Rooming with the Wicked

42 | can't or won't?

Too quick for my burning eyes to see, Haze dropped the papers on the desk and vaulted right over it. When I blinked again, his blurry form stood in the door frame, peering into the hallway.

The picture. I wiped my eyes. I needed that picture.

My fingers closed around the small square. It slipped out of my grasp twice, but I finally managed to carefully place it in my pocket.

Tears threatened to spill. I furiously wiped at my eyes again. I would not cry. Not now.

"I don't hear anything," Haze said. "This house is huge."

"Maybe"—I flinched when my voice broke. "Maybe s-someone left a window open. It was windy outside."

His fingers tapped the door frame next to his head. "Maybe."

A part of me didn't care if we weren't alone. Didn't care if my stepmom found me snooping through Dad's things. Didn't care if Dad found out. Hell, I kind of wanted him to know that I knew—wanted him to panic.

Unless...these were nothing but rumors. Simply speculations of news reporters and outsiders. False information.

Icy numbness spread from my fingertips all the way up my arms. I shivered.

Even now I didn't want to believe that Dad was the villain. That there was some rational explanation for all this. Maybe whatever I'd find here didn't mean anything. Maybe it wasn't something he could have shared with me. Maybe he'd wanted to protect me from nasty gossip.

But I was older now. And he'd made zero effort to tell me about my own mother. Ever. Then why keep a file and why hide it from me? Didn't I deserve to know what he knew?

Didn't I deserve to know what had happened to her?

"Ariel."

Haze's voice brought me back. He stood above me, eyebrows drawn together.

"I... Sorry." I cleared my throat. "Please... Please keep looking."

His frown deepened. "I think we should get outta here."

I shook my head. "Not yet."

He didn't look particularly convinced, but after a moment, he nodded. "You got it."

My vision cleared and I focused on the stack of papers in front of me. It was everything I'd both hoped for and dreaded. There was no going back now.

I felt Haze's eyes on me a little longer as I clenched my jaw and exhaled through my nose. When he turned back to the cabinet, I tore the sticky note off the first page and read the entire headline.

Prime suspect in Pierce disappearance.

I sucked in a breath.

Mom wasn't...dead?

After admitting to having made a deal with Irene Pierce, wife to newly appointed ambassador Benjamin Pierce, Jornan, a demon of greed, was arrested last night. The demon, well-known to law enforcement, was sent to Pyrarcis for questioning. At this moment, jurisdiction lies with the high council of Pandaemonium.

I felt myself frown. Haze had convinced me that the demon had already been imprisoned. But then where had the paper gotten this information from? Admittedly, it was a human newspaper, but still. Maybe this was all some elaborate cover-up.

But then where was Mom?

I turned the page and scanned the next headline.

Ambassador Pierce's wife: innocent victim or master manipulator?