Shattered (2 page)

I couldn’t finish. I couldn’t say it.

“Killed your human parents?” Jeffery
asked. I nodded. “And do you solemnly swear that the bodies in the morgue are
that of John and Theresa Reece?”

My mind flashed to those red toenails,
then to the memory of my mother twirling in our kitchen. I nodded again, and Jeffery
turned to Lydia.

“Your Honor, I know that I am not at
liberty to ask, but in light of the recent brutal slayings of thousands of our
kind, the Magical Council is interested in knowing your proposed sentence.”
Jeffery’s heart rate soared, nervous about her answer apparently. Or maybe he
was nervous about what her answer could mean.

“Incarceration,” Lydia said. “Family
visitation can be negotiated. Of course, we wouldn’t present her like this.”

Jeffery smiled, and his heart slowed. “Of
course. Thank you for humoring me. I hope I won’t offend you with another
question.”

“No. Speak freely, Jeffery,” Lydia said.

He flashed an apprehensive smile. “Is
there a plan for Kamon Yates? The Council would like to know if you plan to do
something about him.”

Lydia nodded. “He won’t get away with what
he did,” she said. “I can’t give you any details. I’m sure you understand.”

“I do. You are kind for answering.”

Jeffery smelled terrified of Lydia. He
was sending gusts of minty fear into the air. I understood why. Asking Lydia
Shaw questions about her job and her business, according to Devin, could land
you in a silver box like we were standing in now.

Jeffery cleared his throat like he had
something to announce. “Your Honor, on behalf of the Magical Council, I consent
to the merciful punishment of Indiana Eubanks.”

“Thank you, Jeffery,” Lydia said, in her
formal voice. “Let’s move on. I’ll have someone escort Ms. Eubanks to her
cell.”

As we walked out, I suddenly remembered
my first time meeting Indiana. I’d thought she was perfect for Devin–a
little straggly, a bit of a mess, and hilarious. She’d asked me to help her get
the children in line to serve them breakfast.

You’re
the pooch
, she’d said. I
nodded.
So what brings you to the Peace
Group?

I
want to help people
. She
smirked at me.
Okay … I need to make some
money. And quick
.

Thanks
for being honest. That’s a rare quality
, she said.
What’s the
money for? Chew toys?

I laughed, and she pushed my shoulder. It
felt like we’d been friends for years. I liked her enough to excuse the sewage fumes
coming off of her.

No.
I’m severely out of my league with my girlfriend,
I said.
We work really well. Like, surprisingly well. Everything’s perfect …
except that she’s rich and I live with her. I need to at least pay her rent
.

The
one from the news, right?
I nodded.
She’s pretty, but money isn’t
everything, little bro.

Little bro. What a joke. I’d believed she
was being genuine with me. I was such an idiot.

The door closed on Indiana, and I wanted
to go back in and ask her why she’d bothered to befriend me. Why not just let
us make our pretend money and end the world with Kamon like they’d planned? Why
make us like them? But I couldn’t ask Indiana anything. Her body was in that
room, but her mind had been hijacked, so I walked away from the door.

I followed Lydia into the next
interrogation room and clasped my hands behind my back to keep them away from this
culprit’s throat. Like Indiana, Shane was slouching in his chair, alive but not
present with us. Fur sprouted out of parts of his skin, interrupting the ivory
with patches of gray. His body had frozen mid-shift, it seemed.

I detested him now, but when I’d met him,
I’d thought he was the coolest person on the planet.

That day, I’d walked into my interview
and sat in the empty chair across from Devin and Shane. Shane spoke first.

So
… Nathan Reece, you’re hired if you can win a wrestling match with a wolf
. I’d laughed and adjusted in the chair,
waiting for the real interview questions to start. Devin had smiled and
motioned for me to meet Shane in the middle of the floor, my only test for the
job.

Looking back, he’d probably let me win
that day.

