Defiance

moved under white skin as he peeked up over the edge of the bed at me. Orange sparks drifted through his dark irises, the pupil flaring and shrinking as he examined me. “Bang,” he said sagely, and nodded. Greasy strings of dark hair fell in his face.

“Milady.” Leon slid off the window seat. “Dru. I bring tidings, if you can stay awake long enough to hear them.”

My mouth tasted like old dried-up copper and I hurt all over. The pain settled in deep, not like a bruise or a burn but instead as if the center of my bones had been stripped out and filled up with a grinding low-level ache. I rubbed at my grainy eyes. I’d lost pretty much a whole day, and wouldn’t you know, I felt like I could just lie down and sleep for another two.

“Here.” Nat came back from the door, carrying a plate one-handed. “Not a word until she eats something.”

“This is important, Skyrunner.” But Leon subsided when she shot him a look that could have broken a window. A flare of yellow went through her irises, and I actually found myself really, really glad Nat was on my side.

I reached for diplomacy. “I think I can eat and listen at the same time.” My stomach actually rumbled, and when she gave me the plate, I saw a pile of ham sandwiches on wheat toast. The lettuce and tomato looked a bit soggy, but my stomach spoke up again and I grabbed the first half-sandwich on top. “What the hell, Leon?”

“You gave me a commission.” His chin jutted.

“Sure I did.” I glanced at Nathalie. “Thanks.” Back at him. He was looking like a sulky third-grader. Jeez. “Spit it out.”

That was the exact moment what he was saying caught up with me. He was telling me he’d found something out.

About Graves.

Leon spread his hands a little, a curious little helpless motion.

I took a huge bite of sandwich, chewed, and my stomach started singing hosannas. It was work not to talk with my mouth full. “Oh, you mean . . . Well, whatever you’ve got, Nat can hear it. She’s my friend.”

For some reason, that made Nat stand a little straighter. She folded her arms, and her earrings—purple metal hoops with little silver rings hanging at the bottom—swung a little.

“Are you sure?” He held up both hands when I glared at him, too. “I’m not impugning your duenna, Milady. There are some things it’s safer for a wulfen not to hear.”

“Oh, dear me.” Nathalie sank back down in the chair and examined her Uggs. The sarcasm could’ve started dripping off her and staining the floor. “Is it conspiracy, treachery, murder, or open warfare? I’ll have to choose my lipstick accordingly.”

Ash still peeked up over the edge of the bed at me, and I grabbed another sandwich half and held it out to him. He studied it, studied me, then grabbed it so fast his hand blurred. He disappeared, hunching down next to the bed.

Leon’s face twisted itself up slightly. “I don’t know what to call it at this point.” He folded his arms, shook his lank, fine hair down. “Except unsavory.”

“Excuse me? I’m sitting right here.” I tore off another huge bite of sandwich. Have you ever been so hungry even cardboard would be oh-my-God fantastic? That’s how it was.

“I’m not quite sure how you’ll react, either.” He stared at a spot about two feet above my head. “It concerns Reynard.”

I swallowed a huge load of toast, cheddar cheese, ham, and tomato. It tasted like manna, or like Gran’s cooking. All it needed was some fresh milk. “What about him?” The food hit my stomach with a thump I was surprised wasn’t audible. Then I started to get a very bad feeling. “Wait. What does this have to do with—”

He dug under his jacket, and Nat tensed perceptibly. Leon glanced at her, making another odd little face like he was amused, then pulled out a sleek silver thing. “I decided to start at the beginning, with the moment your loup-garou disappeared. There must have been a security feed for that sector, I thought. So I went looking for it. Found out the raw footage had been yanked, but there are always backups. I called in a favor and had a friend of mine go digging until he found a ghost-shell image of the time in question. He brought it out and reconstructed it—but in the middle of the reconstruction he got transferred to Oklahoma. I’m not at all sure those two events aren’t related, but that’s beside the point.” Leon opened up the silver rectangle. It was a screen on top and a touch pad on the bottom, a cute little thing. He pressed a button on the side, showed me what had to be the world’s smallest DVD on a little tray sliding into the bottom half. “So I took it to another friend, this time outside the Schola, and called in another favor. He finished, and I went on my merry way. Take a look.”

He handed it over. I stopped stuffing my face long enough to press the play button, tilting the screen so the glare didn’t hit it. The bathroom door opened again. Dibs, rinsed off and dried, wearing (thank God) a pair of jeans and a blue T-shirt silk-screened with an elephant, peered out.

He was still blushing fiercely, deep crimson staining his cheeks. I didn’t blame him.

“What you’re seeing is security footage outside that gym exit,” Leon continued. “Your loup- garou should be coming out right about . . . now.”

And there it was. A slice of wall, the camera angled to show the gym door, two paths, and the baseball diamond and bleachers in the distance. The door blasted open so hard little things popped off, a slam I could almost hear as it flew wide and hit the concrete wall. Graves stalked out.

He stamped, coat flapping silently. Veered away from the baseball field, passed behind the bleachers. Crouched and sprang, his hands jetting out, grabbed the top railing of the bleachers, and cleared it in a swoop of graceful authority no human body would have been able to pull off. My heart lodged in my throat, but I took another bite anyway. Had to swallow twice to get the chewed food down.

There he was on the bleachers. He crouched, and it was difficult to make it out at that distance on the small screen, but maybe his shoulders were shaking.

Oh, God. Is he crying?

“Now watch,” Leon said, leaning forward with his gaze fixed on my face. Like he could tell exactly what I was seeing by my expression.

I took another bite, my eyebrows drawn together, and almost choked.

Graves straightened and leapt off the bleachers, running with fluid grace. He was gone in an instant, but there was something else.

A shadow came from the other side of the baseball diamond. A streak of something that resolved into another boy-shape as it paused behind the bleachers, tipping its head. Sleek hair, a dark sweater, and sharp handsome grace.

Djamphir grace.

“What the fuck?” I breathed. Lifted the sandwich to my mouth again.

It was Christophe. I’d know that body language anywhere.

Christophe paused for just a moment, then loped in the same direction Graves had gone. He passed off- camera toward the little copse I’d found a scrap of Graves’s coat in, determination evident in his stride.

The touch twitched inside my head. A scene painted itself in quick swipes, like a motion-capture sketch, black and white. I’d do it with as dark a graphite as I could find, then go over it with black pen to make the shadows even deeper.

Christophe, leaning against a tree in a shadowed clearing. His eyes turned blowtorch-blue as he watched, and the expression on his face was chilling. Because under the set grim look of a guy watching something distasteful, there was faint, scary amusement. He watched as the struggle took place, and when it was over, his smile was a ghost of itself.

“Just get it out of my sight,” he said, and their narrow white hands lifted the other boy, his long dark coat flapping as he struggled uselessly.

I shook my head, sharply, trying to dislodge the thought. The clip ended in a fuzz of static. “What?”

“Does Reynard have a grudge against your loup-garou?” Leon’s tone held exactly no mockery, and that was odd to hear. “I ask because . . . well, he hasn’t mentioned being the last to see the wulfling, has he?”

“They said Shanks was the last one to see him,” Dibs whispered. He’d grabbed the door frame, his curls dark with water and heavy on his forehead. “But . . . Christophe was?”