Unsung Requiem by C.L. Stone

Zelosamente

(Zealously)

Sang

While Kota was getting ready, Nathan and I lingered in the garage. I couldn’t help looking off toward my old home, a couple of houses down. The idea of moving away left a flutter of fear in my stomach. I wasn’t sure why. Changing things left so many questions for us.

“We should let Kota go alone to Lillian,” Nathan said quietly.

His voice bringing me out of my overthinking had me pause, considering what he meant. “Why?”

He stepped closer, so he was mostly whispering near my cheek. “It’s a good time to go check out his house. His sister isn’t there. His mom’s at work. He’ll be distracted on his way to Lillian. And if we’re moving, we may not get many more chances.”

I was going to ask why again, but I really didn’t have to. I knew why.

Volto’s mask. We never told Kota. Not yet. It made it look bad for his mother, and we wanted further proof.

I couldn’t believe Erica Lee would ever be Volto.

We had to know.

“Shouldn’t someone go with him?” I asked. “Won’t he find it weird if we both say we want to stay?”

While we were discussing who should go with him, a blue sedan pulled into the driveway. From the angle we were at, I could only pick out three shadowy silhouettes.

Reinforcements would be good. Nathan and I shared a relieved look. We could send one or two of them.

Luke popped out of the back seat first. His blonde hair was bound in a messy way with a clip. A few locks flew around his face as he moved. While appearing a little tired, he beamed when he saw me. “Also I don’t have that disease going around. North was fibbing,” he said, as if he’d been in mid-conversation and just needed to tell me.

I’d nearly forgotten after the events last night and that morning. “I’m glad you’re better.” I wanted to suggest not eating so much chocolate next time, but I didn’t want to do so when I was sure North had given him lectures at length.

He smiled at me in such a way that his eyes lit up and his shoulders relaxed. He moved until he was standing beside me, and I sensed his hand at my lower back.

Gabriel and Silas trailed behind Luke. Gabriel had his hair similarly pulled back a little in a clip, revealing the shaved part underneath, even if the blond locks that contrasted with the dark russet color had escaped and hung at his face a bit. He wore a dark jacket with orange stripes on the arms. The crystals in his ears had changed, one pink, one orange today. He’d been wearing pink a lot lately.

Silas had a new Red Sox jacket. It’d been a gift from his father for Christmas. It was a little too tight for his broad shoulders but I knew he liked it to try to wear it when he could. The dark circles under his eyes stood out against his Greek complexion and his hair stood up on one side of the back of his head.

“What happened?” Nathan asked. “What was the big security thing last night anyway?”

“It’s what we were up late for,” Silas said, his voice deep but also taking on a groggy grumble. “I had to be sure those reporters didn’t capture Sang’s face, and double-check on who they were. I was worried someone would be Volto.”

That was surprising. “Volto?” I asked cautiously.

He shrugged. “No way to know for sure. They were letting random reporters in the gate at different times and never even checked who they were as long as they held up a camera.”

“The news loves to watch Victor. Especially when he screws up,” Nathan said.

Silas shrugged. “I checked everything else. Mr. Blackbourne and I checked the house too. Even the dragon desk. Everything was untouched. We might have gotten lucky that he wasn’t interested in the party or didn’t use it as an opportunity to get in.”

Kota finally appeared back in the garage with the rest of us. He scanned the others who had arrived. “Where is North?” Kota asked them. “Wasn’t he coming along?”

“He’s having to stay with Uncle at the diner,” Luke said. “There’s something wrong with one of the ovens. He’ll be by later.”

“There’s quite a few of us here,” Nathan said, mostly talking to Kota. “I think we should split up. If you still want to go, the rest of us can start packing while someone goes with you.” He partially motioned to Luke, Gabriel, and Silas, as if giving him the option of his choosing.

Particularly not motioning to either himself or me. It didn’t matter if he picked one of us as long as the other was left behind.

Even if I did want to seek insight with Lillian as much as Kota did.

At this, Kota seemed to give some consideration to the options. “Luke, do you want to come with me?”

Luke dropped the hand at my back that had still been hovering and tilted his head curiously. “To do what?”

“I’m heading out to see Lillian.”

“Do we really need to?” he asked. “I mean aren’t we good to go as a group? We’re all in, aren’t we?”

Were we? My heart did a little flip in my chest, thinking he was right.

