Inquest (38 page)

Braden’s
eyebrow rises at the comparison. Oh, yeah. I am the farthest thing
from normal imaginable, and for some reason I doubt Braden fits
into that category either. He looks to be in his early twenties,
but that is way too young to be leading a professional strike
force. Maybe I was wrong about him being Super Guardian.

“You know what
I mean. Anyway, you’re going to tell them, right? Nobody else will
come after Milo?” I’m begging, but Milo is worth it.

“I’ll tell the
Captain what I’ve seen. It should be enough to keep anyone from
coming after your friend again, but I can’t promise you it won’t
happen. And I can’t make any promises about what Howe will do about
you, either, Cassia.”

“My name is
Libby,” I snap.

He nods his
apology. “Libby. I’ll do my best to convince the Captain of what
I’ve seen, but it will be his call. Watch over your friend for the
time being. Watch out for yourself, too.”

It’s the best
I could have hoped for, but I still feel a pang of disappointment.
“I will, and thanks for giving me the chance to explain.”

My concern for
Milo has reached its limit. I’ve gotten some hope of Milo’s long
term safety, even if mine is more uncertain than ever, but his
short term health is even more pressing. I turn to follow after
them. The loss of adrenaline and focused Strength buckles my ankle.
I’d completely forgotten about it. I reach out to catch myself, but
Braden moves faster. His hand clamps down on my arm and pulls me
back to my feet. A strange tingling races up my arm at his touch. I
find my balance quickly, but he doesn’t let go.

“Are you
alright?” he asks.

“What do you
care?” I ask, though my tone is more curious than vicious. He’s
different than most of the Guardians I’ve met. “You’re going to try
to kill me at some point anyway, right?”

He shrugs. “At
some point…maybe. But for now, do you need help getting to your
car?”

“Right, you
carrying me to my car? That’ll make a great headline for the ten
o’clock news. No thanks. My ankle’s broken, but it’s not bad enough
that I can’t walk on it. I’ll be fine.”

Braden
releases my arm and takes a small step back. One of his brothers
moans. My cue to get going. Carefully, I limp toward the
stairs.

“Maybe I’ll
see you again, Libby,” Braden says.

I look back,
and say, “No offense, Braden, but I really hope not.”

Chapter 30

Purpose

The door pulls
open and light spills across the porch. A middle-aged woman still
dressed in an elegant black evening gown from the hospital’s staff
Christmas party stands in the entryway. Her confused frown looks
out of place on her soft features. I slink back from the light,
telling myself again what a terrible idea this is. We should have
just taken Milo to the hospital.

“Good evening,
Mrs. Hanover,” Lance says, “I believe this young man belongs to
you.”

Her eyes
finally take in more than the stranger addressing her. The sight of
her bloody son hanging limply on Lance’s arm shocks her into
reacting. “Milo! What happened?”

“He and a
Guardian strike team had a minor disagreement,” Lance replies.

“Guardians!”
Mrs. Hanover gasps. “Matthew! Matthew, get down here right now! The
Guardians found Milo!”

The terror in
her voice is answered immediately by the pounding of footsteps. A
man with lightly graying brown hair barrels down the staircase and
takes in the scene with the practiced calm of an experienced ER
doctor. Which is probably because that’s exactly what he is. “Get
him into the living room and lay him on the couch. Annabelle, get
my bag from my office, please. Celia? Celia, honey, are you
alright?”

Stuck behind
Lance and Milo, Celia calls out to her worried father. “I’m fine,
Dad, just take care of Milo.”

Lance lugs
Milo through the doorway, allowing Celia to dart inside the house
and race into the living room ahead of them. Mrs. Hanover rushes
back in and crosses the entryway without looking at me once, her
voice filling the room as she starts yelling at Milo.

“What on earth
were you doing that got the Guardians’ attention? How many times
have we told you that you have to be careful? Look at you, Milo!
You could have been killed!”

“I was being
careful,” Milo growls. “I’m always the one being careful! You and
Dad were the ones trying to get me killed from the beginning!”