“Nathan?” Jeffery said. I blinked a few
times, snapping out of my thoughts. He and Lydia were staring at me. “What can
you tell us about him?”

I took a deep breath. “Shane is Devin’s
right hand. My direct supervisor. He held my … Theresa down.”

I felt like I was about to shift and take
his head off, so I walked out of the room, fleeing from his musty scent, as
Jeffery said the same line about consenting to a merciful punishment.

We did that fourteen more times. Room
after room, old friend after old friend. Lydia had captured all of the supervisors,
and Jeffery consented to the merciful punishment of them all.

As we closed the door on the wizard I
only knew as “Doc”, who’d drooled through my testimony, I remembered how many
rooms Lydia had said were filled. Seventeen. We’d seen sixteen. There was only
one room left and only one person who could be in it.

“Are you ready?” Lydia asked. I nodded,
and she opened the door to the room across from Doc. I closed my eyes but
couldn’t do the same for my nose. Devin had a special kind of stench. He
smelled like a huddle of homeless people around a fire, a bit of garbage,
cigarettes, weed, and determination. But his personality, his fake one, would
make anyone love him.

I opened my eyes and lost my breath.
Unlike the others, Devin was restrained to the chair and had a guard I hadn’t
sensed at his side. I couldn’t even smell the guard. The air was full of Devin,
my friend,
the
guy I’d sat with and spilled my soul
to.

I needed tonight to be the end so I could
stop feeling like crap for my actions on June 25
^th
. June 25
^th
,
the day Paul and Em had kicked me out of my room and I’d spent the night
hanging out with Shane and Devin. Shane had passed out in wolf form on the
floor, and Devin and I talked all night about everything under the sun. On the
agenda: my past with John and Theresa Reece.

You
call them your parents, but then you say ‘John and Theresa’,
Dev had said. He was Dev to me at the
time. He offered me a puff of his cigarette, and I declined.
What’s that about, little bro?

John
is John,
I said.
Theresa’s only Theresa because … I don’t
want to talk about it.

Hey,
man. It’s me. You can tell me anything.

And I did. I told him everything. Things
I wouldn’t tell Paul. Things I wouldn’t even tell Chris. And now they were just
cold blue toes in the morgue.

“Nathan, this is Tyler Moss,” Lydia said,
pointing to the guy in the corner. He had to be in his late twenties, early
thirties. He didn’t smile, and he was standing at attention like a soldier.
Obviously an agent. They all had that look about them, like they could kill you
easily and were completely aware of it. “He’s here to secure Devin. Don’t feel
threatened. He’s one of the best we have.”

I understood why Devin needed the extra
security. Outside of Sophia, he had the fastest and strongest magic I’d ever
seen. On the road, I’d witnessed the impossible. He could conjure up tables and
tables of food, form clothes out of dirt, houses out of piles of sticks. I’d
seen him heal with his words, but now, I’d seen him kill with his words.

He raised his head and smiled at me. He
wasn’t as incapacitated as the others.

“Whenever you’re ready, Nathan,” Jeffery
said.

I nodded and locked eyes with my old
friend. “As you know … this is Devin,” I said. “Leader of the Peace Group. He
hired me. I told him about my parents, and he captured them or had them
captured.” My voice shook. I took a moment to compose myself. “He invited me to
a meeting to see them murdered.”

“And why didn’t you stop it?” Devin
slurred. I’d wanted to ask myself the same question.

“Don’t answer that,” Lydia said. “Devin,
it will serve you well to keep your mouth closed.”

“As long as I have my voice and can fight
whatever you’re trying to do to my brain, I will speak,” Devin said.

Lydia chuckled and gave him a
you just wait
kind of look. I would hate
to be Devin later.

“Go on, Nathan,” Jeffery said, scowling
at Devin like he’d already heard enough. This part was just a formality. Devin
was already screwed, and I was ready to go home and put this behind me.

“He killed John and Theresa Reece,” I
said. “It had to be his idea. He’s a dangerous wizard.”

