“It’snotpossible that he did this himself.” Seven runs a hand down his face. “After he was arrested, his office and everything in it was sealed off. We plan to demolish it eventually but didn’t want to destroy any evidence Godmother might need.”
That made sense. The legal system in Devashire works similarly to the one in the US. The difference is that our regent, Godmother, can sentence criminals to Ashgate without a trial in extreme circumstances like murder or treason. In those cases though, her verdict can be challenged up to a year following imprisonment. It’s supposed to allow for a check on Godmother’s ultimate power. In reality, she uses the privilege so rarely that her judgment has never before been questioned. In Chance’s case though, with him telling us he wasn’t working alone, I can see where Seven would want his bases covered.
“What if he wasn’t bluffing, Seven?” I whisper. “What if someone was helping him back then and is still helping him now? Someone with access to his things.” I wrap a strand of hair around my finger and pull it tight, anxiety rising in me like a swarm of insects and crawling across the inside of my skin. The base of my neck prickles with it.
“There’s no way into that office. The only two people on the payroll with access are me and Eva.”
“What about remote access? Maybe someone hacked it?”
He frowns. “Possible but unlikely. I’ll get one of my tech guys on it.” He fires off a quick email.
“Seven, did River say anything about what happened?”
Seven leans back in his chair. “There wasn’t time for him to tell us much. Godmother couldn’t wait to get him and the victim out of there. He said he heard a scream and ran toward it to find the victim lying on the sidewalk with a bullet wound in his chest. At that point, he knelt next to the body and tried to keep him from bleeding out. Godmother didn’t buy it thought. Not with the gun right beside him.”
“He admitted to touching the gun?”
“Not exactly. He said he didn’t remember seeing it before but it’s possible he moved it out of the way. He was focused on the victim. Godmother believes that he made it up to explain why his fingerprints will be on it.”
“Aargh!” I grab the sides of my head. “How is it that no one else saw this?”
“Half the park was at graduation. There were people in the restaurant, but no one will admit to seeing anything.”
“Fuck. What are the odds that that patch of sidewalk would be completely abandoned aside from River? It’s almost like—”
He catches my gaze. “Like a leprechaun was involved. Someone wanted River to take the fall for this.”
I groan. He turns back to the video and reverses it again. For a good twenty seconds before the skip, no one is visible in the camera’s range. “I don’t like this. Someone uses my father’s computer to tamper with the security cameras, and then the scene is cleared in a way that screams leprechaun. If I didn’t know he was in Ashgate, I’d think he was behind this.”
“What if he escaped somehow?”
Seven shakes his head. “It’s impossible. Trust me on this, Sophia. He’s there.”
I take a deep breath. “He told me he wasn’t working alone.” Our eyes meet. Gods, Seven looks exhausted. “We need to find out who the victim was. Maybe that’s the clue to all this.”
“Already on it. We didn’t find any identification on him, but I have someone down the hall going through the Wonderland admissions logs and comparing pictures.”
“Good.” I push my chair back and stand. “I’m going to visit River wherever Godmother is holding him. Maybe he knows more than he was able to share given the circumstances.”
He shakes his head. “You can’t. They’re holding him in Ashgate.”
“Ashgate! Why? Godmother knows he didn’t do this, Seven. She all but admitted she knows.”
“She also told you that he did it until we can prove he didn’t.” Seven rubs the back of his neck. “The politics around this is bigger than any of us. She needs a scapegoat. She will never let him out of that cell unless we have someone else to put in it.”
“I’ll just have to go to Ashgate then.”
He blinks at me as if I just said I planned to cut off my wing and donate it to science. “You can’t just walk into Ashgate. You have to petition Godmother, and then they give you a specific time. There are procedures.”
“I’ll go to her office and fill out the forms now.”
A muscle in Seven’s jaw dances wildly, and his body tenses like a loaded spring. “No, Sophia,” he finally blurts. “You absolutely cannot go out there. I’ll go.” He pulls out his phone and stares down at a calendar that has no white space.
I spread my hands. “Even if you went instead of me, it wouldn’t be the same. River and I are friends. He’ll share things with me that he won’t share with you. The two of you have never exactly been chums.”
Seven rubs his jaw as if remembering the time River slugged him. “He’ll answer my questions if he wants to get out of there.”
I tip my head to the side and shoot Seven a disappointed look. “Isolation is torture for a satyr. River thrives on in-person contact. I can’t just leave him in there. He’s my friend. I need to go to him and tell him that he’s not alone and that we are doing all we can to get him out.”
