“Breathe, Avet. Sevan is right. If we rush through this to find the most obvious clue, we might pass over a truly important one.”
I hug him until his body relaxes by a nominal degree. I twist my arm up so I can scrunch my fingers in his hair, reminding him that we will find a way to get through this.
When I release him, I jerk my thumb and littlest finger between Sevan and myself. “You brought us in because you want the job done right. This is what that looks like. Trust the sensible part of you that wanted our help finding Cher.”
Avet lowers his chin. “That’s fair. It sucks but it’s fair.” He runs his hand over his face. “So how are we doing this?”
Sevan mimes crying, her dark eyes looking big and beautiful as she injects emotion into her features. “My missing cousin, Cher, is so dear to me. I just want to be in her room for a while.”
Avet shoves his hands in his pockets. “Cool. The girls here have seen me before when I went in the first time to package up Cher’s things.”
I don’t need a story, then. I’m just with them. Good.
We walk up to the front porch and ring the doorbell. Sevan’s lower lip begins to quiver, and darn it if it doesn’t look like she’s actually crying. Part of me itches to get her a tissue or offer my arm for her to lean on, even though I know it’s all fake.
Pickpocket and a good liar. Dang, she’s dangerous.
Avet turns his chin over his shoulder in my direction. “Sevan was going to be an actress before she started trapping full-time.”
Sevan glowers at him. “I never told you that.”
“You think you’re the only person who’s good at digging into people’s pasts? I wouldn’t have worked with you a second time if I hadn’t done my due diligence.”
Sevan scoffs but keeps her façade intact when the door swings open. “Can I help you?” asks a chipper girl. Despite the chilly weather, she is clad in short pink shorts and a crop top.
Avet shoves his hands into his jeans pockets again, arching his shoulders inward to look more pathetic and less intimidating. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’m Avet, Cher’s brother. I was here a few weeks ago to pack up her things.”
The girl wears her emotions on her sleeve, throwing her arms around Avet’s neck. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Of course, I remember you. Come on in. We were just talking about Cher last night. No word on her being found yet?”
“None.” Avet gives the girl a one-armed squeeze and then releases her with a sad smile. “This is my cousin.”
“I’m Dianna,” Sevan offers easily, her name accompanied by a sniffle. “I’m sorry to bring this dark cloud to your house with no warning. I just wanted to see my cousin’s room, if that might be possible. I miss her so terribly.”
The girl nods and then hugs Sevan just as tightly, even though the two are complete strangers. Sevan crosses her eyes at me over the girl’s shoulder. “Of course! Most of the sisters are in class right now. Otherwise, you’d get a bigger greeting. We’re all distraught about the whole thing. We don’t know how to deal with it. I mean, Cher was here, then we never saw her again.” She releases Sevan and waves her hand in front of her face. “I can’t even.” She touches her sternum. “I’m Anna. I’m a junior, so I’ve seen it all.”
I’m grateful I get to be mute through this entire emotional exchange.
Most of our conjuring and fighting is done under cloak of night, so it feels strange walking upstairs to the bedroom in broad daylight. With permission, no less. The things we are about to do should be done in secret, so the outside world doesn’t have to deal with the knowledge that there are things out there they cannot control and should very much fear.
The general public can’t even handle something as innocuous as social media without an unhealthy dose of chaos. Asking them to grapple with the reality that the ancient mother of the monsters has magic that is alive, active, and twisting the world to create creatures who should never have existed is too much.
I don’t mind protecting the populace from things they don’t want to know about, but I hate the sneaking part of the job. It would be so much easier if we didn’t have to hide what we are doing in order to keep people from thinking we’re Satan worshippers or some nonsense.
We walk through the pleasantly messy home through the common area and up the stairs, through a graffitied staircase littered with permanent marker scribbles.
The moment we get into Cher’s abandoned bedroom, I itch to lock the door, but our host follows us inside. Avet meets my eyes and jerks his head toward the exit, letting me know that my job is now to distract Anna so he and Sevan can see if there are any spirits floating around in need of rest.
“Anna, could you show me around?” I ask, trying to sound like I engage in friendly chatter with strangers all the time. “I’d love to see Cher’s favorite places in the house.”
Anna’s spine seems to lengthen. “Of course!” She leads the way out of the room, giving Avet and Sevan time to do the interesting work.
Great. I don’t know how I got stuck on babysitting duty.
Yes, I do. Out of the three of us, I am the one who is rusty and might be the weak link. Do I even remember the chant required to conjure a spirit?
Of course I do, I grumble to myself. I’m not that out of practice.
I catch myself going down an unproductive path, so I determine to make the best out of this and actually do some digging. Cher didn’t live exclusively in her bedroom. There must have been other parts in the house she frequented.