Ascendant (27 page)

Rome had been a wonderful city, and I’d enjoyed exploring it with Giovanni. I’d loved the pasta, the gelato, the endless parade of famous works of art. But we’d never gone out for burgers. And sometimes, every once in a while, as wonderful as the food was in Italy, as spectacular as it was in France, I just wanted to have a greasy fast-food burger. I wanted to eat regular pizza. I wanted peanut butter sandwiches and milk chocolate and the sight of the Pacific Ocean and a little piece of home.

Just like Brandt.

We passed a bar with young people and dance music pouring in equal numbers into the street.

“Let’s check it out,” Brandt suggested. I hung back.

“Come on,” he said. He tilted his head to listen to the music. “That’s Madonna. She’s American.”

“Barely,” I argued as he pulled me inside.

But it turned out to be a lot of fun. The crowd was composed mostly of students from the school, and I got to practice my ever-improving French. It had been ages since I’d gone dancing, and these kids were really into it. Brandt would disappear and reappear throughout the night, never hovering, but always making sure I was still having a good time.

So I was shocked when I felt my phone buzzing in my bag and noticed on the readout that it was well after midnight. Followed instantly by dismay when I recognized the number.

Giovanni.

I hurried out of the building, but the music followed as I answered.

“Astrid? Where are you?”

“Out.”

“At a club? “ he asked. “That’s … odd.”

I pursed my lips. What? Was he so used to finding me tucked safely in bed by the time he called? “I’ve never had a problem with partying, G.”

He chose not to respond to my jibe. “You’re not alone, are you?”

I hesitated.

“Astrid? You shouldn’t go to a nightclub without a friend.”

“Don’t condescend to me!” I snapped. “You’re two years older than me, not twenty. I know what I’m doing.”

“You
are
alone? Astrid, come on, that’s not safe.”

“I’m not alone,” I replied. “I’m with Brandt.” Even as I spoke, I regretted it, remembering where I’d been the last time he’d called. In the pool, with Brandt. And now I was at a club with Brandt.

Silence. Then, “You told me you hardly ever see him.”

“Did I?” I said lightly. “Well, I guess this is one of the times.”

He didn’t say anything, and my eyes began to burn.

And then, horribly: “Well, don’t let me interrupt you.”

“Giovanni, wait!” I cried. “There’s nothing—I just wanted a night off. I’m in Limoges, and Brandt’s here, too, but there’s nothing going on. We’re just hanging out with some of the college kids. It’s totally innocent.”

I could hear him sigh. “I … trust you, Astrid.”

He shouldn’t, I thought.

“And, yeah, you should totally be able to go out and have fun. It’s just a lot harder for me to picture you having a social life when I know you’re not with Phil or the girls at the Cloisters but instead hanging out with some guy you used to date. Especially when he’s not three thousand miles away and I am.”

“Proximity is not how I choose my men,” I said. It wasn’t, it
wasn’t
.

But that wasn’t Brandt’s only argument. He didn’t think that Giovanni and I had anything in common. He would be more than happy to point out how Giovanni would avoid this nightclub like the plague, and I wanted to dance all night. How Giovanni didn’t understand thing one about unicorns or the Remedy, and it had become Brandt’s whole life—and mine.

“Look,” I said. “I can’t talk now. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Fine,” he said, and in the word, I sensed the same frustration I felt whenever he blew me off.

I stuck the phone back in my purse and turned back to the nightclub. I hated to think that Brandt was right.

We didn’t arrive back at the château until nearly dawn. Brandt had wanted to stay in Limoges—maybe get rooms at a hotel, as he had so many nights in the past—but I demurred. Despite his use of the plural when suggesting rooms, I didn’t think spending the night in a hotel with Brandt would endear me to my boyfriend. Or Isabeau.

However, all the lights were on at the château when we pulled up outside, and I began to think that, hotel or no, Isabeau was already unhappy.

She met us in the entrance hall, her face a thundercloud. “In the future,” she said, “I wish to be given advance notice of any all-night excursions.”

“Chill out, Madame Jaeger,” Brandt said.

“I will not,” she replied. “Astrid, what if we were to have had an emergency here last night?”

“Same as if you were to have one while I’m taking my classes in town,” I replied. “You call on my cell.”

Her expression didn’t soften.

“You said varying my schedule would be fine.” I stood my ground. “I should be allowed to go out.”

“All night?” she asked. “I doubt your mother would let you do something like that.”

“Not unless it involved putting me in a life-threatening situation,” I snapped.

“What are you mad about?” Brandt asked, a smile playing about his lips. “Make up your mind. That she left you here alone with the big bad unicorns or that she went out without begging you for permission first?”

Isabeau turned to him. “I am not angry,” she said. “I am simply informing you both that should my wishes be disobeyed one more time, there will be consequences. Do you understand,
Monsieur?”

Brandt’s smile vanished. “Whatever,” he said, and stalked off.

She looked back at me and shook her head. “It is unfortunate that you chose last night to exercise your freedom, Astrid. I had a surprise for you.”

“What?”

She eyed my outfit, which still reeked of cigarette smoke and club sweat. “Go wash up,” she said. “Perhaps when you come back, you’ll see them.”

I headed back into my room, took a quick shower, then changed. By the time I got back downstairs, the sun had already crested the horizon, and Isabeau was exiting her office, her face set in stern lines.

“Astrid, it goes without saying that I’m disappointed in you. In Brandt, I have come to learn to accept such behavior. But I expect more from you.”

“More than what?” I asked.

“You have a strong sense of what your duty is,” she said, “and yet you continually feel the need to test yourself. Staying out all night with a boy?”

“Nothing happened!” I snapped. “You know that being out with a guy doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping with one, don’t you?”

