The Nightmare Dilemma

6 Confidential

As if the first bit of news Lady Elaine delivered wasn’t bad enough, she delivered another bomb seconds later.

“We want you to spy on him.”

“What?” I blinked, repeatedly, my brain slipping like an engine stuck in neutral.

“Hold on, please,” Sheriff Brackenberry said to Lady Elaine. He stood up and walked to the door, which Elaine had closed when she arrived. I watched as he ran a hand over the door frame, uttering an incantation.

While he worked, Lady Elaine walked once around the room, trailing her fingers along the wall and speaking the same incantation. Slowly, I felt the atmosphere in the room change. The air seemed to grow denser, the sounds muffled.

“There now,” said Brackenberry, resuming his seat. “That should ensure we aren’t overheard.”

My curiosity piqued, I sat up straighter in my chair. “Who would be listening in?”

Brackenberry drummed his fingers on the table. “That’s not your concern.”

I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Yeah, sure. Because being asked to spy on my ex-boyfriend doesn’t have anything to do with you sound-proofing the room. So, what, am I here to take meeting minutes?” I motioned toward the conference table.

Lady Elaine sat down next to the sheriff, ignoring my sass for once. Before I could register my disappointment, she said, “First, I must emphasize that what the sheriff and I are asking of you is strictly voluntary. You are not required to participate.” A dark expression crossed Lady Elaine’s thin, ancient face, worry in her eyes. “And no one would think the worst if you refuse. It’s liable to be very dangerous.”

A chill slid over my skin, and I trembled. I tried to think of some wiseass remark—sarcasm was a great avoidance tactic—but nothing came to me. The fear I felt was too real, too present.

Paul was free. Paul would be on campus in a few days. And I would have to face him. I wanted to believe that seeing him again would be easy, that I could use my hatred of him as a shield. Only, I wasn’t sure I did hate him, at least not enough to resist his siren’s charm. I’d never considered the possibility that I would have to deal with his siren magic or my feelings toward him ever again. He was supposed to have remained locked up for a very long time.

I let out a slow breath. “Okay, I’m listening.”

Lady Elaine glanced at Sheriff Brackenberry, and he nodded.

She turned back to me, pulling up the sleeves of the dark green, wool sweater that had fallen over her hands. “The main reason we sealed the room is because this is not an official meeting. Neither the sheriff nor I are acting in our normal governmental roles at present, and none of the Magi know what we are instigating here.”

I looked between the two of them, more confused than ever. “Is this some kind of rogue operation?”

Brackenberry snorted. “You watch too many movies.”

“That certainly is true,” said Lady Elaine, a suspicious curve to her lips.

“What this is”—Brackenberry leaned over the table toward me—“is a secret. And before we tell you anything else, you must agree to maintain the same secrecy. So even if you turn us down, you must not speak about it to anyone else. Understood?”

A couple of months ago, I might’ve stood up and left the room right then. Forget this clandestine, liable-to-be-dangerous crap. But the stuff with Marrow had changed me. I wouldn’t say it had made me any braver—even now, I felt like my heart might burst its way out of my chest and go galloping across the table—but it had made me a little wiser. I knew I couldn’t run away from the bad and scary things in my life. Better to face those things head-on then to get caught from behind.

I slowly nodded, although I wasn’t exactly ready to swear an oath of silence. I didn’t plan on blabbing about it, but I wasn’t sure this kind of news was something I could keep from Selene or Eli.

“Good,” said Lady Elaine. “Now, I’m sure you have lots of questions.”

“You can say that again.” Some of the tension left my body now that I’d made up my mind to stay and hear them out. “Why did they let Paul go?”

“Officially,” Sheriff Brackenberry said, “the Magi Court has dropped all charges against him due to his age and the lack of indisputable evidence that he contributed to any of the significant crimes.”

“What?” My fingers clenched into fists. “But what about my testimony? And Selene’s and Eli’s? My mom’s? We spent hours in those deposition meetings telling everybody what went down with Marrow. How is that not evidence?”

Lady Elaine raised both hands. Deep crevices lined her palms and ran down her twig-like fingers. “Calm down, Dusty. It is evidence, but there’s more going on here. For one thing, Paul put on a convincing display. He said he was sorry for the things he’d done and voluntarily shared the password to his administrator account on the reckthaworlde.com website.”

The sheriff growled. “Fat lot of good it did. The blasted thing was already completely offline by the time we got into it. And we’ve had no luck tracking down the host servers. Paul claims he doesn’t know where they are. We’ve checked Marrow’s apartment, Paul’s dorm room, and even his uncle’s house, but no luck.”

I leaned back in my chair, my breath coming in angry gulps. Of course they hadn’t been found. Paul was too clever. I didn’t understand how anybody could let him off. What kind of idiots were running the magickind government, exactly?

“There’s no point in being angry,” Lady Elaine said, addressing Brackenberry as much as me. “The deed is done. Now all that matters is how we handle what comes next.”

I sighed. “I guess you’re right. But what exactly do you want me to do?”

Lady Elaine dropped her gaze from my face and began to pick at a fingernail. “We want you to resume your relationship with Paul.”

I stood up so hard, I banged my knee against the table, sending a sharp stab of pain down my leg. “No way. Ew … and … gross. There’s no way I’m going to pretend to be that creep’s girlfriend.”

Sheriff Brackenberry tsked. “I told you she wouldn’t go for it. These kids are all the same. Only concerned about themselves.”

My skin prickled. It was so unfair, so insane. How could they ask me to do it?

And then the more obvious truth occurred to me.

