Page 12 of Reign

“But it’s the truth!” My voice shreds into the air.

“You can’t go down this road again. I won’t let you. I’m coming over there and I’m taking you home.”

“What?” I blink, staring into the blinding white until tree-tops blur into to the horizon.

“You’re scaring me,” Ahmar whispers. I’ve never heard him whisper before. “All this crazy-talk … I thought I was helping you by listening to your theories and letting you work them out until you came to the solid conclusion. The right answer. But you’re not. You’ve spiraled, and I’m taking the blame for that.”

“Spiraled?” My shock echoes through the landscape. “Ahmar, please. This isn’t like last time. This is real. I watched my friend die last night. I-I felt her die. I’m not making this up or chasing wild theories or seeing things—don’t come.” My lower lip, dampened and chilled with sudden tears, wobbles. “Don’t come to try and put me away again.”

“Anything I do, anything, is because I love you. I even looked into these societies you keep mentioning, and yes, they do exist.”

“See! I told you!”

“They’re as legitimate as skulls and bones or locks and keys or whatever those Ivy Leagues call their secret clubs. Calla, what I’m saying is, they are the high school equivalent of massive donations from their alumni and ego-stroking meetings and dumb rituals well after graduation. These exclusive clubs are nothing but a way to reward over-inflated, privileged egos for being rich and contributing to the success of capitalism.”

My heart loses air. “Ahmar, don’t say this. The Virtues are so much worse than that. There are sex rings involved, and pay-offs, and blackmail.”

“That may be, but it’s impossible to prove.”

“I’ve just proved it! I saw everything!”

I hear Ahmar’s slow inhale and exhale. “Sweetheart, I love you with all my heart, but you are not a credible witness.”

“Then find somebody who is! Dr. Luke. He was a Noble but was kicked out for getting involved with Piper. If you talk to him, I bet he’s pissed enough to—”

“Baby girl, I’m gonna stop you right there.”

My face crumbles, the collapse made all the easier by the crippling cold. “You’ve always been in my corner. Believed me when no one else did. So believe me when I say my mother was killed by the Virtues for her automatic inheritance of the society. Ivy was killed to teach me a lesson. And Sabine only wants me alive to become her puppet. I’m in danger, Ahmar, and you’re the only adult who will help me.”

“God. Damn it.” I can picture Ahmar’s internal arguments with himself and the way he’d be running his hand down his face. Balling a fist in his hair. Punching a nearby wall. He did all those things directly after we found my mother. “I wish you would hear me, kiddo, loud and clear. I want to help you. I do, and that’s why I’m offering to come get you before I call your Dad and let him know you’re falling apart.”

“Do it!” I dare him. “He and Lynda will both admit the danger of the Virtues.”

But … will they?

Blair’s in the picture now. A baby girl they have to protect better than they did me.

“Calla, I’ve been threatened with losing my job if I pursue this any further.”

That has me whirling. “What?”

“I’m not supposed to be messing with other jurisdictions. You and I both know this. But now my lieutenant is involved and he’s telling me if I keep looking into Briarcliff crimes, I’m out on my ass. We’re overloaded as it is. He can’t afford to have me split my efforts.”

“But … you’re doing it during your down time. He can’t relegate the hours you’re not working.”

“It’s come from the top. The Commissioner has told me, point blank, to end my research on Briarcliff.”

“I don’t…”

“Baby. You do. You do understand. This is out of my hands. You have to let Briarcliff PD do their jobs, and you have to come home.”

It’s amazing. Not ten minutes ago, I’d told Emma I was going home. Leaving. Escaping. Into another cage, all the same. “I can’t. I won’t. Ivy’s body is barely cold, and my mother’s has been cold too long.”

“Ah, sweetie.” Ahmar sniffs, and I swear to God, I think I’m making him cry. “You’re breaking my heart. You scare me so much. More than I’ve ever felt fear in my life. I need you to come back. You can’t be there anymore.”

“If you can’t see what’s in front of your eyes…” I take a deep breath. “There’s no reason a Commissioner and lieutenant would be so concerned with your off-hours, especially if it’s not affecting your work, and I know you. It’s not. They’re probably former Nobles. And you know what? One of them’s likely been back to the Virtue temple and used that bedroom with underaged girls—”

“Do not keep going with that line of thought, Calla Lily.”

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