Shards of Kairos

XV - The Devil's Deal

"I'm giving him ten minutes and then I'm going after him." Evie declared.

 And she meant it too. She respected that Julian needed space but on the other hand, she felt like it was the very last thing that Julian needed. Space had to be the last thing anyone would need after something like that. Evie herself felt shaken, rattled, and she didn't have even a fraction of the history Julian apparently had with that man. The traitor known as Adam, the ghost beyond the mirror who was apparently very much alive. And, terrifyingly enough - also appeared to be a Guardian.

Mitch ran a hand through his hair roughly, pacing a few steps before turning back to Evie - looking the most conflicted she'd ever seen him before. Not since that night at the library, in Briarsfield, when Mitch's whole life - and hers - had been tossed upside down and inside out. "I don't like it." Mitch said. "I don't like any of it. Who the hell was that?"

"I saw him..." Evie admitted reluctantly.

Mitch stopped pacing and gave her a stunned look.

Evie winced. They'd both been mad at Julian for keeping secrets and now unintentionally she'd done the same. "I didn't know how to tell you. I never even saw his face. I just saw him while I was out, on the kitchen floor. In the fog... those dreams." Evie looked up and met Mitch's eyes. "He told me not to trust Julian. At least now I know it's for a stupid reason."

Mitch stepped closer to her, eyes intent but voice no longer exactly blaming. Upset but not exactly angry. At her anyway. "Things like that are important Evie."

"I'm sorry." Evie assured him. "I really am."

Mitch held her gaze for a moment longer and then backed away, letting out a breath, and putting space between them - maybe even a considerable amount. Mitch looked like he needed it to think. "Adam. Goes without saying he's not on our side. What do you make of him?"

"What do you make of him?" Evie immediately asked right back. Criminal profiling was something Mitch had been trained to do and right now that seemed to be exactly what they needed.

"I can't place it but that guy?" Mitch pointed to wherever Adam had disappeared. "I'm no psychiatrist but he is not mentally stable. Something is off. I can't peg it."

Evie suppressed a chill. And failed. "He said he didn't kill the other Guardians. Julian says he did."

"He didn't strike me as a murderer though, Evie. And that's the thing." Mitch's green eyes met hers, vivid and concerned. "Something is wrong there. I saw shame, guilt." Mitch said and he sounded and looked just as disturbed as Evie felt. It was uneven ground, that they'd been scrambling to find even footing on since this had all began. And now they were left reeling, impossibly more than they ever had been. And that was saying a lot.

"So he's a murderer with a conscience?" Evie said.

Mitch paused, took a breath and held it for a moment, warring with himself apparently between 'evidence' and 'eyewitness account' - the latter they had very little of. "I'm saying he's the guy you arrest because all the evidence is stacked against him but in your gut you think he didn't do it."

Evie tried not to be any more taken aback than she already was. She tried not to feel anymore unhinged, caught off guard, and waylaid. But Mitch's statement and the conviction behind it was almost more rattling than Adam's sudden appearance.

"Good luck explaining that to Julian." Evie breathed out slowly, finally, relenting at least to Mitch's experience as a police officer - training, experience she didn't have. Knowledge she didn't have. But even her opinion was... not objective, maybe even flawed but she refused to think so. Evie had never seen Julian look so torn open. Unhinged. And Evie could only wonder at the depth of just what Adam had meant to him. The history they'd had before it all. Before all this. It had to of been enough to look like merely standing in his presence could tear apart the most wounded part of Julian there was. And leave him utterly broken in the wake.