Jamie took a deep breath, like he didn’t want to suggest anything about Cass to her, but he continued his thought with her probing. “I was wondering… if you were to cut Cassidy—nothing too serious, but just a little cut—if it would heal quickly by itself. That’s all.”
“You mean me because I’m a Hunter?”
“Yeah. But we don’t have to do that. I was thinking that might give us more data on whether or not a Hunter can harm her. But anyway, that’s not why you’re here. What’s up?”
It was Cadence’s turn to take a deep breath now. As much as she had been going over everything in her head the last eight hours or so, it was difficult to think about saying it out loud. Jamie was staring at her in anticipation, however, so she finally said, “I’m worried about Aaron. Really worried about him. Worse than before worried about him.”
Jamie nodded, as if she didn’t need to say anymore, but he asked, “What happened?”
“I told him that Cass has a location on Spittle and that I’m tired of waiting around. I said I wanted to take a team and go get him, and he said if I did, I’d have to do it with no Guardians.”
Her friend’s forehead crinkled. “What’s that?”
“Yeah. He said if any of you went with me, he’d transfer you.”
Jamie scoffed at the idea. “I seriously doubt he meant that. Especially considering the people most likely to go with you are me and Elliott, and he knows he needs me. Elliott comes in handy, too, most of the time.”
Cadence could only shrug. She knew it was hard for anyone to believe Aaron would say such a thing, but it had come out of his mouth. “Anyway, I’m very concerned. Christian says he thinks his braincells are slowly dying and that he’s going crazy.”
“His as in Christian’s—because that I could believe.”
Part of her almost laughed, but it wouldn’t form in her throat. “No.” She couldn’t say it again.
“Right, well, I think that’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I have done hundreds of tests on Aaron since you guys came back from Ireland, and there’s nothing physically wrong with him. There were some anomalies, but nothing has changed since you used the serum, and none of what I saw seemed dangerous in the least bit. I think we can rule that out.”
“I don’t know what to do, Jame!” She ran her hands through her hair in exasperation. “He’s not himself.”
“Calm down, Cadence,” Jamie said, reaching a hand across his desk and taking hers. Normally, if someone told her to calm down, particularly a man, it would make her even more upset, but there was something about the way that Jamie said it that actually seemed to work. “I’ll go talk to him, okay? Maybe he’s rethought the situation. In the meantime, why don’t you go talk to your sister, see what she knows about Spittle, and start organizing a hunt? Even if you do have to go by yourselves, which I don’t think I’m prepared to let you do, you’ve done it before.”
Still holding firmly to Jamie’s hand, Cadence nodded. Back when she’d left Kansas City, with just Meagan and Aurora with her, they’d went into circumstances lots of times without any Guardians, and they’d always been able to handle every situation. Depending upon the numbers Cassidy threw at her, there was a chance she could do it again with the right team. She would not be taking her sister though—no way.
“All right,” Cadence agreed, letting out a deep breath. “Can we fix this, Jamie? Before it’s too late?”
“Hell, yeah, we’ll fix it. Just… let’s see what we can sort out, okay?”
She nodded, hoping he was right, but it seemed every day that went by the situation was worse, and she started to wonder about Christian’s prediction. What if they did have to lock Aaron up? Would any of them even be capable of doing that?
Standing, she let go of his hand. “Thanks,” she said, and he stood, too, looking at her with the same sympathetic eyes she was used to seeing when someone had died. She wasn’t ready to go there again.
Walking out of the office, she checked her IAC and saw that it was almost 10:00, which meant that Cassidy should be done with her training and headed back to their parents’ apartment to do her homework. Cadence realized she hadn’t eaten anything and headed home to grab some lunch, hoping Aaron wasn’t there. She didn’t think he would be, though, since these were prime working hours.
She opened the apartment door slowly, glad to hear the emptiness, and headed to the kitchen. She had almost finished making a sandwich when she heard the front door open. “Shit,” she muttered, setting her ham and cheese down on her plate.
“Hey,” Aaron said, almost as if he had hoped she wouldn’t be home either. “Just came home to take a shower. I’m going to stop by and talk to Juan Diego on my way back to the office. There’s a crater in the wall by Jamie’s office, too?”
“Yep,” she said, not able to meet his eyes.
He stood there for a moment, and she froze, staring at the cabinet in front of her, waiting to see if he’d say anything else. He didn’t, and a second later he was gone. No longer hungry, Cadence put the sandwich making materials away and wrapped her sandwich up for later. Maybe in an hour or two she’d regain her appetite, though she doubted it.
She hurried downstairs to find her sister before she ran into Aaron again. Her mother answered the door on the first knock. “Cadence! I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know, Mom. I’m sorry. Is Cass here?”
“Actually, no. She’s at Brandon’s. They have some test they’re studying for. Is everything okay?”
Her mother knew her well enough to see when she was lying, but Cadence didn’t have time to explain right now. “I’m fine. Just need to ask her a follow up question to the info she found out for me last night. Thanks.”
“Cadence?” her mother called after her, but Cadence was gone before she could even look back to see the concern written all over her mother’s face. She took the stairs, hoping it meant she could avoid running into Aaron if he was already on his way back to the office.
