Page 73 of Bargains with Benefits
My father was in his study when I stormed in, laid my hands on the wooden desk, and leaned toward him with as much authority as I could muster. “What have you done?”
He glanced up at me, unimpressed by my display. “Vincent, do sit down, you’re being rude.”
“Father, I want to know what you have done to force the paper to publish the story on Darius Pierce.”
The corner of his lip curled into a smug smile, though he quickly tried to flatten it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play coy, now. You were eager to ask me about the assignment a few weeks ago. Did you provide the tip?”
“Your sister said you wanted to write features. We’re helping.” He glanced at me before flipping through the papers on his desk.
I shook my head. “You are not helping. You are playing your own game and trying to use me to do it. It stops now.”
His smirk was back in full force, not even attempting to hide his assurance. “And what are you going to do? Quit? You’d have to come home.” He spread his hands. “We both know how…distasteful that would be to you.”
“Is that what this is about?” I asked.
“This isn’t about you, Vincent,” he said. “It’s merely a convenient way to stop Darius from causing further trouble.”
My brow furrowed. My parents didn’t like Darius. They didn’t like any fae from other courts. They barely liked fae from their own court. But how was Darius in their way? “You’re the one trying to block the school from being built?” I said, finally figuring it out.
“We’re not blocking anything. We’re reminding the governor that there is value in exclusivity.”
His words made my skin crawl. Hadn’t I said something similar to Luna when we first started talking about recommending the inn? I pushed my shoulders back. I was nothing like him. I’d chosen differently. I would continue to choose differently. “I’m not writing the piece.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He wiped his hand through the air indismissal. “The piece will be published whether you write it or not. If you decide not to, we get the added bonus of you crawling back to Andiveron House.”
My jaw clenched. I couldn’t let him get away with this.
“It was inconvenient that you decided on a dalliance with the Pierce girl. A half-fae, Vincent? You should know better.”
I should have known they had an agenda when they’d run into us at the restaurant. My parents were calculated in everything they did. Their words had been targeted to wound Luna; they’d known exactly who she was but had not acknowledged it.
“I don’t ever want to hear you speak about Luna that way again,” I said coldly. My wind rushed around the room, rattling the obnoxious trinkets on the bookshelves. “She has more character and more integrity than you ever will.”
Father continued to look unimpressed. “She’s not fae.” He held down a few rustling papers as my wind whipped past him. “You really should be better able to control yourself.”
“I won’t spend any more time trying to convince you to change,” I said, fuming. “I’ll find a way out of this. I won’t come back into this house while you still live in it. And I won’t let you do this to Darius.”
“We’ll see,” he said, not even bothering to look up at me this time. I turned and exited the room the same way I’d entered, letting my wind slam the door behind me. I frowned when I realized I wasn’t heading out of the house, though. My wind swirled down the hall toward the front door, and I went in the opposite direction. The front door opened and closed with the power of my element. Before I considered what I was doing, the hall closet opened, and I slid inside.
I don’t knowwhat came over me. One minute, I was heading toward the door, desperate to put this house and my parents behind me. The next minute, I was hiding in a closet per my wind’s impulsive plan.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. “Did he leave?” Father asked.
“He must have. I heard the door close,” Jeffrey replied.
“Headstrong boy,” Father mumbled and then sighed. “It’s not like he can do anything about it now.” His footsteps echoed down the hall in the opposite direction.
I had to move quickly. Father was probably right. The article was going to get printed whether I participated or not, but there was a hopeful part of me that wanted to change the text of the article. Another part of me wanted to ensure my recommendation of Cliff House Inn made it into this issue. I knew Patricia would pull it if she didn’t get the desired feature. A reckless hope had overtaken me—a hope that I could make this right. I had to believe it was Luna’s voice in my head telling me not to leave a stone unturned when it came to something I wanted.
And I wanted to clear Darius’s name, not only for Luna but for myself.
My father was right. I did love that job at the paper. Even if I only continued to write recommendations. I felt good about the new angle on how to feature Luna’s inn, and it made me realize there was so much I could do, so much I could explore while still writing the recommendation column. I was a little ashamed it had taken me so long to realize, and even then, it had only been because of Luna’s words.
But to keep writing, I had to have content for this article. I could see the headline: Old Fae Family Works Against Magic School. With the right proof, it didn’t have to be Darius’s name in the text.
I sent my wind through the keyhole of the door. It unfurledand flew through the hall, searching for bodies as I had searched for whatever was in Luna’s locked room.
