“You’re him.” Cadence didn’t move, didn’t stand up, didn’t even turn her head until she repeated it. “You’re him. You’re... Skelton.”
He was still in his own world, sniffling and wiping his eyes. “It weren’t my fault. He took over my brain.” His sadness morphed into what she could only describe as rage then, as he whirled around and grabbed her shoulders again. “He’ll do the same to ye, Miss Findley! You’ve gotta believe me. Don’t go. If ya do, you’ll regret it. He’ll get into yer head, and you’ll never, ever get him out. He’ll make ya do bad things. Real bad things.”
His fingers were beginning to dig into her shoulders, but Cadence was captivated by the man’s irises. They seemed to be pulsating in a way she couldn’t describe. She’d seen Elliott’s spin before when he was telling one of his tall tales, but this was different. It was almost as if his eyes were screen doors and something large was pressing on the other side, trying to get out.
No response would come to her, and it ended up not mattering anyway. The sound of voices headed their direction spooked him beyond any attempt Cadence might’ve tried to make in order to talk him into staying, and Skelton jumped up from the bench, taking off across an open field, leaving his clippings behind as he dashed as fast as he could away from what he must’ve seen as his inevitable doom.
Cadence looked up to see Jamie doing his best to sprint after the old man. He would’ve easily caught him except Aaron was in front of him, not letting him go more than a few steps before Jamie was blocked and had to try another route. The sight would’ve been amusing if it wasn’t so unexpected. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why Aaron wasn’t just as mad as Jamie, nor could she believe Jamie wanted so desperately to get his hands on the murderer that he was trying to physically plow his way through his boss to reach Skelton. For a moment, Cadence wondered if Daunator had spent some time in Jamie’s head, too.
Gripping the newspaper clippings, Cadence ran over to them, hoping she could get Jamie to calm down. If anyone should want to kill Skelton, it was her. And yet, oddly enough, she wasn’t angry at the man at all. If he had been sane when he’d killed her grandfather, he wasn’t now. It seemed to her he’d spent the better part of the last thirty or so years regretting what he’d done—what Daunator had made him do, if she believed his story.
“Jamie! It’s okay. Calm down!” Cadence shouted, shoving the newspapers into her back pocket as she reached the pair so she would have both hands free. “It’s all right. Just let him go.”
“Cadence! Do you have any idea who that asshole is? Do you know what he did?” Jamie stopped trying to get past Aaron, but he was still agitated. He turned around in a circle, one hand to his forehead as Cadence took ahold of his arms and moved so that he was forced to look at her.
“I know who is, Jame. But he’s crazy. Clearly, what he did to my grandfather has caused him to lose his mind. Whatever he used to be, that’s not him anymore. And trying to keep him here, to punish him, or anything else, wouldn’t bring Grandpa back anyway.”
Jamie opened his mouth to say something, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked up at the sky, as if he might see Jordan up there waving at him, telling him it’s all right, and Cadence wrapped her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as she could.
She held him for a long time, making sure she he’d gotten control of himself again. Aaron stood off to the side, hands on hips, waiting. Once Jamie’s breath was even again, she looked up at him. “Okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks.”
Cadence stepped back, and Jamie ran a hand through his hair. Looking at Aaron, he said, “Sorry. I just....”
“No, it’s okay. If you were going to pick a time to disobey an order, now would be better than later.”
“I guess I just don’t get why you weren’t mad,” Jamie said, his eyes still focused on the Guardian Leader.
Aaron shook his head slowly. “I made my peace with it a long time ago. There was no sense in trying to hunt him down after all of this time had passed. Janette said she never wanted us to. I let it go. I was alarmed when he showed up here, but I figured whatever it was he had to say to Cadence, it had to be important. He is a crazy old bastard, but he’s not stupid. He had to know how dangerous it was to come in here, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have known I’d be aware of who he was the moment he stepped foot on campus.”
“Did he have anything important to say?” Jamie was looking at her now, and Cadence wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Maybe. He gave me some newspaper clippings from the 1870s. He said Daunator has done this before. He seemed to have had some sort of interaction with him back then. It was hard to follow what he was saying.”
Nodding along with her, Aaron said, “I heard it. We’re going to have to go back over everything he said and see if we can decipher what the hell he was talking about.”
“Okay. But I think it would be best to talk to Cassidy first. She seemed to have something important to tell us.”
“It better be that she knows where Christian is,” Aaron said as he started to walk back to the office. The other two followed.
“I haven’t asked her to try to find him yet,” Cadence said, a few steps behind him.
“I know, but I’m with Elliott on this one. I think she knows.”
Cadence wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was so hard to believe Cassidy would try to keep a secret of that magnitude, especially since she had to know Cadence was capable of finding out the truth, one way or another, even if it meant getting Heather’s help.
“Why don’t we go meet with Cass, and then we’ll get the four of you over to look at what Skelton had to say?” Aaron said, obviously referring to Jamie, Aurora, Hannah, and Elliott.
“All right. That’ll give me a chance to go punch something.”
“Is that how you keep from overreacting most of the time? Punching inanimate objects?” Cadence asked, giggling a little bit at the image of Jamie in a boxing ring in her head.
“Sometimes,” he replied, like it shouldn’t have been that big of a shock. “Better than punching somebody—usually.”
Cadence patted him on the back, and Jamie veered off toward his own office, still more than a little upset, even though he was much calmer than he had been before.
