Page 71 of Never a Hero

Joan had wondered about Aaron’s disinheritance too. She’d wanted to ask him about it last time, but it had clearly been a tender subject for him.

‘Whatever happened, both families kept it from public record,’ Jamie said. ‘Everything about the disinheritance is scrubbed.’

‘Imagine doing something so bad that even the Olivers draw the line,’ Ruth said.

Jamie shrugged, and to Joan’s surprise he walked on in silence, as if he had nothing more to say.

‘That’s all you know about him?’ Joan said to Jamie. Didn’t he remember that Aaron had been on their side?

Jamie thought. ‘I suppose everyone knows he’s the child of Edmund’s second marriage. And his mother was executed by the Court.’ He saw Joan’s expression and tilted his head. ‘What else is there to know?’

Joan felt another pang. The Liu power only gave Jamie fragments of the previous timeline. He didn’t remember. ‘Aaron was with us last time. He helped us stop Nick.’

For a moment, all their expressions were the same. Blank—as if Joan had said something so nonsensical that they couldn’t process it. Then Ruth’s mouth pursed in incredulity. ‘We’re talking about Aaron Oliver,’ she said, like Joan had gotten him confused with someone else.

‘I escaped the massacre with him,’ Joan said. ‘He and I fled together, and you found us later.’ Her heart constricted when Ruth just kept staring at her. She’d never get used to having memories that no one else did. ‘I saved his life, and he saved mine. You saved his. He saved yours …’

‘No.’ Ruth’s voice was certain. Apparently, she could believe that she’d broken into the Monster Court, but not that she and Aaron Oliver had saved each other’s lives.

‘Yes,’ Joan said. ‘He helped us. We got really close. By the end of it, I trusted him completely.’

Disbelief flickered across Ruth’s face, and then something more protective. ‘How much time did you actually spend with him, Joan?’

Joan had to think for a second. ‘A—A few days.’ It felt weird to quantify it like that. It had seemed so much longer.

‘Oh my God,’ Ruth said. She lifted her eyes to the dark sky. ‘You did not know him.’ As Joan opened her mouth, Ruth went on fast, ‘I’m not saying you didn’t meet him. I believe you, okay? I’m saying that Aaron Oliver has a reputation. If you trusted him, he was hiding his true self from you.’

Joan shook her head. ‘He wasn’t.’ Aaron had had his secrets, but Joan had known him. Aaron had taken them all to his mother’s safe house. He’d risked himself to protect them all.

‘Let’s talk about this later,’ Ruth said.

They turned onto a quieter street. The night was cooling. Joan didn’t want to talk about it later. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised by the pushback. The Olivers and the Hunts were enemies. And the three of them—Aaron, Joan, and Ruth—had met under such different circumstances last time.

‘We’ll need a plan,’ Joan said. They needed to find out where Aaron had taken Nick. But how? He wasn’t likely to give up the information easily.

‘Aren’t we just going to kidnap him?’ Ruth said. ‘Force him to talk?’

‘What?’ Joan was startled by the idea of violence against him. ‘No.’

‘Joan—’

‘We can’t,’ Jamie said to Ruth before Joan could protest again. ‘He’s not the most beloved of the Olivers, but he’s still Edmund’s son. We can’t actually kidnap him from Oliver territory.’

Joan took a relieved breath. They did still need the information, though. She remembered the Griffith security guard outside the Wyvern Inn. He’d gotten information out of Joan with ease. ‘Can we pay a Griffith to come with us? To induce truth from him?’ Subtly, so Aaron wouldn’t know it had happened.

‘Not many Griffiths would risk antagonising Edmund Oliver in his own house,’ Ruth said, but she looked thoughtful.

‘George Griffith might do it,’ Tom said to Jamie.

‘George won’t make a move like that against Edmund Oliver,’ Jamie said. ‘Not on Oliver territory.’

‘He might take some persuading, but his father’s a Nightingale,’ Tom said. ‘It’s like you said—they hate Aaron Oliver. I’ve heard them talking about him.’

Joan felt uneasy at that phrasing. She chewed her lip. ‘What about getting into the party?’

‘In and out will be easy enough,’ Ruth said. ‘We’ll just need the right clothes.’

‘And masks,’ Joan said. You have to stay far away from me. From me and from my family, Aaron had told her on their last day together. She suppressed a shiver. She’d promised him she would, and now here she was planning to walk into his own home.

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