Tainted, Book One: Possessed

40. Did It Have To Be Swimming?

Kerry

On Tuesday morning, Hank told me the Council of Wardens had dropped their investigation into Reilly Argaud's activities.

That pissed me off.

I mean, I knew they wouldn't take my word for what had happened with the harpy and, even though Jax and John had seen Argaud, too, they hadn't heard anything. Still, I thought the Council had enough evidence to at least have some doubts.

When I told Hank that, he said it probably helped that Argaud's stepfather was some big-time politician in the human world and his mother's family was one of the richest in the world.

"What about that conversation we overheard at the hospital?" I crossed my arms and scowled.

"Peale explained it." Hank shrugged. "Argaud and the dead girl, Aspen Abernathy, had been dating and he'd given her a valuable necklace that had been in his family for years. When she died, he'd feared he'd get in trouble at home, so he'd sent Peale after it before Aspen was buried. Nothing suspicious there."

Everyone at school had been talking about the girl's death, and her locker in the sophomore hallway had been turned into a small shrine. It hit Maddy especially hard. She'd walked around in a fog the last two days, her eyes red from crying. She kept saying she couldn't believe Aspen was gone.

"How'd she die?" I hadn't asked that earlier and realized I should have.

"Suicide. She's the reason Gemma was at the hospital when the shrouder patient was brought in. August took her to see if she could save Aspen."

"Gemma couldn't save someone?"

I knew she wasn't all-powerful, but for Miss Level 10 Healer to be stumped, Aspen had to have planned that out pretty well.

"Aspen shot herself through the mouth. Bullet sent bone fragments into her spinal cord. If her aim had been a little truer, she wouldn't have even made it to the hospital."

"Then why call Gemma? Sounds like Aspen was dead, but her brain didn't know it yet. Why didn't the ER healers just let her go?"

"They can't help themselves. As long as they think the soul's still there, they'll keep trying. Sometimes long after they should. Remember that." Hank gave me a narrow-eyed look. "We all need saving from ourselves at times, even healers. Like you said, sometimes you have to let them go."

I nodded, then sank into my thoughts while he puttered around the kitchen.

"Why didn't he go get the necklace himself? Argaud, I mean," I said.

That made me even more suspicious, not less. No way I'd send someone else to do that. I'd take care of it myself.

"According to Peale, Argaud couldn't bear to see his girl dead." Hank sighed. "I don't know if I'd want to see Gina after she died, either. It might overwhelm the happier memories, and I'd want them more."

I grunted as his words hit me square in the chest. If Gemma died...

If Gemma died, I would want to see her body. After I finished destroying her killer, that is. Seeing her body was the only way I'd believe she was really gone.

And as for Hank's happy memory theory? Even if I had a century's worth, they wouldn't bring me comfort. Not that it mattered. I wouldn't survive her by much. One way or the other, her death would be the wound that killed me.

Hank did have some good news, though. He and some of his buddies had started a search for thralls. I asked him if Clem was part of his team, and he gave me a funny look.