Chapter 46

STEFANO.

“What?” I splutter. “Who is it?”

Gregory shifts his weight from one foot to another. “Well, I don’t know. They didn’t really say who. I just heard that they brought someone into the station.”

And that’s when every thought in my head vanishes.

I forget about Eden completely. My heart is thudding inside my throat and all I can think about is Valeria. Before Gregory can even say anything more, I’m already pushing him to the side.

“Watch her,” I whisper urgently, then I turn to leave.

“Where are you going?” he calls after me, but I’m too in my own head to answer. “Stefano, come back!”

Who did they arrest? Is this an actual conviction from the investigation, or are they just grabbing whoever they can place blame on? Because I could tell that the people in the Society were scared and wary. The streets were empty yesterday. And if they indeed just grabbed whoever they can take, does that mean that they captured Valeria?

After all, she’s their primary suspect.

A strong conflict of denial and defeat are running through my veins. Is this the reason why Celeste and Auric aren’t here either? Does this mean Valeria really did get arrested.

“Excuse me!” I basically yell at the guards by the gate. “Excuse me, coming through!”

Mr. Gallagher sees me. “Hey, what’s going on?”

I don’t answer him, I just swerve right through the gate and out into the Society. I crane my neck to look at the Protector’s Station and see a whole gathering of Black Coats outside. There seems to be a whole buzz inside, but strangely there are no people clamoring to get in. It just seems strangely peaceful.

This can’t be good.

I run to the Station, my breath hitching at my throat because of how nervous I am. My brain is already conjuring the worst situations and I’m subconsciously preparing for them. Hell, I’m even thinking about breaking Valeria out of prison if they ever put her there. I would do anything to get her out of any trouble. Anything.

“What are you doing here, young man?” the Black Coat at the front door asks when I arrive, holding his arm out to stop me.

“I need to see who’s inside,” I say. “Who did they arrest?”

“That’s none of your business, sir,” he says flatly. “Now leave.”

That makes my temper flare. “No, I will not leave until I see who got arrested.”

He raises the baton in his hand threateningly, and I curl my hands into fists ready to set the whole place ablaze just to distract them, but then I hear footsteps approaching behind me. I thought he got some reinforcement so I turn around, only to see Celeste and Auric.

With Valeria.

I blink rapidly just to check if I’m not looking at things incorrectly, and I really am not. There is Valeria, safe and sound with Celeste and Auric. Her face slowly shifts from an expression of concern to relief, and before I knew it, I’m already running straight into her arms.

Valeria meets me halfway, wrapping her arms around my neck as I pull her close to me. I close my eyes, resting my cheek against the top of her hair and inhaling sharply. Her warmth overcomes me and suddenly it feels like I’m in a different place with her entirely.

Only when she pulls away do I snap back to reality.

“Stefano,” she whispers, taking my face with both of her hands. “We were looking for you.”

“But I….” I trail off, pointing at the station. “I thought that they.…”

“Arrested me?” Valeria supplies. “They don’t do that. They have nothing on me.”

Relief floods me, so much so that I nearly collapse in her arms. “I’m just happy you’re here.”

“Well, don’t forget about us,” Celeste says playfully. “Not when we have some juicy piece of information for you.”

* * *

As it turns out, the information that Celeste was talking about is still yet to be gathered. I only find that out when we go to her dorm room, which she claims is “free land” since she doesn’t have a roommate and the school is still too busy welcoming students to care about gender segregation.

Now, we’re sitting on the carpet of her now pristine and love potion devoid dorm room, huddled around a strange device that looks like a telephone.

“What the hell is this?” I ask when I can’t take the mystery anymore.

“It’s a two way telephone,” she answers, twisting the wires and fiddling with the receiver. “I took this from the lake house as a souvenir, I guess you can say.” When I raise my eyebrow at her, she adds, “It’s for spying. It comes with a little widget that you can stick anywhere and hear all the things you want to hear.”

Valeria and Auric nod excitedly, but I’m still lost.

“And where did you stick the other device?”

Celeste smiles. “At the Protector’s Station. We came as soon as we heard that someone has been arrested. And we couldn’t find you anywhere. You weren’t even at the gate.”

Well, damn. I must have missed them when I was talking to Eden. Now I kind of regret acting like a dumb monkey without checking the list of who came in first.

“So now, we listen,” Celeste says, pressing the ‘0’ key.

Suddenly, muffled voices fill the room. I immediately recognize the voice of the Black Coat leader, louder than the rest of the other male voices.

“...you are saying you had nothing to do with it?” he’s asking, his voice dripping with incredulity. “The crime happened in your very own cafe, and you deny having anything to do with it?”

“You’re trying to pin me even for the murder of that teacher up in the school!” a woman’s voice says. She sounds familiar too. “Do you think I have something to do with it as well? Are you blind?”

Suddenly, I recognize her.

“That’s Mrs. Briggs,” I say. “The owner of the cafe. She’s the one they arrested.”

“That can’t be,” Auric mutters. “Make it louder.”

Celeste obliges, and suddenly the voice of the lead Black Coat roars in the dorm. “You have no right to accuse me of anything. We have done a thorough investigation. For both accounts, there were no signs of forced entry. You were in the school the day Mr. Murdock died, delivering sweets to the kitchens. All the witnesses said that there were no other people in the bathroom that day, and your prints were visible in the cubicle of Miss Sullivan--”

“And that’s because she cleaned the bathroom that morning!” another male voice says, this one elderly. It’s Mr. Briggs. “You have no evidence of her actually laying her hands on any of the victims. What motive would she even have?”

That renders the Black Coat leader silent.

Mr. Briggs pushes on. “We have been members of the society for ages. Our ancestors brought us here, and we have never done anything that sullied the name of our legacies. Our children have set foot in that school, learned from the very same people who died. We mourned. We helped. It is not only unfair that we are being accused, but just plain stupid.”

“Stop it!” the leader hisses at him. “There is no other—”

“Oh, yes, there is another person who is involved in this,” Mr. Briggs interjects. The malice and resentment in his tone is apparent, almost to the point of being chilling even though we’re too far away to hear it in person. “There’s one thing you haven’t looked at.”

There’s a slamming sound, and it seems like he put something down on a table forcefully. A collective gasp echoes from them.

“What… where did you find that?” the Black Coat leader asks after a pause. “That can’t be…”

“Yes,” Mr. Briggs roars. “That pin is in the bathroom, covered in blood and nearly stomped into the drain. Your team didn’t find it, did they? But look at the name of that student pin. And who is wearing a school uniform that day of Miss Sullivan’s death?”

“Valeria Marcus,” the leader whispers. “That’s her pin. She wore a uniform that day. She killed Miss Sullivan.”