➵ Chapter 54-1

Nobody had spoken a word to Matthias Young since we had arrived back at our hotel. We'd ended up in the twins' suite. It was composed of two separate rooms and a sitting area, in which Matthias was seated on a chair that had been pulled in from the halls, his wrists bound, mouth gagged, and eyes blindfolded. We let him stew for a while. All of us packed into one of the bedrooms, watching a telenovela that had proven to be even more complicated than even our lives. Lee, Tyra, and Logan were all watching from the bed. Jace and Eric sat with me on the ground, my head leaned back against Jace's chest, and my legs slung across Eric's lap. Neither complained - Jace stroked my damp hair and Eric balanced a bag of chips on my legs as if they were a table. There was a sudden shriek from the TV, and Jace, like the others, gave a start. "That scared the bloody shit out of me," he whispered, too low for the others to hear. "You should probably see a doctor about that," I whispered back. Jace scowled at me. "The family that murders together," Logan said, watching Rosalinda stab her fifth husband's ex-wife to death on-screen, "stays together." "How'd that work out for you?" Jace asked. "Screw you." Growing bored and impatient of waiting, I began to rise and Eric quickly moved his chips before they could spill. The others started to get up too. "No," I said before anybody could follow. "Give me five minutes alone." Tyra took another chip from Eric's bag, mesmerized by the events unfolding on screen. "Have fun." Shutting the door behind me, I moved toward Matthias' chair. I stood in front of him for a moment, not quite sure where I wanted to begin, so I went with the obvious and ripped off the tape, pulling a fair amount of facial hair with it. "Obviously, you can scream, but I wouldn't recommend it." "I'll keep that in mind, Lia." My name rolled off his tongue as if it was familiar, like he'd said hundreds of times before. "Why am I still blindfolded? To protect your friends?" "My friends don't need protecting from the likes of you." "To conceal their identities maybe? I mean, there's no point in that either. I know about the Circle. About your... tolerance of the Sect Inferni. I assume Logan Black is here. I hear that he's quite fond of you." "You sound worried, Matthias." "Well, I don't want to end up like Edward Smith." "What?" "Edward Smith. From what I heard, he's -" "Matthias," Logan said, stepping in, downright disregarding what I had said just a minute ago. "Don't bore her. You know why you're here." "I told you to wait." Matthias smiled. "Doesn't she know you killed her friend?" Before he had the chance to speak, the bedroom door opened once more, and out came the others. I resisted the urge to scream, Don't any of you know what alone means? "Go on, Logan. Tell her how you killed him." Logan and Jace exchanged a look. "He's right. I did kill him." Jace's face was pale. "And I let him." Rather than bothering to acknowledge what they'd just told me, as much as being lied to made my blood boil, I turned my attention back to Matthias instead. "I'm not stupid enough to get distracted. You know who I am. How?" "You're well known, Lia. A vigilante, apparently." "Don't pretend you know me because of any of those things." "C'mon, you can't think that my father wouldn't tell his inner circle all about you." "Your father," Jace echoed. "Polk is your father too. Lovely. It's like the man's never heard of a condom." Logan pushed me back and pulled off Matthias' blindfold. "Where is he?" Fear flashed across his face, but he continued to bluster. "Fantastic! A group of thieves that may as well be the Weasley's, a vigilante, an assassin, and a thief that's been a patron to the Sect." Jace went still as all the pieces came together, as the answers to his questions fell into place. "Black, what's he on about?" he asked, though, surely, he knew exactly what. Logan's eyes remained on Matthias, darker than the depths of the ocean. "Aliyah didn't kill you for the funding, Jace. Those donations you made went straight to us." Matthias cackled. "That money kept you alive!" Jace no longer looked bothered, rather, quite the opposite. "It seems," he said in a soft voice, "that's all the closure I needed." "Glad I could help." "I'm sure you are," Logan said, the volume of his voice low, in spite of the fury in his tone. "I want to know where Polk is, Matthias." Instead, our ever-cooperative hostage looked Tyra up and down appreciatively. "You keep very nice company, Lia." Tyra's eyes narrowed. "I'm not nice." "Tell me where Polk is," I said, growing weary of his game. One attempt at deflection after another. Extremely dull and a massive waste of time. "Talk before I cut your tongue out." "What do I get out of it? The man is my father after all. Even if he is a deadbeat. At least he got me a cushy little house. What do I get out of betraying him?" "Mercy," Logan said smoothly. "I won't torture or kill you. I sincerely hope you don't doubt that I will otherwise. I'd love to make an example out of you. And don't bother lying. I am going to leave you with the Sect. And if they don't hear from me every two hours, they will carry out a death sentence that will condemn you to days of pain before your pathetic heart stops beating." Matthias' gaze never left his, the fear I'd seen earlier magnified a thousand times in the presence of the angry assassin staring him in the face. There was a silent beat. "Sagua La Grande. But there's no way you'll get to him before you're killed. It's impossible. And if you die, I die, so I must advise against this." "Then you better hope none of us die," Logan said. Logan took Matthias with him when he left, with a promise to bleed him dry for all information on Polk's security. In five hours, we would all meet and head to Sagua La Grande. Until then, there was nothing left to do but try to rest. Tyra went off to her own suite, and Jace and I followed her example. Once in the privacy of our suite, he spoke. "I'm sorry about Edward." "He tried to kill me. And then he killed Isaac. I don't care about him. Anything else you've been lying to me about?" "Lia, I-"