Chapter 22: Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. I blinked, surprised to see that it was morning and I was lying on Cora’s battered leather couch. Beside me, Retta was snoring. We must’ve passed out from exhaustion the second we got back here.

Bleary-eyed, I grabbed my phone, hoping it was Nik calling. The name Mom blinked on the screen. My chest sank. I hit the answer button.

“Theia.” Mom’s voice crackled into my ear, making me wince. “I have exciting news! Heidi’s egg is hatching.” Her tone was jovial.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes. “Huh?”

“Heidi,” Mom repeated with extra emphasis. “Her egg is hatching!”

I sat up fully as realization hit me. If Mom was this happy about Heidi’s egg-hatching, that could only mean one thing…

“You’ve gone back to Geiser.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. When Mom spoke again, her tone was of forced nonchalance. “I don’t know why you insist on calling him that. Geiser? It sounds far too formal. You really should call him William.”

She was rambling like a guilty liar attempting to deflect. I clutched the phone even tighter, as my anger increased.

As Mom monologued, Retta stirred awake on the couch beside me. I was touched she’d decided to stick with me, despite having a normal family of her own, and a warm bed to return to. There was only one other person I knew who’d be that loyal to me. Gus. I guess that meant Retta wasn’t just a new friend, she was a new bestie.

“You okay?” she mouthed, catching sight of my clenched teeth and the way I was squeezing my cell phone like it was a stress ball.

I shook my head and covered the mouthpiece. “Mom’s back with Geiser.”

Retta gave me a sympathetic look. She stretched a hand out and patted my back.

On the other end of the line, Mom finished her rambling lie.

“Just admit it,” I said, sighing with disappointment. “You went back to him.”

Mom dropped the act. Her voice went back to the cold, flat tone she always used when she was displeased with me, which was pretty much all the time. “He’s my fiancé, Theia. It was only a matter of time before we reconciled. You’re going to have to get used to it one day.”

So Conrad’s little plan had succeeded. Mom had been lured back by the family ceremony. The nasty little PR headache she’d caused by leaving Geiser had been successfully smoothed over.

I shook my head, feeling devastated. Over the last day, my attitude toward Mom had shifted a bit, seeing where she’d come from and recognizing she’d actually tried—albeit misguidedly—to help me fit in here. That Geiser had got his sociopathic little claws into her made me furious.

“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked her. “You know I was the target of that assassination attempt. You know someone’s out to get me. And yet you still moved back into that home.”

“William found out that it was that Marchosias guard after all,” Mom explained. “Just like I thought. Apparently there’d been some squabble over holiday pay, and clearly the Marchosias guard tried to get back at him by hurting you.”

I rolled my eyes. What a crock of shit Geiser had spun her. And what a gullible woman she was for believing it. I didn’t know which made me madder.

Mom carried on. “William hired new guards. And he’s put even more protection spells on the house. I don’t know what more evidence you need to know that our safety is his absolute priority. He apologized for what happened. It’s safe to come home.”

“You believe him,” I stated, my tone one of heavy defeat. My shoulders sagged back against the couch, as though I was a marionette doll and someone had loosened my strings.

“I do. And I want you here for the party.”

My throat felt thick with grief. “I can’t, Mom. I can’t just go back and start playing happy families.”

“This is important, Theia. The press will be there. It will look bad if you’re missing.”

“Bad for who?” I challenged. “For Geiser. Mom, can’t you see? Everything for him is an image thing. A PR opportunity. Even his daughter’s frickin’ egg-hatching party.”

I sounded desperate now. Beside me, Retta clutched my hand tightly.

“Watch your tone, Theia,” Mom’s voice crackled. “Honestly, you can be so antagonistic. Nik agreed right away.”

I froze. “Nik?”

I looked at Retta. Her eyebrows rose with expectation.

“Yes,” Mom replied. “He said he was looking forward to it.”

Nik! I could sit through a million paparazzi photo shoots with a fake grin plastered on my face if it meant I’d get a chance to speak to Nik at last.

“I’ll be there,” I said quickly.

“Good,” Mom replied. “We’re kicking off at midday.”

The phone went dead.

I looked around. Cora, Aaron, and Lucas were sitting at their dinner table sharing a pizza and drinking beer. Of course, 7:00 AM was a perfectly appropriate time for them to be eating dinner, it just looked weird to my diurnal eyes. They were all watching me expectantly.

Retta shook my hand to snap me from my trance. “Nik?” she prompted.

“He’s going to Heidi’s hatching party,” I said, still stunned.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Cora said, shaking her head. “Heidi’s hatching party? The one Conrad was talking about on the recording? Could that be the public event that Kevin was telling us about? Where Geiser plans to have you killed?”

“It would fit with what they said in the recording,” Aaron added with a nod. “That it would get them support from the parent demographic. ‘It’ being your death, obviously.”

My stomach clenched at the thought of Conrad and Geiser sitting there plotting my murder in a way that would score them points with the voters. It was all so chilling. So calculated. Human life clearly meant nothing to those two and their ambitions.

“Kevin said no Vanpari would do it,” I said. “Besides, I have to chance it. We need Nik.”

“She’s right,” Lucas said.

“Well, then you shouldn’t go alone,” Aaron said. “You’ll need protection for when it all kicks off.”

“If,” I corrected.

“Theia,” Retta said firmly. “This is the event. It has to be. What else is happening between now and election day? Even if Geiser couldn’t hire Vanpari, he’ll have found some other arrangement.”

She was right. I slumped my shoulders.

“We’ll all come with you,” Cora said.

I snapped my gaze up and shook my head. “No way. You guys have done enough.”

“You need all the support you can get,” Aaron said.

“No,” I said more firmly. “This is my shit, not yours.”

But they were adamant. Retta squeezed my hand tightly.

“We’re your wingmen,” she said. “Whether you want us to be or not.”

“Yeah, Theia, we’re all in this together,” Lucas added.

Relenting, I flashed them all a small, sad smile.

But as much as I appreciated their support, I was terrified about putting them in danger. If any of them got hurt because of me, I’d never forgive myself.

“Come on,” Aaron said, heading for the door. He’d already got his jacket on. “Let the rescue mission commence.”