Page 65 of Ira

She made a strangled noise of disbelief. “With who? And how did you organize it from the shadow realm?”

“With a Criminal Investigation Special Agent from the IRS,” I replied, glossing over the how question because I didn’t want Harlow to get in trouble for helping me.

The wind itself seemed to stop blowing for a moment. Everyone was silent. Tallulah and Ophelia were slack-jawed and shocked, while Astrid’s eyes were narrowed dangerously.

“That’s quite the meeting to tee up on short notice,” she said flatly.

“From what I gather, she’s been investigating Randal Jackman for a while now.”

“You didn’t think that was pertinent information to mention?” Astrid clipped.

“I had no idea he was on the Council—and definitely no idea that he was leading negotiations from their side. I thought he was just another skeevy guy, just like the other skeevy guys who wield power within the Hunters. When I was young and dumb and afraid of everyone and everything, he’d used that to his advantage. From what I gather now, he was part of something much bigger. Something that a lot of other Councilors might be involved in too.”

“What do you mean? What kind of criminal activity are we talking about here?” Ophelia asked nervously.

“Fraud. Tax evasion. There was definitely a business involved—I guess it was a shell company?—and by the sounds of it, other Councilors have gotten on board with it too.”

Tallulah exhaled slightly. “Okay. And the IRS know about it now?”

“They’d clearly figured out something was wrong already, and their investigations led them back to me,” I corrected. “I still had a lot of the paperwork that I’d kept hidden under a loose floorboard in the closet at my mom’s house.”

“That’s kind of badass,” Astrid muttered, leaning back and looking reluctantly impressed. “How come you had that stuff, though?”

I opened my mouth, waiting for my freeze reflex to kick in and silence me, but it never came. Apparently this time, I was ready.

“I’m sure you’ve all worked out that I’m not from one of the more illustrious Hunter families. Single mom. Immigrants. Barely getting by. We were very dependent on the Council for a lot of things.” I cleared my throat uncomfortably, not wanting to cry. I’d never been a crier, and if I was about to start, then I wanted it to be in the comfort of my own room. “Looking back now, I can see that as a parentified teenager with very few friends and an overworked, exhausted mother… I was basically a sitting duck for an older authority figure to swoop in and gain my total trust. He promised me the world—material comforts, help with Latika, less financial pressure on Mom. And he’d give me things too—like a winter jacket, or shoes that didn’t have holes in them. Either Mom didn’t notice or… I don’t know. Maybe she was just happy she didn’t have to buy those things for me. This all started when I was a teenager. I just wanted to give you some context for why I let myself get involved in all this.”

“You don’t have to justify that,” Tallulah said quietly. Her voice was gentle, but she was wearing her mama bear expression. “You were a kid, he was an adult. None of the responsibility lies with you.”

I nodded awkwardly. “I was a minor, so he used me to run errands and stuff for his business. Collect up documents that he didn’t want anyone to see—including his wife. I gave him my social security number. He took out a line of credit in my name—I was still paying it off when I came to the shadow realm. At the time, I thought I’d been helping him, you know? Obviously, I see now it was another tool to control me with.”

Everyone was silent as I blew out a shaky breath to steady myself. I could feel myself reaching the upper limits of my bravery when it came to talking about this, and I didn’t want to push myself too hard and fall apart completely. I didn’t have the luxury of that right now.

“Anyway, that’s how I got my hands on the paperwork. I was exiled after he turned on me, and I don’t know why he never chased me down and asked me what I did with it. Maybe he just assumed I threw it all away? He never thought particularly highly of my intelligence. I guess even seventeen-year-old me knew that the stuff might come in handy one day, so I stored it in a shoebox under a floorboard, just in case. I didn’t have time to grab it when my mom threw me out of the house.”

I would have taken shock and looks of faint betrayal over the pity I could now see in their eyes. Seventeen-year-old Meera—eager for validation, and desperate for any kind of love—deserved their pity. Not twenty-five-year-old Meera. Not the person who I was now.

What I wanted—needed—now was friendship. Was the love and support of these amazing women who I’d come to care about since I’d moved to the shadow realm. But I also knew that was a tall ask at this exact moment because I was proving not to be the person they always thought I was.

“This, um, certainly changes things,” Ophelia said eventually, twisting her wedding ring around her finger absently. “Or it will, if they press charges.”

“Isn’t the conviction rate, like, ninety percent for the IRS? These guys are fucked,” Astrid replied confidently. “The question is when it’ll all come out. And you know we can’t let Sebastian find out before then, because he’ll for sure give them a heads-up—he worships Randal.”

Considering how we’d started the conversation, I was surprised that Astrid seemed to have warmed up the fastest.Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t have been. I should have known Astrid would respect a vengeance mission. In hindsight, I felt a little silly not telling her about it.

Tallulah nodded uncertainly. “We’re going to have to continue to peace talks as normal until it all comes to light. Just act like nothing has changed. But we’re in a good position now—we can plan for it, so we have the upper hand when it all falls apart on their end. Though, we could also end up dealing with someone worse. My grandfather has been content to be hands-off in terms of governance since his money talked for him. But if there’s a sudden exodus of Councilors… Well, he might deign to lower himself enough to get involved. Honestly, I’m sort of baffled by this whole thing. Why even bother with all this dodgy finance stuff if they had access to Grandfather’s money in the first place?”

“As you pointed out, that money came with strings attached,” Astrid said, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms. “Maybe they were working on having their own source of money, separate from the Thibaut family fortune. Isn’t there an opportunity here for us to sway the new Council membership in a direction that’s more cooperative for us? I’m not saying we should stack the bench, but you know. I’m notnotsaying that.”

Astrid was in a good mood, so I opted not to tell her that I’d hijacked her human world contact and already had this exact conversation. It would come out eventually that Harlow had been involved, but surely it could wait. I already had enough damage to control on Jade’s behalf, and the other Elverston House Hunters who had covered for me.

“Getting involved in that power struggle could be a slippery slope for us…” Ophelia replied hesitantly. “And as Tallulah said, her grandfather will probably get involved. He’s a formidable foe.”

I nodded to myself, thinking it over. Sure, we could swoop in and appoint a figurehead, but it wouldn’t stick. Lasting, effective change was borne ofbelief. Of people rallying behind someone—or someones—that they trulybelievedin. There were no shortcuts. That depth of feeling couldn’t be bought.

“Anyway, that’s a conversation for a different day,” Ophelia said firmly. “What matters right now is making sure that this conversation stays between us, and Verner’s conversation stays with those who are in the room with him right now.”

I cleared my throat. “He won’t have told them what I’ve told you. I’m not sure he’d have the vocabulary to explain it even if he tried—there’s no IRS in the shadow realm.”

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