Wasn’t that what this was? We were working together to stay together now? Somehow in a moment, the way Luke spoke, it was like this had all changed. It wasn’t about seeing if we were all in, we were all in already. We just had to prove to other people that this was what we wanted.

In that short moment, I realized… it had finally clicked that they were all in this together. With me.

Kota waved his hand shortly. “I am. But not the point. I want to ask about the Academy and a few ways to handle the manager we’re with. Mr. Buble.”

Luke frowned. “Mr. Buble? Not him. Whose manager?”

Kota blinked. “You know him?”

He shrugged. “I know of him. I was talking to this girl who’s been teaching me how to… you know, pick pockets better… but she said something once about how Mr. Buble ratted out Lillian’s team to the Academy in the first place.”

My heart sunk. “Then we can’t tell him about us yet?”

Luke sighed heavily. “It was twenty years ago. Maybe policies changed. But back then, they were sure it was setting them up for failure. They kept putting them through testing. Insisted they were young and their feelings would change.”

“They don’t dictate who we date,” Nathan said.

“No, but they didn’t want to put them all on the same team. They sent Lily on missions with each of the guys and assumed at some point she’d split off with just one of them to make a couple team. They kept trying to team them one at a time with her on missions and assumed two would match up eventually.”

Would that be our future? To be paired off until I and one of the others moved on together? I couldn’t imagine choosing between them. However, Lily didn’t do that. They stuck together. Maybe it didn’t matter if they tried that with us.

“Doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Gabriel said. He tucked his hands into his pockets and his neck leaned forward, his eyes lowered as he considered. “I mean we’re kind of at the end of the high school thing, right? We could start doing some outside gigs again. And a two-person team can pick up all sorts of gigs.”

“It’s not what we’re designed for,” Kota said. “The benefit of a big team is getting to do bigger jobs that no one else is able to do as smaller teams. It’s what they need us for.”

“Maybe we worry too much,” Silas said. His voice was deep and seemed to reverberate in the garage. “Maybe if we’re almost done with the school, we should be on the lookout for the next job.”

“We might not be able to move on with Volto around,” Nathan said.

Kota drew a hand across, as if cutting us off. “First thing I’d like to know is how to handle a manager with our situation. I’ll trust Lillian’s advice but I’d like to talk to her in person.” He motioned to Luke. “Are you in?”

“Of course,” he said. “Although I’m getting tired of riding in the car so much.” He stretched his arms out wide, almost knocking me in the head. As if realizing what he’d done, he re-aimed his hand to the top of my head and patted down. “Was kind of hoping to stick around but if you’re going…”

“We’ve got to pack,” Nathan said quickly. “Long story, but Mr. Buble is expecting us to get things together.”

Gabriel harumphed. “He’s not taking her somewhere, is he?”

“No,” Kota said. “I’ll explain on the way if you want to come along, too.”

“Yeah, you go, Gabriel,” Nathan said, with some inflection of urgency in his voice. “We’ll stay here.”

I don’t know why he was insistent I stay for this, but it was obvious he wanted me to stay behind with him.

Gabriel rolled his head back and mumbled. “Fuck me. Back in the car. I’ve spent more time in a car than out the last few days.” He trailed off with Luke to the other side of the road, where Luke and Gabriel did a quick game of rock, paper, scissors to figure out who would get the back seat. Gabriel won, and it appeared he stretched out for a nap in the back.

I could almost hear Kota getting after him about putting on his seatbelt as the old klunker drove down the road and disappeared around the bend.

“So what’s wrong and why did you want to stay behind?” Silas asked.

There was no getting around it. Nathan grimaced, showing a lot of teeth. “It’s something Sang and I found. We just wanted to double-check without Kota this one time.”

Silas raised a dark eyebrow. It was an expression I’d seen many times from North but Silas had a similar way to express his unhappy curiosity. “If you want a secret mission without him knowing, you’ll have to leave your phones behind.”

“We have to go to his house anyway,” Nathan. “It’s the perfect excuse right now. We need to gather anything of Victor’s we can find so he’s got clothes and other things. And we should prep almost everything of mine and Sang’s for moving. But in the meantime… we have to be on the lookout.”

The intensity in the air changed. I blinked heavily, reconsidering the necessity for some coffee to assist me with keeping up with the plan.

Silas tugged at the sleeve of the Red Sox jacket, revealing muscled shoulders and arms in a dark blue plain T-shirt. He carefully carried the jacket to the house. “Let me drop this off. And then tell me on the way over.”