“Your Honor,” Jeffery said. “On behalf of
the Magical Council, I consent to the punishment of Devin St. Jermaine.”

He’d left out the merciful part.

“Thank you for your time, Jeffery,” Lydia
said. “You or the Elders can contact me personally if you have any further
questions.” Jeffery smiled like that was an honor and bowed to Lydia. Then he
shook my hand, snapped, and left.

“Can I go?” I asked. Lydia nodded and
Devin lifted his head again.

“Nate,” he said. I turned to leave. I
didn’t want to hear anything else he had to say. “We really were friends. I
know you probably don’t think that now.”

“I wonder why,” I said, without turning
around.

“But we were. Real friends. I swear. To
prove it,” he said. “I’ll help you. Be careful. They are rejoicing over your
witch’s blood.”

I spun around, and Devin’s head slammed
into the silver table. He screamed as blood poured out of his nose. Tyler still
hadn’t moved, and Lydia was examining her cuticles.

“That will be all, Nathan,” she said.
“We’ll take it from here. The elevator is at the end of the hall.”

I bowed to Lydia like Tyler would expect
me to and left. I tried to think about the cryptic message from Devin, but the
thought wouldn’t stay in my head. The closer I walked to the elevator, the
further I walked from the morgue, from my mother, and she couldn’t come with
me. I tried to force myself to think that she was with who she wanted to be
with right now. She would have never chosen me over John anyway. She never did.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about her toes.

The elevator dinged before I made it
there, and Sophia poked her head out. I ran to her while my shoulders shook
violently. I was either about to shift or cry harder than I ever had in my
life.

As the elevator doors closed, Sophia took
my left hand and pressed my palm to her lips. “It’s all over, love,” she said. “It’s
all over.”

I held my tears in. I didn’t want to cry.
I didn’t want to be pitied.

“Sophia, if it’s not too much trouble,
could you handle the arrangements with Lydia? Get them buried or cremated.
Whatever. I don’t want to deal with it.”

What I really meant was: I can’t sit
through a poorly attended funeral.

 
“Of course, dear. I’ll handle it.” The
elevator opened to another silver hallway. At the end of it, Sophia pressed her
hand against a sensor on the wall.

“Door opened. Sophia Ewing,” a robotic
voice said.

We stepped into a lobby with several
different flags from around the world on the walls. Out of a window, I saw New
York City. The people below us looked like ants. Ants and yellow boxes that had
to be taxis.

I followed the scent of sweet spice to an
office at the end of the hall. I turned to Sophia when the scent led me to
believe Christine had walked through a wall.

“Just a second, dear,” she said. She
punched a code into the keypad, and the wall opened like another elevator.

Christine’s scent was strongest here. It gusted
into my nose and wrapped me in a peace only she could bring. I started jogging
when I heard footsteps coming closer. She must’ve heard me. Her feet sped too.

Behind me, Sophia sighed. “I told her to
stay in the lounge,” she said. “Agents have access to this hall.”

I ran then. I needed to see her after all
of that, and I wanted to get her out of the hall she wasn’t supposed to be in.
I turned a corner and saw her. In my fragile state, it was like I had never seen
her before. Her beauty stunned me, and in the next moment, I remembered she was
mine, and was stunned again.

She ran and jumped into my arms. “I’m
okay,” I said, managing to suck the teary sound out of my voice. “It’s done.
Devin’s done. It’s over.”

Saying that out loud broke me, and the
tears flowed out too fast to stop. It
was
over. The culprits were being punished, but my past was in a morgue, my past
was dead. I couldn’t stop crying. I told myself to pull it together, but
nothing worked. Chris held me tight like she was afraid I’d fall to shreds
without her arms. I probably would have.

I composed myself enough to follow Sophia
into a gym with Chris in my arms. From there, like she was hiding her magic
from possible witnesses or cameras in the hall, she took us to our kitchen in
California.