The argument
fades in volume, if not in anger, as they drag Milo into the den.
His dad joins in as soon as he gets back in sight of his son, bag
of supplies in hand. It’s a free-for-all of blame and accusations.
I’m left here without anyone missing me. I can leave, sneak outside
and wait. Milo’s dad will help him, and he and his wife will never
be the wiser about me. I am trembling with concern for Milo. He
perked back up on the drive over, and his ability to fight with his
parents now shows he’s in control of his faculties. I can’t say the
same thing about his temper. It’s a promising sign, but I’m afraid
of his condition turning back around. I have to know he’s okay.
Plus, Celia is the worst secret-keeper in the world. She’ll spill
the whole story the moment Milo is okay.

I close the
door quietly and take a hesitant step forward. My one freezing bare
foot shuffles along beside my high heel, my gait lopsided and
painful. I reach the doorway to the living room and peek in. Mr.
Hanover’s hands work ceaselessly as he berates Milo for being so
foolish. He checks his son’s pulse, blood pressure, and pupil
dilation, dispensing medication, and finally cleans and bandages
the head wound. He leans back at last and frowns at Milo. Milo
looks up with an equally foul expression, but there is thanks in
his eyes as well. His eyes look much clearer than they did a few
minutes ago. I was so intent on Milo that I didn’t even hear Celia
babbling in the background at first because of the arguing. She’s
saying something about the theater, but I don’t think anyone is
listening to her.

“Libby,” Milo
says suddenly, his voice sounding loud in the absence of any
fighting, “where’s Libby?”

Celia pauses
in her monologue and looks around. “She was here a minute ago.”

Lance sees me
first but says nothing. There is understanding in his eyes. This
may cost me everything I have. The Guardians attacking Milo might
make his parents pack them up anyway, but meeting me, knowing I’m
the reason Milo was found in the first place, that will definitely
take Milo away from me forever. I take a step back, but not quickly
enough. Milo’s eyes find me before I can hide.

“Libby,” Milo
says, “are you okay?”

His parents
follow his gaze to me. So much for running.

“Libby?” Mrs.
Hanover asks quietly. “Libitina Sparks?”

My heart was
racing before. Now it is about to burst. I trip over my own feet as
I step into the room.

“Matthew, it’s
her. It’s Cassia.”

Mr. Hanover
blinks, but says nothing. Milo and I both tense, ready for another
fight to break out.

“Milo,” his
mother says, “why didn’t you tell us this is who you’ve been
dating?”

“Uh, because I
knew you’d pick a fight about it and make us move,” he says.

Tears I don’t
understand fill her eyes. She stands up and I brace myself for her
reaction. Anger, fear, hysterical screaming, I would have been
prepared for any of those. Her running to me and throwing her arms
around me are worse than a physical assault. I stagger in
shock.

“Thank you,
thank you, Libby. Oh, thank you,” she cries. She pulls back and
beams at me. I’m so stunned I can barely speak. When I find my
voice it’s halting and weak.

“I…I don’t
understand. You’re…glad I’m here?” I ask.

Mr. Hanover
has moved up behind his wife and is smiling just as widely as she
is. I glance past them to Milo and Celia, but they’re as
dumbfounded as I am. I step back from Milo’s parents. Panic that
they know something I don’t makes me look back at the front door.
The awkward step I take into the hallway twists my ankle again.
Only the wall next to me saves me from dropping completely. Mr.
Hanover moves quickly and helps me to stand.

“What’s wrong,
dear?”

“I broke my
ankle last weekend,” I say though another spasm of pain. “I had to
tear the cast off to get to Milo in time. I’m okay, though. Please
don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

“And you’re
walking on it?” He shakes his head in disbelief. “Let’s get you to
the couch.” His wife bustles over to me, and they practically shove
me forward. Short of attacking both of them, I don’t know what to
do but follow. Lance moves to the second couch ahead of us and
takes up a defensive position at the end. I thank him silently, and
let Milo’s parents push me down to the cushions. Mr. Hanover is
wrapping my ankle with an elastic bandage before I can object.

“We’ll have to
cast it again most likely, but for now it can wait. I think we
might owe you an explanation first, and our thanks for saving
Milo’s life,” he says.

“Lance and
Milo helped too,” I say quietly. I’m the reason Milo was found in
the first place.

