Page 54 of Tell Me Why
About the injections.
About the party.
About what was going to happen next.
About what he knew and wasn’t telling her.
And yet, he was done.
The time would come.
She wasn’t going to forget.
She followed.
The grassunder the oak tree was thin from lack of sun, and Tina decided that she’d do a better job keeping the dress clean sitting up on one of the boughs than trying to find a spot on the ground. The rain might have been gone, but the memory of it wasn’t.
She listened hard to the crickets and frogs, the cry of something out in the darkness being eaten by something bigger. They were furtheroutthan she would have anticipated; she could see the dome of light off of the city, from here, but it was just anover thereidea. The garden was lit again by a moon that dipped in and out from behind clouds.
She’d thought that she could track Tell by where the bugs went quiet - she’d read it in a book once - but even that was failing on her.
She knew that he washere, but there was more of his scenton herat this point than on the damp breeze.
And then there was a wet grunt and a thud, and Tina knew exactly where he was.
She didn’t look.
But she knew.
A minute later, there was another, more of a barking noise, this time, and then Isabella was walking across the clearing toward her and Tina made the conscious effort to drop down out of the tree without embarrassing herself.
Tell appeared a moment later.
“Clear,” he said evenly as he fell into step next to Isabella.
“Did they see you?” Tina asked, and Tell shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Whoever admits to knowing that this happened is the one who’s spying on her. If it’s Daryll, that’s just a fight.” He looked over at Isabella, who nodded. “Anyone else is going to be working too hard to stay hidden. They hadn’t trod down the ground too much. I don’t think they’re a big network. Do you care if Daryll finds us out of the room?”
Isabella shook her head.
“Not at all,” she said.
It was the first time that the woman hadreallyseemed like an immortal European princess with the reins of power wrapped around her hands.
It suited her, actually.
“All right,” Tell said. “You vetted us and we’re out. Could have run away. I’m here. Time for you to lay it out so we can figure out what to do next.”
“Yes, but you’reawarethat it was a test, my giving you the key to the one path off of the guest wing that wasn’t under security,” she said. “So it proves very little.”
Tell looked at her flatly, his expression not changing, and she giggled.
Put the back of her hand to her mouth and giggled.
“I’m sorry, old friend,” she said. “The last six months have challenged the foundations of everything I’ve ever thought I believed about the people around me. I’m questioning everything.”
“You figured out that Keon really is the bad guy?” Tina asked, and Isabella looked at her with what would have been an eyeroll, if eyerolls hadn’t been beneath her.