“I know that Brandt would take every opportunity he can to make it mean exactly that.” She shook her head. “You dated him, so you know that, too.”

Suddenly, even through the haze of herbs in the hall, I felt the unicorns jolt awake to a new presence. I stiffened. “There’s something … happening. In the enclosure.”

“Ah, yes,” said Isabeau. “It’s your surprise.”

I
found them standing by the gate that led beyond the fences and into the einhorn enclosure. They were dressed in long coats and hats to keep out the morning chill, but I still recognized them instantly.

“Cory!” I cried. “Valerija!”

Cory squealed and came running at me. “There you are!” She threw her arms around me. “Hi! Hi hi hi! Sorry, we couldn’t wait any longer. Well, Val couldn’t, anyway. She’s been dying to see these einhorns.”

Val?
I shook my head. “What are you two doing here?”

“Visiting you, of course. Checking out the operation.”

“Do you know the code?” Valerija asked, still at the gate. The unicorns within lurked at the edge of the forest, curious about the newcomers.

“You could have given me some warning, you know,” I said.

“And ruin the whole point of a surprise inspection?” Cory asked. “Of course, when we came, we thought we’d be surprising evil Gordian Pharmaceutical scientists, not you on an all-night date with some bloke who is not your boyfriend.” Cory crossed her arms. “Should we be reporting back to Giovanni?”

“He knows,” I mumbled. And didn’t like it one bit. And what, no lecture from her about the evils of unicorn hunters dating? Not that Brandt and I were
dating
.

“There’s something more,” Cory said. “The Cloisters received a report about a unicorn sighting near Bordeaux a few days back.”

“A
sighting?”
I asked. That was about a three-hour drive from here. “Not an attack?”

“There was no interaction,” Cory said. “No casualties.” That was unusual. “Why haven’t I heard anything about this?”

“To be honest, we thought there was a chance you already knew.”

And hadn’t told them? Cory took in my bafflement. “Astrid, from the description—it sounded like a karka-dann.”

A karkadann! Could Bucephalus be near? I remembered the dream I’d had the night the electric boundary went down. I hadn’t had that dream in months. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Phil seemed to think that if it was—well, maybe it was coming to see you.”

“And if not,” Valerija added, “that you should not go to it alone.”

“There are several concerns,” said Cory. “There’s no record of any hunter killing a karkadann except for Clothilde. And that story isn’t true. So if it’s not Bucephalus, it’s extremely dangerous.”

“If it is Bucephalus, he’s still extremely dangerous,” I said, annoyed. “I watched him murder a man in cold blood, remember?”

“All the more reason to think even two hunters aren’t enough,” Cory said.

“So we just let it ravage the countryside, then?” I asked.

Val turned away from the woods. “But it isn’t,” she said. “There is no news of an attack on a human. Not even on an animal. Just the one person saying they saw it.”

“Maybe it was a hoax,” I suggested. “Like someone saying they saw the Loch Ness Monster.”

“Perhaps,” Cory said, still skeptical. I had to agree. This wasn’t a public news item, or I’d have heard about it already. This was a private report to the Order of the Lioness. And the fact that this alleged karkadann hadn’t attacked anyone made it seem even more likely to be Bucephalus. He’d know that the quickest way to bring the wrath of unicorn hunters down upon him was to hurt a human. I’d heard nothing from him since this summer. It made me think he was staying deep in the wild.

But why would he surface only a few hours away from me? Did he need my help again? Or, like last summer, was he looking to help
me?
That was silly. The only thing I needed help with now was making sure I didn’t ruin my relationship with Giovanni.

Again, I recalled my dream and the image of Brandt dead in a pool of his own blood.

That kind of help I could do without.

I shuddered. “So what do you want to do? Day-trip over to Bordeaux and check it out?”

Cory hesitated. “I’d been hoping you would say you and the unicorn had a nice little visit and that would be the end of it. I guess we’ll have to call in more hunters.”

“Or,” I said, “here’s a novel idea. Why don’t we just leave it alone?”

Cory said nothing. Valerija looked confused.

“It’s like Valerija said. It didn’t do anything. It’s not bothering anyone. What right do we have to kill it?”

“It’s dangerous,” Cory said. “It could kill dozens of people—”

“But it hasn’t!”

Her brow furrowed. “You want to wait until it does?”

I looked down, took a deep breath. “No,” I said. “But I don’t want to murder something, either.” I was through with all that.

Cory didn’t respond, and Valerija cleared her throat.

“Come on, let us in,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Enough talk. I want to see the einhorns.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “What about Cory’s … disability?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Cory replied. “Val will take care of them if they get rowdy. She’s my knight in shining armor.”

“And they won’t get—what this word is?—rowdy,” Valerija added. “We have done some tests of our own. Unicorns still sense her like a hunter. It just doesn’t work the other way ‘round.”

Wow, her English
had
gotten good.

I let us all into the enclosure, and as soon as we were past the electronic boundary, the einhorns came for us. The usual crowd surrounded me, snuffling for food, and when their search proved fruitless, they started sniffing at Valerija and Cory.

“Wonderful!” Valerija exclaimed. “They are extraordinary.”

“They’re beautiful,” Cory agreed. “If a bit thin.”

“Can you feel them? “ I asked her.

She touched one on the flank. “Yes, very soft.”

“You know what I mean.”

Her expression dimmed. “No, not at all.” She and Valerija exchanged long glances. “It’s gotten worse and worse. And the doctors can’t find any medical reason for it.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but what about a nonmedical reason?” I examined my friend. She looked paler than usual, but it wasn’t summertime in Italy anymore. Also, she looked thinner. A lack of pasta or something more sinister? “Is there anything else that could be causing this? I mean, you don’t have a boyfriend, right?”