“She tried to kill me,” Chance said. “Even though I know it wasn’therin that body anymore, it was still … disturbing.”
“You had to destroy her?” Mira laid a hand on my arm.
I nodded and looked away.
It had been one of the worst days of my life.
“Yeah, he did,” Chance said. “No coming back from zombie-ness. At least, not that I’ve ever heard.”
“I talked to Zoe’s boyfriend at The Box.” Kerry looked at Chance. “He said the black magician, named Khaydari, ordered him to date Zoe. He didn’t say how Khaydari found her. Anyway, she tailored a few small animals into living ones for them, but refused when they wanted to try it with a dead human. She threatened to report them to the Council, so Khaydari zombified her.”
The others began throwing out theories when Mira’s voice broke through the chatter.
“What else, Kerry?”
I frowned and looked at Kerry’s face. Oh, yeah, the kid was definitely holding something back.
“Nothing,” he muttered.
“What did the apprentice tell you that you don’t want to tell us?” I groused.
“Nothing,” he insisted.
“What is it?” Gigi knelt next to him and turned on the ole puppy dog eyes.
I snorted.
No way he’ll hold out against that. Complete cave coming up.
“He convinced her to steal a book for Khaydari,” he said.
“And?” Gigi encouraged him.
“The apprentice didn’t know what it was about, but he didn’t think the wardens recovered it. He said it didn’t come up during the trial.”
“And?”
He squirmed for a moment, then let it all out in a rush.
“She stole the book from the Vault.”
“From theVault?” I repeated. “That’s impossible.”
“And it’s still missing?” Jax asked.
“Far as I know. Travis is investigating, though,” Kerry said. “I talked to John after breakfast and they’re on it. And they’re finding out about the college the Hublers went to.”
“Did Kas ever tell you which school his daughter attended?” Gigi asked.
“I didn’t even know he had a daughter until last night.” Kerry shrugged.
“How does this all tie together?” Mira looked from me to Kerry. “Or are we trying to force puzzle pieces to fit when they really don’t?
“No way to tell yet.” Chance shook his head. “Gathering information is the easy part. It’s synthesizing it that sucks.”
“I’d like to make sure justice was done for Zoe,” I said after a minute, “but it’ll keep until we wrap up this business with Hubler. It might divide our attention too much and cause us to miss something.”
“Nah, if Kerry found a lead right here in New York, we should follow it,” Jax disagreed. “Our mission was over when we destroyed those Hellhounds in North Carolina. Helping Clem with Amanda was off the books and it’s led us further and further afield. Now we’re hip-deep in a mystery that isn’t really ours to solve. There’s no mission to derail.”
