“Heather could do it.” Cassidy’s answer was so quick, it seemed rehearsed. “She needs the practice, you know, finding people on demand. She hasn’t done much of that.”
“We could ask Heather,” Cadence began, keeping her tone even, “but it might take her a while to locate him, and you could tell us right this very second exactly where he is.”
Once again, Cassidy seemed to be having trouble swallowing. “It takes me a little bit of time to find people, too.”
“Yeah, I know. But... you could tell us right now, without digging into his head, couldn’t you?” Cadence said again.
Cassidy turned her head sideways and studied Cadence for a moment. The older sister didn’t blink or look away, only held her insistence. “He asked me to keep his personal information to myself.”
“Why?” Cadence asked. “Why would he trust you after what just happened between you two? And why would you agree?”
“I can’t explain it,” Cassidy replied with a shrug. “I didn’t mean to see what I did in his head, but I saw it. At the time, when he came to me, I really wanted to go after Daunator, and no one would listen to me. You guys weren’t here. So... when he said he had a plan, I wanted to help. He made me promise not to say anything, though, and I feel like I need to keep that promise, even if it is Christian, and even if he is still the biggest jerk ever born.”
“Cassidy, it’s noble that you want to honor your promise to Christian,” Aaron began, his voice soft and calm, “but he could be in a lot of trouble. Daunator is unlike anything we’ve ever faced before. Christian doesn’t seem to recognize that if he thinks he can face him alone. And even though he took a few of his new weapons with him, we have no idea if they will even be useful against someone as strong as Daunator. If you know where he is, you need to tell us before he gets himself into trouble.”
“He’s already gotten himself into trouble.” Cassidy didn’t sound overly concerned, just matter-of-fact, which seemed contradictory to Cadence. It was as if she was trying to keep her promise for the sake of having made it but didn’t otherwise care what happened to the Guardian.
“What do you mean?” Aaron asked. “Trouble how?”
Her sister’s eyes flickered from Cadence’s face back to Aaron’s. “Really, couldn’t you just ask Heather to find him?”
Growing frustrated, Cadence could feel her muscles tightening. She tried to keep her cool. “What do you think will happen if you tell us where he is? It’s for his own good.”
“I don’t know. I’m just not comfortable being the one to tell you, that’s all. Why are you pressuring me into doing something I don’t want to do?” Cleary, Cassidy was getting agitated now. Her hands were fists on the table. “It’s my superpower! I should be able to use it however, whenever I want!”
“All right, all right.” Aaron held up his hands between the two of them, but it wasn’t necessary. Cadence was done trying to get her sister to cooperate anyway. “Thanks for your help, Cass. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Without a word, Cassidy pushed her chair back and slunk to the door, no longer resembling the girl Cadence had glimpsed through the frosted glass at all.
“Heather will be here in five minutes,” Aaron said, reaching for Cadence’s hand.
Cadence gave it to him, but she was still upset. “Why does she do things like this?”
“She’s a teenager,” Aaron replied, as if that summed it up.
“Christian is already in trouble? Is that what she said? And yet, she won’t tell us why or where he is.”
“Surely, if it were life or death, she would’ve told us.”
Scoffing, Cadence said. “Maybe. Or perhaps it’s the fact that she doesn’t like him that is keeping her from telling us.”
“I don’t think that’s the case. She seemed hell-bent on keeping her promise to him for some reason.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. None of it does.”
“Since when do teenage girls make sense?”
“Hey, when you met me, I was a teenage girl,” Cadence pointed out.
“I rest my case.”
She glared at him, though she knew he was joking, and to some degree, he was right. She hadn’t made things easy on him back then. Not that it was even that long ago....
“I’m going to work on getting Skelton’s clip ready for everyone while we wait on Heather. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just... confused.” She blew out a lungful of air and realized her mouth was dry. Standing, she let go of his hand and headed toward the mini-fridge. “Do you want anything?”
“Water would be great.”
She could tell he was concentrating on what he was doing, and she didn’t want to interfere, but she was having a really hard time getting over the situation with Cass. Her sister had been at war with Christian for as long as she could remember. So why defend him now?
With two bottles of water in hand, Cadence returned to the table and sat down, twisting off her lid and taking a long drink. “Well?” Elliott asked in her head. “What’s the verdict? Am I right, or am I right? I’m right, aren’t I? She knew.”
“She knows. But she won’t tell us.”
“Say what now?”
“Yeah, Heather’s on her way over. Cass was defending her decision not to tell us, a promise she made to Christian.”
“Cass? Chose Christian over you? Why?”
“I have no idea. But Heather will tell us where he is, and then it won’t matter. Still, I can’t figure out why she wouldn’t just tell us. The whole thing is weird. And stupid.”
“Maybe there’s another reason she didn’t want to tell you, and she just didn’t want to say.”
“Well, if there is, she better tell us later because I don’t like not being able to trust my own sister.”
“Me neither. All right. See you in a bit. But first, could you just go ahead and tell me I was right? Please? I just want to hear it. From you.”
“Elliott....”
“Oh, come on now, just this once? For your old pal? Your old used-to-be-dead pal?”
“Fine. You were right. I was wrong. I am stupid and you are the king of all smart people. How is that?”
“Better than expected.”
Rolling her eyes, Cadence turned off the conversation as Aaron stood. “Heather’s here.”
