I should turn him in to Amadeus. There be no reason not to, and it be risky if I left him free. Yet something inside me ached at the thought.
What be up with that? Most would say I didn’t have the capacity to care in that fashion. I’d thought that ability had been burned away by Isobel. Now I wished that be the case.
Dammit.Why couldn’t things be simple?
“What’s your call?” Cody asked.
“Tyrez be right. If we hand him over, Amadeus will give him to the council,” I said. “And no one has broken a Guild member, no matter how hard they’ve tried. Even the Inquisitors have taken a go at them. They be programmed to die, rather than reveal.”
“No guarantees we’d be able to subdue him, either. Dragons don’t go down easily.” Tyrez stroked his chin. “But what if he’s here on a contract?”
“He’s been here for a while—why wait that long?” I countered. “I think he’s here to hide.”
“He’s a risk, no matter what.” Cody swayed back and forth as he mused. “A lethal weapon loose among the students.”
“The Guild trains for control in difficult situations,” I said. “And each one of you be lethal weapons.”
Tyrez tweaked a brow at me. “Leaving yourself out of that, are you?”
I snorted. The Bellatis be feared for very real reasons. “Going forth, I say we keep him out of situations that could provoke him until I get a chance to speak with Cara. We be bound to get recruits from all kinds of situations—he would be an invaluable resource for the Shades.”
“Yeah. We can’t all be clean-cut heroes,” Cody said.
Tyrez rolled his eyes. “Trust a sharding cat to call himself clean-cut. And a hero to boot.”
The Sabreshifter grinned. “Lizards can’t be heroes. Too cold-blooded.”
So focused be I on the issue at hand that I barely listened to the banter. “Okay. So we hold until I can speak with Cara. I’ll sideline him for Night Games. Speaking of which...” I glanced at the moons. “We’d better depart. I have things to set up.” I gestured to Jacques. “See what else you can unearth. Does Cara have you working on the girl’s parentage, too?”
Jacques nodded. “That one is surprisingly tough. Whatever went down when she lost her memory, I don’t think it was a car accident. It was registered as that with the local authorities, but I can’t find anything about it. It’s enough to make me wonder if something else was responsible for their deaths.” He looked at Cody. “It has council cover-up all over it. Happened in Ontario when her family was on vacation. Might be an idea to check with Jason, see if he had any involvement.”
I searched my memory for a Jason and came up with Ontario’s head Sabre enforcer.
Cody’s attention sharpened. “Are you speaking of Anna?”
“Aye,” I replied, my mind racing. More mysteries. Who be this woman?
“Why would the council be involved?” Tyrez rumbled.
Cody shrugged. “The woman killed a feral Dire, and we have no idea how she did it. Neil says he thinks she can handle herself in a fight, too. Like she’s had training. There’s a lot about her that doesn’t add up.” He pumped his fist into Jacques’s shoulder. “So I’ll ask Jason about it. But keep digging.”
Jacques staggered and shot the Sabre a look as he lifted the bound horn. “It just got bumped up on the priority list. I’ll let you know.”
40
Anna
A rapping sound from the door to our dorm room interrupted my pacing.
“Angel, I brought you something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry, Matt.”
“You need to eat. We have Night Games tonight.”
“You guys need to get past this,” Mari offered without opening her eyes. She’d been in a lotus position on her bed since returning from supper. “I’m certain you can resolve your disagreement.”
Matt must have told her that we’d had a fight. I couldn’t confess, even to her, the grim reality.
