Diamond Fire (Hidden Legacy, #3.5)(27)

“Since when do we care what people on Herald think?” Mom asked.

“Since we became a House and everyone thinks we’re country bumpkins.” Arabella spun to me. “Catalina, tell them.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Fuck Herald,” I said.

Grandma Frida dropped her fork.

“Fuck Primes, fuck their paparazzi, and if Nevada wants lilacs, she should have all the lilacs ever. I will buy the damn lilacs myself, with my own money.” I took my tablet and walked out.

Behind me, Arabella said, “Mom?”

“I think your sister is a little stressed out,” Mom said.

I made a left turn to another hallway and walked to the Hut of Evil. When we sold our house to pay for Dad’s medical treatment and moved into the warehouse, the original plan was to set it up as homelike as possible. But instead we just threw walls up wherever they were needed and ended up with some unusual spots. To a stranger, our layout wouldn’t make much sense but to us, it worked great. The Hut of Evil was one of those odd places. It was a small room inside a larger space complete with the door and a roof and raised off the ground to accommodate all the cables and the cooling. I had to walk up three steps to get in.

The temperature inside was at least five degrees cooler than in the rest of the house. Bern sat in his usual seat in front of three monitors. I took a seat in Leon’s chair.

“Rough day,” Bern said.

“They lie, and cheat, and steal. And they think they’re better than us, because we work, and we don’t have as much money. This is the kind of family Nevada is marrying into.”

“Nevada is marrying Rogan. I like Rogan. I like Mrs. Rogan too, and the East Wing side of the family seem decent. Look, most of them will go back to Europe after this, and we will never, ever see them again. We just have to get through the wedding.”

“No, Nevada has to get through the wedding. We have to catch a thief and prevent mass murder at the wedding ceremony. Have you seen them doing anything weird? Something that could help us find the Sealight or whoever took it?”

Bern hesitated. “Well, not sure if it’s related but you gotta see this. Hang on.”

His fingers flew across the keyboard and an image appeared on the middle screen, a table on a patio, flanked by some chairs. The picturesque shrubs rustled, and a tall, lanky man stepped out of them, like some kind of jungle explorer emerging from the bush. Mikel Ramírez adjusted his glasses, looked around, and took off down a path, away from the building into the orchard.

“Keep watching,” Bern said.

A long minute crept by.

Maria Ramírez stomped into frame, her chunky heels making clicking noises on the patio. A faint green smudge stained her white dress. There was a twig in her bleached blond hair. She was holding a martini glass in her hand. She took off her sunglasses, paused, like a hound finding the scent, and took off in the direction her husband had fled.

I put my hand over my mouth and shook my head. “This is just bizarre.”

“She chases him like this, all over the house.” Bern turned his blond head and looked at me. “At lunch, he excused himself from the table, and never came back. I think he crawled out of a window because neither of the exit cameras caught him, and then he was outside. He could have stolen the Sealight. He’s pretty good at sneaking around.”

“Yes, but he’s a lousy telekinetic, barely an Average, and everything in his file says he’s desperate for his father’s approval, so it’s unlikely he is hiding his power. He wouldn’t be able to lift the wall. What about Paul Sarmiento?”

Bern tapped a quick sequence on the keys. Ane and Paul came into view. They sat in the soft chairs overlooking the distant hills. Paul reached over to the table, lifted the small kettle, and poured Ane a cup of tea.

“They are joined at the hip,” Bern said. “If he stole the Sealight, she would have helped him, because I never see them apart for more than ten minutes. Also, most of them have used their powers since I started watching them. They levitate something minor or open a door with a wave of their hand. I’ll double-check on this, but so far, he’s done nothing. I don’t think he’s telekinetic.”

In other words, we still had nothing.

“Will you be here tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Bern said. “Why?”

“I’m going to poke this snake nest with a stick and I might need a lot of help.”

“I’ll be here,” Bern promised. “Catalina, don’t let this get personal. Let’s find the jewel, catch the poisoner, and be done with them. What they think of us doesn’t matter. This is an investigation just like any other. They are suspects. You only interact with them to get to your objective.”

“I know.”

We sat together in a comfortable silence, watching Lucian schmooze his father-in-law over some whiskey and cigars.

“Did you like him?” Bern asked.

“Not that much.” Not as much as I had liked Alessandro Sagredo. Walking with Xavier had been nice, before I realized he was a two-faced scumbag, but it was nothing special. But when I saw Alessandro, I wanted to snap my wings open as far as they could go and dazzle him with everything I had, so he would be mine forever. I liked him so much, I had to let him go.





Chapter 7