Our Forbidden Love 2

31: Starley

"That's interesting, because I do." Everyone in the room turns to look at the new arrival in the doorway. Even me who's eyes are still bringing tears to the surface. I am absolutely traumatised; my face hurts like absolute hell where Peter hit me; I feel like I'm worthless and I am just something to take advantage of; my mind is racing with replays of the event that I'd much rather not re-watch; but my heart still goes out to Alex for yelling at him and putting him in his place on behalf of me. I feel kind of bad for not accepting his hug before, but I'm just scared and I hope he understands that.

In the doorway is another person I really didn't want to talk to or see right now. Long white-blonde hair falling to her waist, green eyes I could see even from halfway across the room. Keeping her promise with the healing of my wound on my arm, Weedy is in the doorway looking at all of us like we're pieces of meat and not people. Suddenly, she shoots a shockwave of dark magic through the Scout School. I didn't have the energy to fight anymore, having been taken advantage of, sexually assaulted and hit. The black magic crackles through the water around us. Alex throws his hands up and I can't tell what he's doing until a purple bubble begins to form from the palm of his hand around us: a forcefield protecting us from the magic. Binah is closest to us and she gets included in the bubble, however Whitney is left on the outside. Peter is somehow immune to the shockwave, though I know Alex wishes he wasn't. Suddenly a lightning strike of energy shoots into my head and by the look on Binah's face it happened to her too, however not to Alex. The wave of dark magic passes and Alex releases the bubble. On the floor beside Binah lies a lifeless Whitney, eyes still open, veins crackly black.
"Whitney," I choke. I was already crying from nearly being raped but now new tears started to form as well. It couldn't be Whitney. No. Not her. She sat next to me on the Government; gave me warm smiles of comfort if I was nervous in a meeting. I look at Alex, guilt is written all over his face, but he has nothing to be guilty for.
"I'm so sorry," he says, more to Binah than anyone else. Binah and Whitney were really close friends; one of the closest friendships on the Government, Lucas and Cam, of course being the absolute closest. "I'm so sorry," he repeats.
Binah looks at him confidently. "You did nothing wrong, Alex. You saved Starley and I, that's more than anything I did."
"Yes, Alex. You're a hero," says Weedy, rolling her eyes sarcastically.

"Why are you here?" I ask, timidly, through tears trying to ignore the creepy smile Peter kept giving me, telling me just wait 'till you and I are alone again. I'm grateful as Alex throws him a dirty look at makes sure he sees the knife he's still holding, knuckles white around the handle.
"I'm here to give you a second chance at passing over the Stonal Shell," she says as though this is a completely normal and regular request.
"We don't have it," Binah states clearly. No lie.
"Where is it then and I'll get it out of your possession," she suggests instead. As she says this Rhylee enters the room from behind her. Surprisingly, she lets them in. I was expecting her to shut them out and leave this conversation to the people that were already here. I find it odd that Rhylee goes to stand beside Weedy and not on our 'side' like I thought they would. Weedy looks up at them and nods.
"Rhylee? What are you doing?" Binah asks.
"My job," they reply. "Isn't it obvious? Dammit, it means I've done a good job. I shouldn't have given myself away. God dammit!"
I'd never really heard Rhylee talk outside Government circles and I certainly hadn't heard them display this level of anger.
"What are you talking about?" I ask, my voice still shaking.
"Obviously, I'm working for her," they respond, jerking their head in Weedy's direction.
"Well, obviously it wasn't obvious because everyone's confused," Alex points out, completely missing the point.
"You're working for her?" Binah asks, incredulously and Rhylee casually nods in response.

Weedy continues with her interrogation of the Stonal Shell.
"Where is it?" she demands.
"Not here," Alex responds. Rhylee's Flicker wave washes over us. No lie detected.
"Do you still have it?"
"We said it's not here," Alex repeats. No lie.
"Have you used it?"
Alex takes a wild guess at whether his next statement would Flicker the air or not.
"Not in the way you wanted to." No lie. We all exhale, relieved.
"Did you take it to Kiwi Civitatem?"
Uh, oh. Alex did take it there, it was in his bag. I, however, didn't touch the Shell until it was already there.
"No," I answer for him before he can talk. No lie.
"B***h. I wasn't talking to you," Weedy says. She turns back to Alex.
"Alex, did you take it to the city?"
"No. No, I did not." Alex had said the wrong thing. We all knew that was wrong and was no doubt going to come out a lie. Weedy could clearly see the screen burnt into Alex's skin. Being as powerful as she was, I knew she knew his magic was coming from fully merfolk blood. He'd created the force field around Binah, him and I to protect us from her dark magic. Force fields hadn't been his talent before we went to Kiwi Civitatem, they'd come with his changing of blood ceremony. My eyes move slightly to Peter and he's still staring at me, eyes running all over my body, making me self conscious again. I look away from him, letting new tears roll down my face.
I feel Rhylee's flicker wave rush over us but then they give Weedy the signal of 'no lie'. How hadn't that been detected as a lie?