“He will be back,” I whispered, voice hitching, wavering uncertainly.
“Give it a day,” the Challenger replied. “If he hasn’t come by then, he isn’t going to.”
I screamed, then. Screamed to drown out the thoughts, sinking through the roof and into the driver’s seat. Theinterior still held you. It still smelled like you. The leather still wore traces of your warmth.
I folded into it, pulling myself inward, holding onto what remained as tightly as I could.
A day.
One day.
I knew you were going to come back for me. I could wait a day.
Chapter eleven
Al
I led Lai into my office and shut the door behind him, then turned the lock. I rarely locked my door, but right now I needed to think.
Lai slid into my chair like he owned the place, which, to be fair, he did. The academy had been built into his family’s manor, and he delighted in any opportunity to remind me that he was the boss. He propped his boots up on my desk, looking entirely too comfortable for someone about to help plan grand theft auto.
“First things first,” I said, crossing to the glass cabinet in the corner and opening it. “We need to find out where Fox is.” I poured myself a drink, watching the amber swirl settle before taking a slow, steadying sip. Lai wouldn’t accept a glass, so I didn’t bother offering; alcohol would be wasted on him anyway, it never seemed to affect him in the slightest. “Do you have someone who owes you a debt, who could help us find him?”
“Or,” Lai countered, rolling one shoulder in a careless shrug, “we can just, I don’t know, hack into the policedatabase? I’m not burning a contact on this, and we have students here with the right foundation skills. It can’t be that hard to do, not for a digital Godling.”
I let out a quiet breath through my nose, setting my glass down harder than intended. “You would rather bring a student in on this than help me? I know for a fact you can make this so much easier than it is, but you’re refusing. Why?”
Lai’s eyes narrowed in delight, but he didn’t deny it. That was the problem with Lai. Trouble wasn’t an inconvenience to him. It was entertainment.
“It makes me feel young,” he confessed, almost wistful. “The excitement. The risk. The—”
“Fox is going to go crazy,” I cut in. The thought had been clawing at me since I left him. Since I was forced to leave him. “You remember my stupid rescue dog metaphor? Well, now I’ve abandoned him right after letting him think he had a home. It’s going to fuck him up, and that kind of thing doesn’t just reset with a ‘sorry’. It messes you up permanently. It sticks.”
Lai tilted his head, studying me as if I’d just revealed something far more personal than I intended.
“You sure you don’t want a new car?” He asked lightly. “A brand-new Shelby Mustang, fresh off the lot? No history, no damage, no emotional attachment. No baggage.”
I turned sharply, resisting the call to violence; for a split second, I seriously considered hitting him.
Lai raised both hands immediately, grin widening. “Fine, fine. Just checking. You’re very attached to your emotionally damaged piece of American steel, I get it. Let’s get to our plan, then.” Lai leaned forward then, his boots finally sliding off my desk. “We need a student. Someone who can get into the police database without leaving a trace.”
I arched a brow slowly. “You’re really willing to involve a student in this?” I asked, irritated.
“I’m willing to involve the right student,” Lai corrected,tapping a finger against the desk. “One who won’t snitch to the other kids about our involvement in illegal activities.”
“And how exactly do you know they aren’t going to talk? Kids love bragging about stupid shit.”
“Because first and foremost, my son is my pride and joy.” Lai reached over, grabbed the announcement microphone off the corner of my desk, and shoved it toward me. “And secondly, the overachieving little shit wants nothing more than to impress you. Honestly, it’s super embarrassing.”
Of course, wanting to impress me was something Lai thought was embarrassing. I rolled my eyes and looked down, staring at the microphone. I hated making announcements. There was something deeply unpleasant about knowing every student froze for a second when your voice came through, wondering what they’d done wrong. The whispers that followed the named student were always something I’d dreaded myself, back when I was a kid.
Still, I picked it up, pressed the button, and called Robyn in.
The boy arrived in record time.
“Dad–?” Robyn squeaked as the door swung open, and he spotted his father waiting for him; he didn’t get a chance to ask why he was in trouble before Lai was on him, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him fully into the office, locking the door behind him.
I liked Robyn. He was the only fully-human student in the academy. No magic, no bloodline advantages; Lai had adopted him, so there wasn’t so much as a drop of the blood of Echidna. Robyn had taken no shortcuts to get to the top, just pure determination, stubborn and persistent from dawn til dusk. And yet, despite being the top student in the academy, the teenager looked terrified by the sudden summons. He was never in trouble, so being called into my quarters at the very first bell must have been the last thing he’d been expecting.
