Adrien stands. “I should go. I’ve got classes to prepare. And then attend,” he adds with a tired smile. “If there are any disturbances”—he looks at Gaëlle and Rainier, at me, and finally at Cadence—“my cell phone is on.”
“You’re seriously worried about prepping your classes?” I say, not just because it’s my life on the line, but because it’severyone’s life on the line.
“You may not care about school, Slate, but four hundred students depend on Adrien.” Of course Cadence misinterprets what I’m saying. She really has it in for me tonight.
Women are confusing, but Cadence de Morel takes that to a whole new level. I’m starting to question whether she actually hugged me or if I imagined the entire thing.
Small trenches appear on Rainier’s forehead. At least, I’m not the only one confused by her mercurial attitude.
“Slate?” He taps the box.
My cue to leave. I get up and follow him to the glass elevator.
As we trek across the marble foyer, he asks, “How do you feel?”
“Like I was attacked by a bull shark, and it won.”
His lips, that have been tight all night, curve a little. I didn’t even know the old man was capable of smiling. It’s a sight. Makes him look almost approachable.
He rolls himself inside the lift, and I follow him in. As the glass box rises, I catch a glimpse of Adrien and Cadence walking out of the living room. He has one arm slung around her shoulders, and although her arms are crossed and her shoulders hunched, annoyance makes me fist my fingers.
Gaëlle’s trailing after them, wrapping her yellow scarf around her neck.
“I wish I could’ve prepared her better for all of this.” I’m guessing Rainier means his daughter and not his girlfriend.
Wait? Is she his girlfriend or was that just Cadence’s speculation?
Rainier sighs. “Adrien said I should’ve been honest with her sooner, but I wanted to spare her as long as I could.”
Because this is the slowest elevator built by mankind, I can still see them. Adrien winds his second arm around her back and pulls her into his chest just as the glass box jerks to a stop. I almost faceplant against the window that’s fogged up from my heavy breathing.
“You don’t have any designs on my daughter, do you?”
“Why?” I turn around slowly. “Have you promised her hand to Mercier?”
All traces of Rainier’s smile vanish. “You didn’t answer my question, Roland.”
“The minute this ring’s off my finger, I’ll be on a train out of here.”
“Without my daughter.” I’m not sure if it’s a question or a warning, but his eyes have become a truly frightful shade of blue.
“Well, I’m not planning on kidnapping her.”
He narrows his eyes; I narrow mine.
“Don’t know about you, but I’m beat, so point the way to the safe.”
We head into his office, the site of our first confrontation. De Morel wheels himself to one of the filing units. He touches something on the side of the unit, and the entire front of it swings open and reveals a heavy safe.
“Are they all decoys?” I gesture to the other four units surrounding the one he just opened.
“No. Just this one.”
He punches the keypad, not even trying to hide it from my line of sight. I’m guessing there’s nothing in that safe worth stealing. Still, I memorize the numbers—three, two, six, one, eight, four.
The door clangs open. “Here.” Rainier pops the lid on the birch box.
For a second, we both stare at the leaf, at the smooth gold shape of it. Everything that happened in the well flashes behind my eyes—fake-Cadence who looked so real, the wisps of blood and cloud of black gore, the stinging cold, the bitter darkness. I grit my teeth and snap out of it. No way am I getting PTSD because of magic. Not happening.