Mrs. Hanover
sits down beside me, bouncing slightly in her enthusiasm. Her
sudden shift in moods is disorienting. After hearing so many
negative things about Milo’s parents, I had wondered where his
sister got her bubbliness. Celia must take after her mom, when
she’s not yelling at people. Mrs. Hanover looks at me, full
smile.

“We didn’t
know why Milo was so insistent on moving here after his Inquest. He
had never even been to New Mexico before. He pushed and pushed
until we agreed. I never understood until we saw you on the news.
Cassia, right here in Albuquerque. I knew then that it was fate.
You would find him somehow.”

Fate, or
something worse? I’m beginning to think it was no accident that he
ended up here with me. But…

“Why would you
want me to find him? He already had the Guardians after him,” I
say. I would only be one more danger to Milo.

“Guardians,”
she snaps, “they’ve been hunting Milo because he has no talents.
It’s shameful the way they can’t just leave him alone.”

“But it’s not
true. Milo does have talents,” I blurt out. “Milo, show them.”

Sitting up
slowly, Milo bares his wrist for his parents to see. They are both
stunned. “I told you she could do it, Matthew. I knew she would be
the one. Everything is going to be okay now.”

I’m hopeful
that the Guardians will leave Milo alone after Braden explains what
happened, but that eerie instinct that told me not to explain too
much has been grating on me since we left the theater. I fear Milo
is nowhere near safe yet. I
’
m hopeful, but Milo’s parents
have no idea about any of that yet. Why is Milo’s mom smiling like
that?

“Mrs. Hanover,
what are you talking about?” I ask.

“You’ve saved
Milo,” she says. “You’re going to save the other Ciphers now,
aren’t you?”

The room falls
completely silent.

That’s what
Braden was talking about. He hadn’t discovered Milo’s nickname. It
wasn’t a nickname at all. Mr. Walters used to be a Seeker, a
Guardian. He knew what Milo was when he first met him. He simply
called him what he was. What he thought he was. My thoughts race
through all of this in seconds, but Milo seems to be stuck on a
single thought.

“There are
others?” he asks darkly. The beginnings of another fight roll along
with his words. “I’m not the only one?”

His mother’s
enthusiasm drops visibly. Her head dips down in shame and his
father has to answer for her. He does so straight-backed, bracing
for another round. “Yes, Milo, there are others.”

“How many?”
His furious eyes are darting between his parents in search of
answers. “Two? Ten? A dozen? How many, Dad?”

“Hundreds,
maybe thousands.”

The news is
unbelievable. Hundreds of people just like Milo. Do they all have
hidden talents only I can reveal? I am reeling with the
possibilities, the responsibility, and the pressure. Milo is having
a completely different reaction.

“You let me
believe I was the only one,” he growls. “You let me believe I was a
freak. You nearly killed me that night!”

“We had to,
son. The Guardians would have taken you if we hadn’t,” Mr. Hanover
says. “If we hadn’t convinced the Inquisitor to let us forge your
diktats you would have been taken away from us. We were terrified,
Milo. What other option did we have?”

“You could
have told me!” he yells. “Why didn’t you explain what was going on
to me? Instead you left me and Celia out of every decision. Did you
think I was too stupid or irresponsible to have a say in what
happened to me? It was my life! You only started listening to me
after Celia was attacked. If you had told me from the beginning the
reason I was in danger, we could have made a plan together that
didn’t involve me nearly bleeding to death or both of your children
almost dying at the hands of Guardians!”

“Milo,
please,” his mother begs.

He shakes his
head angrily. “Do you know what I would have told you that
night?”

“No,” she
whispers.

Milo looks
away from her. His body sinks into the couch. “And you never will.
You’ll never know how things might have been different. You should
have told me. I should have had a choice. Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“You were
always so popular, so outgoing,” his mom says quietly. “You loved
being the center of attention. We were afraid you would tell
someone, slip up about what you were. Milo, we were terrified of
losing you. We thought we were making the right choice.”

The scowl on
Milo’s face makes it pretty clear what he thinks of their decision
making abilities. He glares at her, frozen in his fury for several
long seconds. “Why,” he asks through his clenched jaw, “didn’t you
tell me when Libby was named the Destroyer? It would have been a
perfect time to let me in on your secret!”