, ma’am,” we chorused. Even Patricia and Regina said it.

Mom fixed Runa with her sniper stare. “Do you want to be a part of this family?”

Runa nodded.

“Then don’t be a blabbermouth. Moving on.”

We ran through the security measures again. One by one, the kitchen emptied. Grandma Frida decided to lie down after all. Leon took off, Arabella did too, Bern and Runa followed. Patricia and Regina left as well. Patricia had a calculating look in her eyes, which meant she was reshuffling our security arrangements in her head.

The crowd in the kitchen dwindled to just Mom, Connor and Nevada, and Alessandro and me.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Mom asked me.

“Yes.”

Mom sighed. “I don’t know how to talk to you, Catalina. I always know when your sisters are keeping something from me. Neither one of them is good at it, and eventually it explodes out. You hid this from me for half a year and I had no idea.”

I raised my head. “You hid Victoria Tremaine from us for our whole lives and none of us had any idea. I guess I’m like you, then.”

“That’s what scares me.” Mom shook her head. “If you’re in trouble, will you even tell me?”

“I will try.”

Mom sighed again.

Nevada turned to me, gently patting her stomach. “I owe you an apology.”

“No.”

“Yes. My back was against the wall and I made a terrible decision. There is no way to take it back. At the time that was the only way I could see to preserve House Baylor’s future.”

“It was my fault,” Connor said. “I should have found Merritt.”

“ We should have found Merritt,” Nevada said. “Catalina, you know how important you are to me. I hate that I made you think that I was mad at you and that you betrayed me somehow. I wasn’t thinking clearly. The flu was real, the collapse was real, and that was the best my exhausted brain could come up with. I regretted it the moment I started doing it. It ate me up inside. I wanted to explain it to you, but during most of the following year I worried that it would somehow surface. It kept me from sleeping. I finally decided it was buried, and I tried to tell you about it.”

“I remember,” I told her. “You started to explain to me that Connor had been accused of human trafficking but didn’t finish because House Ferrer shot a missile at your house.”

“Then there was the White case, and the Hyperion. There was always something. Then Alessandro happened.”

She glanced at Alessandro who was standing next to me, impassive.

“By that point I told Mom,” Nevada said. “I had to tell someone.”

“And I told her to keep it to herself,” Mom said.

I turned to her. “Why?”

“Because you had enough on your plate. I told her to wait. I had faith in you both. You would sort it out when you were in a better place.”