Page 10 of The Tree of Spirits
“Sure. What else?”
“Well, I thought Kato sent you into the Black Obelisk to interrogate the guy who attacked the Knights at the Tournament.”
“Na, finding that traitor in the Watchers’ prison was just an added bonus,” Conner said. “Maybe I should sneak into the Black Obelisk more often. The General probably has many more secrets hidden there, just waiting to be unearthed.”
“Whydidyou have to sneak in there anyway?” I asked him. “You’re a Knight. Couldn’t you just demand that the Watchers open the gate for you?”
“Uh, no. The Watchers only take orders from the General. And, well, technically, I’m not supposed to be investigatinganything.” He shot me a look that was a little sheepish—and a lot wicked.
“Oh, right, I guess Knights can’t just do whatever they want, whenever they want, can they?”
“Unfortunately not.” Conner’s expression was almost wistful. “But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
His smile returned, bigger and brighter. “I guess we both have trouble following the rules.” He gave my back a hearty slap. “Though, just for the record, you’re way better at that than I am.”
“But you’re a Knight. You have protocols and procedures. And a whole Code of Conduct!”
“The Code of Conduct is seriously overrated.” He shrugged, totally unconcerned.
“Kato seems to like it,” I commented.
Conner let out a choked laugh. “Kato doesn’t justlikethe Code of Conduct. Helovesit. In fact, I’m pretty sure he helped write larger parts of it.”
“Knights wear helmets,” I quoted absently.
“Yeah, that’s one of his favorites. Personally, I’m not a big fan of helmets. They mess up my hair in all the wrong ways.”
He ran his hands through his already-messy hair, which somehow made it look even better.
“Red?”
I blinked. “Sorry. I was just thinking.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all.” Conner’s smile spread. “Think about me all you want.”
I crossed my arms. “I wasn’t thinking aboutyou.”
Conner nodded, still smiling. “Keep telling yourself that.”
“Sometimes you’re really ridiculous, you know.”
His eyes twinkled. “Yes, it’s one of my more endearing qualities, don’t you think?”
“Annnyway.” I shook my head. “What did you find at the Black Obelisk?”
Conner’s face grew serious—or at least serious for him. “I looked through the Watchers’ security videos of the Garden attack. I figured my best bet was checking out the vehicle that brought the Cursed Ones there. It was one of the Watchers’ own cars, and thanks to that serious case of OCD they all have going on, they record absolutely everything. And yet somehow their records of that particular car were wiped clean. Location data. Camera feeds. Everything.”
“That sounds suspicious,” I said.
“Definitely,” he agreed. “That’s why I had to track down the vehicle itself, in case our mysterious culprit left any evidence in there.”
“The vehicle the Cursed Ones were in…but Kato sent it to Shadow Fall!” The memory of that creepy place sent a shiver down my spine.
Conner didn’t seem too happy about Shadow Fall either. “Yeah, I’ll have to remember to send Kato a thank-you present for that.”
“But you did find the SUV?” I asked.
