Out of Time

chapter 30 - gilded

My breath rises past my face, dissipating into the pitch-black night sky. Underfoot, the gravel crunches softly beneath the thin heels of my stilettos, blending with the soft hums and buzzes emanating from the guests inside the ballroom. I am hiding in the courtyard visible from my bedroom window, separated from the gala by the formidable barbed wire fence that lined the castle, under the watchful gaze of guards perched atop it, similarly to the ones hidden on the landings of the grey tiled roofs. For the last 20 minutes, they have merely been monitoring my short pace from the sheltered archway into the castle and to the tall wisteria which had been decorated with shimmering fairy lights for tonight's event.

"OK, you've paced for long enough, babe," a mellifluous voice laughs. I halt mid-stride to watch Harvey gracefully descend from the roof and flip into the quadrangle; his lanky frame acting as a silhouette against the floodlights that illuminated the castle's pathways. His bottle green tuxedo clings to his lean frame as he stops in front of me, hands on hips.

"Howdy, darlin'," he jests, in a fake-southern accent. Without hesitation, I pull him into a tight embrace. His signature lavender perfume wraps around me, blanketing me in floral warmth.

"I see you've learned a few new tricks since we've last saw each other. Seems like someone is trying to replace me," I say, muffled by his chest. He's obviously moved on from just hacking and into more fieldwork.

"Just tryna keep up with ya. No but seriously, you're irreplaceable."

I haven't spoken to him in weeks - the last time was when he revealed Dean's little trip to juvie. Turns out Dean's best friend, a girl named Himari who he met on a business trip to Japan with his father, had this horrible boyfriend. His name was Marco or Matias or something like that, and he was an abusive piece of shit. Dean found him beating poor Himari up, and put the boy in a coma. Henry had neglected a copy of Matthew's hospital records in some dark, stingy corner of the internet that Harvey so often inhabited.

"Why-why are you here?" I ask, pulling back after half a minute. Harvey shrugs.

"I got sent an invitation, so I just rocked up." He struggles to pull out the envelope, producing the same envelope I had received this morning. On the bottom, in inky, loopy handwriting scrawled "Regards, Xavier Bernard."

"The rest of us are here too. Luna, Kieran... Dillon."

I scoff, rolling my eyes as I bring my lips to his ear. "Don't trust Xavier," I whisper, gripping tightly onto his suit jacket. "He invited you for a reason, probably to scare you into stopping looking into his family."

"Your," Harvey corrects. "It's your family too."

I shake my head in dismissal and, clutching his hand again, yank him into the courtyard. I wait for him to catch up as I walk through the large sandstone archway that leads towards the ballroom. "We both know I'm not a family girl."

"The Ashwoods are here, you know," I sigh, pressing my cold hand into my forehead. "It's gonna be..."

"A total shitshow?" Harvey finishes. I nod glumly and stand in front of the entrance.

"It'll be a media frenzy, to say the least. They'll not only find out I'm alive but that I'm a Bernard; it's front page gold."

As I stride towards the guards, the small blades that I messily stitched into the lining of my gown swish past my ankles. The grand, sandstone castle looms over us as we approach it. The carvings of Zeus and Hera's marriage and other mythological creatures are etched into the front around the 2 mahogany doors guarding the entrance.

"So, what the plan for tonight?" I ask.

"Well, I was planning to do a bit of recon, and see what trouble we can stir up. I've heard you're quite the expert in that," he jokes, hitting me on the shoulder.