Page 20 of Sinful Palace

“Mob mentality,” Rowan said, rolling his eyes. “People love a scandal.”

“Yeah. I hate it.”

“Don’t worry. When they do the second autopsy, I bet they’ll discover Rutherford died of natural causes after all, and then this whole thing will blow over.”

“I hope so.”

Rowan lifted his eyes over my shoulder. “I think your fiancé is looking for you,” he said.

I looked around to see Logan tapping his watch on the other side of the lobby. “I better go,” I said, turning back to Rowan. “We have, uh… a dinner party to go to.”

“Okay. Have fun. I’ll see you later.”

I gave him a quick hug before returning to Logan’s side with Mal and Adam. “Thanks for letting me talk to my friend,” I murmured, clasping my hands in front of me.

Logan dipped his chin in a brief nod. “It’s fine,” he said curtly. “The meeting is going to start soon. We should head in.”

The doors outside the function room were open now. I recognized various Order members as they stepped inside. Logan and I followed them into the enormous wood-paneled room and found our places at one of the round tables scattered throughout the space. It was close to a platform with velvet-lined chairs which had been set up for the high council on the right side. An enormous TV screen hung on the wall behind the platform. Right now, it was blank, but I assumed that was where Q would appear when he deigned to speak to us.

Ten minutes later, the room was packed with hundreds of Order members. One of the council members rose and headed to the microphone in the center of the platform.

“Thank you for coming, everyone. Tonight’s meeting is of the utmost importance,” she said. She gestured at the seats behind her. “As you can see, not all of our high council members are present tonight.”

With a frown, I realized what she was talking about. There were only ten council members on the platform, even though there were fifteen of them altogether. Chuck Thorne was one of the missing ones.

“Where’s your dad?” I asked Logan in a low voice.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought he’d be here.” He looked around. “I haven’t seen your dad yet, either.”

I quickly scanned the rest of the room with a frown. Logan was right. My father was nowhere to be seen amongst the other seated members. “Weird,” I murmured.

The woman behind the microphone cleared her throat and kept going. “The missing council members are helping our leader, Q,” she said. “He wanted to address us tonight, so he asked us to set up a video link.”

She turned to grab a small black remote from one of the other council members. When she clicked a button, the screen behind them flared to life, and several people gasped as Q appeared.

He was dressed in a thick black cloak, and his face was covered by a twisted black and red carnival mask with enormous curling horns protruding from the top. The sight sent a violent chill down my spine.

The camera zoomed out slightly to show that he was sitting on a throne carved out of dark wood, crested with red jewels and decorative metalwork forming the Order’s symbol—the Eye of Providence. It appeared to be situated in a dim grotto with jagged stone teeth descending from the shadows above.

Our vision was mostly confined to a circle of flickering orange light cast by a series of flaming torches around the throne, but I could make out a few silhouettes standing by the edge; presumably the council members who’d met with Q to help him set up the video link.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming at such short notice,” he finally said, lifting one black-gloved hand. His deep voice was unrecognizable, distorted by some sort of device which made him sound like a robot.

“Wow,” I muttered under my breath. He really, really didn’t want anyone to know who he was.

“It’s a shame we have to meet under these circumstances,” Q went on, lowering his hand. “But as you all know, our society was recently affected by a very serious data breach. One of our own had her confession revealed to the world. Willow Rhoades, please stand up.”

He lifted both hands, palms facing upward. I did as he said, pulling myself up on shaky legs. Every Order member in the room turned to face me. Some appeared sympathetic, while others—like Logan—were merely apathetic.

“I, along with my esteemed council, have spent the last five days searching for the perpetrator of this heinous crime,” Q went on. “We haven’t discovered the source yet, but I can assure you, we will in due time. Until then, we must rise up in support of Willow. She is our sister, and she did not deserve to experience such an egregious abuse of her trust.”

An agreeable murmur echoed through the function room as the vast majority of the Order members nodded.

“Willow, I am truly sorry. If there is anything I can do to help you through this time, all you have to do is let me know through one of the high council members,” Q continued. “Again, I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”

I pursed my lips and nodded, wishing I could reach right into the screen and rip off Q’s mask so I could see his eyes and the truth in their dark depths.

Was he really sorry? I doubted it.

---