“What have you put together, Mirth?” Noah asks quietly.
“Have you had any dealings with the Möbius Group?”
His lips thin. “No. Thankfully.”
“The Möbius Group?” Isla asks, not moderating her tone at all now. “But they’re —”
Christoph shifts his camera as the diners at the table right behind Isla abruptly get up and leave. Their gazes are firmly fixed on the exit, away from us.
Isla snarls under her breath. “What is going on here?! The Möbius Group is just a modern-day legend, right? Like the Illuminati.”
“Not a legend,” Noah says tersely. “What happened last night?”
I look him in the eye. “Can you guarantee that Archie isn’t involved?”
“What?!” Isla cries.
Another table of diners gets up in unison, all of them hustling out of the dining room.
“A sound shield?” Christoph prompts Noah.
The other awry bristles. “It’s impolite in public. Plus I’m not the only awry here.”
Christoph chuckles, darkly amused. “You really don’t want Mirth casting anything in your vicinity.”
“But that was Tegan and Amanda Bristol,” Isla says. “And I play tennis with Christina Dunworth on Tuesdays. What are you suggesting?”
Noah keeps his gaze fixed on mine. “You’re saying that the Möbius Group was behind your attempted kidnapping at the school.”
“Unconfirmed,” I admit. “I … ah … I wasn’t asking questions at the time. And anyone I left alive was summarily taken care of by my father. And the royal guard, I suppose.”
Isla moans quietly, then slaps her hand over her mouth.
I’m starting to feel as if I’m torturing the both of them. Noah suddenly looks drained, and Isla is barely hanging onto her composure. But I continue, “Last night, the Möbius Group kidnapped two children under my protection. The children might have been drawn to the attention of this group by my … interest in them.”
“Unlikely,” Christoph says.
“It’s possible,” I say stiffly.
“You’re not to blame yourself,” he says. “And it will not happen again.”
I turn my attention to Noah. Of the two of them, he’s the only one following the path I’m about to connect.
“Awry children?” he asks.
“Kitty is awry. But her brother, Tommy, is a rare shifter breed.”
He nods, as if all this information lines up perfectly with whatever he already knows about the Möbius Group.
“I took the children back.”
Noah’s jaw clenches. “Archie was with me all night. Besides that, I know him. He’s mine. Bound to me like you two are bound to each other.”
“What?” Isla asks, quietly pained. “You and Archie? But …” She shakes her head, straightening her back. “That’s not … important right now. Please, Mirth. Continue.”
“In the process of finding and retrieving the children, we made certain discoveries last night. Investigations are ongoing.”
“And then you asked us for lunch,” Isla says, chin held stiffly but her voice thin. “You think the Mertons are involved … somehow.”
