“I was reluctant to wake you, or I would have moved you over to your bed,” he says, but he doesn’t ask me about my nightmare. Strangely enough, I get the sense that he doesn’t want to pry. I’ve come to understand why Strategia guard their Family secrets, but the way they guard themselves and their emotions is something I’m still not used to. If my best friend, Emily, had seen me wake up in a panic like I did just now, she would not only have insisted I tell her every detail, but would have analyzed the dream with me until the meaning was nothing more than the prediction of a bad hair day.
I glance at Layla’s closed bedroom door.
“She went to bed an hour ago,” Ash says in response to my unasked question.
I look back at him, taking in his concerned expression. “But you stayed,” I say, relieved that he did. Despite our rocky start when I first came to Academy Absconditi and all the suspicion between us, I’ve grown to truly rely on Ash.
“I was lost in thought,” he replies with a small smile, and while I’m sure it’s true, I’m also certain it’s not the only reason he’s next to me on my couch late at night. If he were any other guy and I hadn’t just had the most gruesome nightmare of my life, I would tease him about how much he obviously wanted to be near me. But knowing Ash, he had a less romantic reason, such as trying to ensure no one stabbed me while I slept.
“Lost in thought about what?” I ask.
“I was just thinking that we can’t be sure who knows about your father,” Ash says, directing the conversation right back to my family’s conflict and squashing the small amount of comfort I was starting to feel, which I suppose I should be used to by now—comfort isn’t an Academy trademark. This school is more about survival than academics, more about carefully planned alliances than friendships, attributes I learned the hard way when I discovered that the most powerful Strategia Family had a vendetta against my dad. And it turns out several of the kids—as well as a professor who happened to be my dad’s brother—were prepared to kill me to show their allegiance to that Family. “Obviously Dr. Conner knew something,” Ash continues, “but what about the Lion Family in general? I think we have to assume they are hunting your family for a specific reason, one we will need to uncover if we have any hope of finding your father.”
At the mention of the Lions, my thoughts flash back to the bloodied bodies in my nightmare. I momentarily look away, overcome once again by a wave of guilt for having gotten Ash involved in all of this. I rub my eyes with the heels of my palms. “Are you saying you think the Lions are after me and my dad for a reason other than my parents’ Romeo and Juliet defiance?”
“I do,” he says. “Think about it. Your mother was a member of the Bear Family, and your father was a Lion. Twenty-five years ago, they fell in love and decided to desert their respective Families, abdicate their leadership positions, and go into hiding.” He pauses and looks at me gently. “And then the Lion assassins killed your mother when you were…?”
“Six,” I say, readjusting my position on the couch.
“So eleven years ago,” Ash continues. “But between then and last month, when your aunt was killed and your father sent you here, were you aware of any threats from the Lions?”
I scrunch my forehead, scanning memories of my childhood, looking for any period where my dad seemed stressed or out of sorts, anything that might indicate that the Lions were after us. I shake my head. “Honestly, I don’t think so. Dad would have moved us if there were. I mean, we had a rough patch after Mom died, of course, but other than that, we were happy and our life was simple.” My voice quiets as I realize I’ve just put happy in past tense.
Ash is nodding, as if I’ve confirmed his suspicion. “You see, the events are spread out. Your parents’ initial disappearance, your mother’s death, and your aunt’s recent murder,” he says.
I watch him for a moment, unsure. “What are you saying, that you don’t think the Lions were after us the whole time?”
“I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but it would have required committing resources to the effort for twenty-five years straight. It is more likely that each attack was instigated by some other event, something that gave the Lions insight or intel about your family’s movements. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I’ve gleaned from our previous conversations, you’ve lived in the same small town your entire life, somewhere remote, where you weren’t in hiding, but well integrated into the community.” He waits for me to contradict him, and when I don’t, he continues. “To me, that doesn’t sound like you were under siege; it sounds like you were safe.”
I chew on my thumbnail, scouring his theory for fault points and finding none. “Okay, so let’s say you’re right,” I reply. “Then how did they find my aunt Jo? What changed?”
“My point exactly—something changed,” Ash says. “And I imagine the reason is directly tied to whatever your father is doing at this very moment.”
I exhale loudly, my mind once again reeling with fear for my dad. At the very least, I tell myself, Dr. Conner is gone and I’m finally free to leave the Academy. But the moment I think it, I feel ill. Dr. Conner isn’t gone, he’s dead, and his death had everything to do with me.
Ash’s look is almost apologetic. “I know you’ve been through a great deal, but I can’t stress enough how important it is that everything go smoothly tomorrow. We aren’t in the clear yet.” My stomach drops at the word we. Ash offered to go with me to help me find my dad—an offer that is likely to get him killed.
“No one can find out we’re leaving,” he continues in a calm voice. “You need to go to your classes with Layla as usual, eat in the dining hall, and study in the library as if everything is normal.”
I meet Ash’s gaze, giving him a look that questions the suggestion that this place was ever normal. “ ‘Been through a great deal’? Now there’s an understatement,” I say, making light of how upside down I feel. “It’s almost unbelievable to me that only a month ago I had no idea this bizarre boarding school even existed, that Strategia were real.” I gesture at the common room. “And despite dodging death a half dozen times and being framed for murder, my troubles are only just beginning because my dad is now being hunted by an assassin-like secret society of Families that is so effective it’s influenced the course of history for thousands of years.” I give Ash a please-make-light-of-this-with-me look, seeing as my sleep is already threatened by untold horrors.
“I cannot tell you things will get easier,” he says, and I groan. “In fact, they are about to get much worse.”
“Nailed it on the comforting.”