Page 42 of Road To Runes

"Yeah, it's weird," Penny said, sliding the jam tart I had gotten for her out of the bakery bag. "He never used to come to class at the beginning of the year, but I heard his dad gave him an ultimatum; either graduate or get written out of the will. He’s barely missed a class since."

Unless it was to de-fleshify a girl’s hand in the library, apparently.

"Huh. Thatisweird."

I was still in two minds about telling Penny about what I had done the night before, although I really wanted to get what had happened between Asher and me off my chest. Maybe I could tell her about that and leave the rest out, because I seriously needed a fellow girl's opinion on it.

"Speaking of weird," I said. "Something… happened between me and Asher last night."

Penny's mouth fell open and the bite of jam tart she had taken nearly fell out. She covered her mouth with her hand, but her eyes continued to bug out of her head.

I watched with a sliver of amusement as she chewed furiously behind her hand and then swallowed so hard that she coughed a few times when she was done.

"Are youtryingto choke me to death?" she asked. "Whathappened?"

"I don't actually know." I twiddled with my thumbs. "We kissed but I don't knowwhy, and he said some weird stuff-"

"Youkissed?" Penny slapped her hands down on the table and the mugs rattled. "I thought you guys were over?"

"So did I," I said. "But he-"

"I mean, this is soabrupt." Penny leaned back and clapped her hands to her cheeks. "Do you think he's having regrets? Did he get cold feet because things were getting too serious for him? What if he thought he wasgayand then realised he couldn't live without you?"

"Penny, gods, will you take it down a notch? Asher's bi, he's not having a sexuality crisis," I said. Although I couldn't exactly explain away the rest of her possibilities.

Asherdidseem like he had regrets about our break-up, but even from the little he had said the night before, I could tell it was more complicated than that.

"Oh," Penny dropped her hands into her lap. "Well, that crosses out one of the things on my list."

"Forget your list. I need your help working something out with what he said last night," I said. "He said something about thinking I'd be safer if we broke up."

Or at least, that was what I had taken away from it.

"Safer?" Penny asked. "Safe from what?"

"That's what I don't understand, either," I said. "And I'm trying to talk to him about it but he keeps-"

"Excuse me, ladies. I'm sorry to interrupt."

I nearly jumped out of my seat when I realised a man had walked up to our table and stood uncomfortably close. Looking him up and down, I didn't recognise him, but Penny appeared to, as her face crinkled in recognition and suspicion.

"You're the guy who got kicked out of the lecture," she said.

"Yes, well." The man cleared his throat and extended a hand to her. "My name is Shawn Donnelly. I'm working on behalf of Troy Franklin and his family to investigate an incident that happened at their home last night."

Chapter 22

My blood ran cold as Penny reluctantly shook his hand. The Franklins had wasted no time in getting an investigation underway.

I arranged my face into a blank look as Shawn extended his hand to me, too. Although it was the last thing I wanted to do, I shook his hand. Curse words brewed in my throat but I swallowed them down. When I thought about it, I had heard no sirens the night before which meant the Franklins hadn't called Nexus, our supernatural police service, to their property.

Of course they hadn't. They had an almost literal shit storm in their home full of evidence of illegal activity. Stealing people's memories was up there with some of the worst crimes and the fact the Franklins had so many of them meant some serious jail time for whoever took the fall. The scandal of it all wouldn't exactly do them any favours, either.

Hiring private investigators was the only way the Franklins could track us down without spilling secrets of their own. The realisation had my breakfast curdling in my stomach. If theywere investigating under the table, should the Franklins find outwehad raided their house, then the consequences might be, too.

"Incident?" Penny asked. "Why? What happened?"

The relief at withholding the events of last night from Penny engulfed me like a cloud of euphoria. She didn't have the best poker face and she didn't need the added stress of keeping my secrets under interrogation. Her genuine confusion and intrigue would make us look like innocent enough parties.

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