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“Is that the nice way of saying he likes crazy chicks?” DK asks.
Jesus. He’s not wrong.
“I don’t think he could see that what he loved about Amber is also what sent her into Benji’s arms. Timothy was too ambitious and focused on building his empire, while Amber–”
“Was sinking into some dark shit.”
He nods. “With Benji, she had access to the library and the restricted sections. She was falling deeper into the dark side of the Barons’ history, and the parts that were left behind for a reason. I don’t know if it was the thrill of cheating or maybe hormonal changes when she was pregnant with Whitaker, but she started increasingly losing touch with reality. While Timothy worked hard to build his business, she spent too much time underground with her own delusions and with Benji, who fueled his own demons with a cocktail of stimulants. The more time she spent with him down in the tunnels, the more convinced she became that she was uncovering something nobody else understood–something only she could set into motion.”
“The rebirth that she keeps talking about,” DK notes.
“Yes.”
If what he’s saying is true, Amber wasn’t someone who needed permission to move through the House of Night. She felt like it was her home to roam around in, to take the documents and resources we had gathered, just like she had all those years before. She had been slipping through its tunnels and hidden spaces whenever she wanted, long before any of us even realized she was on the loose.
“If she was that familiar with the territory, then why did she need the blueprints?” I ask.
“I wish I knew.” Graves looks down at his hands before curling his fingers around the edge of the chair. “There must have been something she was looking for, some connections she didn’t have memorized. Or it could be that she wanted to keep track of what Timothy knew and figure out how to stay one step ahead of him. Because wherever she’s holding those girls, she’s managed to keep it hidden.”
The room goes quiet.
I don't like the answer because it gives us more questions than it does answers.
DK finally pushes away from the wall, and stands over Graves. “Do you know where she’s hiding?”
“I don’t. I wish I did.”
I exhale. “We need to go.”
Graves looks at DK. “Are you going to let me out of here?”
The question hangs between them.
It’s DK’s decision now, and after the way Timothy declared that DK wasn’t his king, there’s no reason for Graves to keep waiting on a decision Timothy may not even get to make. The King studies him for several seconds before answering.
“For tonight, you’re safer here,” DK ultimately says.
Graves looks disappointed, but he doesn’t argue. We turn toward the door, and I’m almost through it when his voice stops us, “Don’t underestimate her.”
I look back.
His expression has changed again. Whatever resentment he might have felt about being locked away is gone, replaced by something darker.
“I knew whoever the Guardian was, they were dangerous,” he says, his voice losing some of its earlier uncertainty. “But now that we know it’s Amber? You have to understand what that means. She’s not well. She hasn’t been for a long time. She knows the tunnels, the crypts, the old rituals, and I’m assuming places we don’t even know exist. She’s been studying this for years–waiting for this moment, this Equinox for decades.” His jaw tightens. “She’s finishing something she started a long time ago. You have to find her, right now, before she gets the chance to finish it.”
“Jesus Christ, there’s dog hair everywhere.”
Damon plucks tiny hairs off his shirt and pants, while I drive the truck out of West End and into South Side’s territory.
“He’s been shedding a lot lately,” I spot our destination ahead and ease into the right lane. “Change of season, I guess.”
I turn into the bus depot parking lot, the greenish-white fluorescent lights casting everything in a sickly glow. At this hour the lot is almost empty, which makes Killian’s black SUV easy to spot near the far edge. The place feels abandoned—long shadows, cracked asphalt, the kind of quiet that always feels temporary in Forsyth. Especially when you know what’s going on underground.
“Any update?” I ask.
DK checks his phone and shakes his head. “Nothing.”
Neither of us feel great about leaving Ari back at the House of Night, but she had insisted that she stay back and wait for Timothy. Amber made a massive move tonight, dragging long held secrets into the light. Secrets, I think, will be the thing that probably brings Forsyth down at the end of the day. They make us weak–vunerable to our enemies–the reason we isolate off in our little groups until something tragic brings us together.