Gritting my teeth, I said, “Even if I was willing, it wouldn’t work. Paul doesn’t like me. He never did. He just pretended to date me because Marrow told him to.” My voice broke as I finished speaking, and unexpected tears stung my eyes. I opened them wide, trying to hold them back.

Sympathy filled Lady Elaine’s gaze as she looked at me. “I know you feel that way, but I’ve spoken to Paul several times and have kept an eye on his behavior. I do not believe that all of his feelings for you were on account of Marrow.”

At once, those stupid tears burned my eyes again, and a bubble of emotions rose up my chest into my throat. I swallowed it down, unable to deal with it. Especially not in present company. “That’s impossible. He’s just fooling you the way he fooled me. It’s what he does.”

Lady Elaine nodded. “Maybe, but if so, then he must have an ulterior motive for putting on such an act. In either case, I believe he will be receptive toward any advances you might make.”

I sat down, my stomach roiling.

“We’re not asking you to resume any kind of sexual relationship with the suspect,” Sheriff Brackenberry said.

I flushed. “I never … I didn’t … I mean…”

Lady Elaine cleared her throat. “We just want you to spend some time with him. Get him to trust you if possible. Just enough that you can keep a lookout for any suspicious behavior.”

Like luring girls to their deaths?

I tried to picture myself spending time with Paul again, pretending to like him. I couldn’t do it. I was the wrong person for a job like this. They needed someone like … like … Katarina, a siren full of confidence and staggering beauty. Not someone like me.

Then the absurdity of the entire situation occurred to me. I shook my head and started smiling. “You guys don’t need me to spy on him. I mean, come on. You’re the freakin’ government. Don’t you have professionals for this sort of thing? Won’t you be keeping tabs on him all the time already?”

Sheriff Brackenberry sighed. “Well, that took less time than I thought.”

Lady Elaine shot him a look. “I told you she’s far cleverer than you give her credit for.”

“Hey.” I stomped my foot, annoyed at the implied insult. Not that Brackenberry’s doubt about my intelligence came as a surprise. “I’m sitting right here, you know. And I can hear you.”

That got their attention.

“Why do you need me?”

“Because we don’t have anyone else we can trust,” said Lady Elaine.

I shook my head. “Not buying it.”

“It’s true,” she insisted. “Under normal circumstances, the government would keep close tabs on Paul, but nothing about this situation is normal.”

I scooted to the edge of my seat, intrigued again despite my disbelief. “What do you mean?”

Brackenberry brushed a hand through his long, shaggy brown hair, a strange look on his face. I couldn’t decide if it was worry or skepticism. Maybe both. “It seems that somebody has been pulling strings concerning Paul. There are some worrisome signs that someone inside the senate has orchestrated his release.”

“Yes,” Lady Elaine said. “Not only is Paul being released after providing such a small amount of information, but it appears that no plans are being made to have him regularly monitored beyond the absolute minimum. All we’ve been able to confirm they’ve done is to confiscate his personal computers and place heavy restrictions on his student account.”

A sound close to a growl escaped the sheriff’s throat. “That’s right. My department hasn’t received any orders, and every time I try to figure out which department is taking responsibility for it, I’m given the runaround.”

I frowned, a little intimidated by the scope of this thing. My dealings with magickind law enforcement had only been with the sheriff’s department, but there were others out there, including the magickind equivalent of the CIA and the Secret Service.

“Given that,” said Brackenberry, “we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands until we can uncover who’s behind Paul’s release and what that person hopes to gain from it. The answers lie with Paul, but he’s clever. We believe that you are the best way to get the truth from him.”

I once again considered the idea of running out of here, but a new possibility occurred to me. “Paul’s uncle is a senator. Couldn’t he be pulling the strings?”

“Doubtful,” said Lady Elaine. “Titus Kirkwood has been the biggest roadblock to Paul’s plea deal.”

That made sense. Magistrate Kirkwood had always despised his nephew. I gulped, suddenly emotional again. Half the reason why I couldn’t truly hate Paul was because of the abuse he’d suffered at his uncle’s hands.

“So are you going to help us or not?” said Brackenberry, suddenly impatient. His sharp gaze seemed to pin me in place.

I looked away, drawing a ragged breath.

“This is very important, Dusty,” Lady Elaine said.

I swallowed, searching for my voice, which seemed to have gotten lodged in my throat. “Why? Marrow is…” I searched for the right word. He wasn’t dead. As far as anyone knew he couldn’t die—not with an immortal phoenix as a familiar, one capable of resurrecting him time and time again. “He’s gone, right? I mean, he hasn’t come back yet, has he?”

“No,” Lady Elaine said, firmly. “We don’t believe he’s back. But he has his supporters. Surely you’ve seen how quickly animosity is spreading among the different kinds. Not all of the unrest can be attributed to the loss of The Will. We believe Marrow’s followers are behind most of it. Including what happened to Britney last night.”

I resisted the urge to fidget. Now would be a good time to come clean about Eli, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Why do you think that?”

Brackenberry scowled. “Because we were finally able to analyze the curse used on her. It’s black magic, of the sort that hasn’t been seen in centuries. Only someone like Marrow could’ve known the spell. We believe he passed it on to some of his chief followers who are now acting on their own to continue his work.”

I shuddered. This kept getting worse and worse.

“This also means,” Lady Elaine continued, “that you and Eli should focus your dream sessions on Britney’s attack. In light of this new evidence.”

I sighed, the last of my resolve giving way. I might hate every minute of my time with Paul, and I was nearly as frightened by the idea of facing him as Marrow returning. But I knew I had to.

“Okay,” I said, meeting both of their gazes and somehow managing not to flinch. “I’ll do it.”