considered going over there and taking her away from him, but how could I justify it? Natalie seemed happy enough to be with him, and he and I would probably get into a fight if I got in the way now. Memories of what had happened in the box came back—memories of the throbbing pain I had experienced under Tommy’s many, many fists. I didn’t want to fight him, but I decided to keep an eye on those two just in case he had planned to take advantage of her in this state.
“Have you seen anyone behaving oddly?” I asked, turning back to Lucien.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything dangerous, but I did see Hignat and Wilwog earlier—the juniors, of course.”
“Oh,” I said, my stomach falling. “What were they doing?”
“Nothing,” he said. “That’s the thing; they were just lurking over in that corner with their drinks, not saying anything to anyone. They aren’t drinking alcohol either, which makes me wonder … maybe their fathers just told them no, or maybe it’s more serious.”
“You reckon they were watching us?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said, looking nervous. “They’ve gone now, so maybe—I’m not sure. I know they’re not watching Marc, because he’s still out there.”
We were interrupted at this point by a small man who I didn’t recognise. Ignoring me, he addressed Lucien. “3M78, Tankom wants a word before you leave tonight. She says you can find her now or later, as long as it’s tonight. She won’t take no for an answer.”
“Oh,” said Lucien, his face falling. “Did she say what it was about?”
“Not a word,” said the man indifferently. “Oh,” his eyes fell on me at last, “is this your brother?”
“No,” said Lucien casually, for even I could see the man’s mind ticking over. “This is John, he’s a friend of ours.”
“Ah, okay,” he said. “Well, don’t say I didn’t tell you, 3M78.”
And he left. Lucien stood up, looking worried. “I’d better see what this is about. I’ll see you later, John.”
I watched him nervously as he left, wondering what Tankom could want with him. Perhaps to question him about the rest of us? I looked around the room, but couldn’t see too many people worth talking too. Lena was sitting alone further up the bar; she was watching me, and I could tell she wanted to talk to me, probably to ask me to dance. After seeing Tommy and Natalie together, perhaps I should dance with Lena, although it would be even more awkward with her than it had been with Stella (she was around the same height, perhaps even a little taller, and probably two or three cup sizes larger too). This thought made me remember Natalie, though, and I looked wildly around to see where she and Tommy were, but to my dismay, I couldn’t see them anywhere.
I got up, leaving my half-drunk glass on the bar, intending to go and look for them (being a good friend to Natalie was more important now than selfishly allowing myself a moment with Lena), but before I had taken more than a few steps, someone tapped me on the shoulder and I looked around. It was Stella.
“Hi,” I said, almost excitedly. “Did you find any—Stella, what’s wrong?”
She was much paler than she had been only ten minutes earlier. Her eyes were brighter, and she looked terrified.
“John,” she said in a low whisper, “this is an order. You have to get out of here, now.”
Chapter 8: The Broken Law
“What?” I said, confused.
“You have to go now,” she said, looking left and right as she spoke. She was becoming more frantic by the second. “Go straight home, don’t stop for anything, and don’t talk to anyone. Go! Go!”
“Why? What’s going—”
“Go!”
“Okay,” I snapped, thoroughly disconcerted.
I turned and walked away from her. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I kept an even pace as I walked. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Stella had vanished from where we’d been before, and I couldn’t see where she’d gone. I met nobody until I reached the door, where I was waylaid by Daniel.
“John,” he called out to me, “I forgot to tell you before, really important—”
“Tell me later,” I called back as I went through the door.
Once I was around the corner in the long hall, I broke into a sprint; down the hall, up the stairs, through the door in the tree and out into the stretch. The big Hammerheart was still manning the door, but he made no effort to stop me as I sprinted away into the night. I could tell that many of the party goers had sought privacy in the bushes, because I could see silhouettes of couples doing lord knew what and hear various noises coming from all around me. Ignoring them all despite my curiosity, and devoutly hoping that Tommy and Natalie weren’t hidden in any of these bushes (it’d be far too late to step in if they were), I ran until I reached the path, turned for the gate, and tore out onto the street. I didn’t stop running until I reached the front step of the Playman residence.
I hesitated at this point, knowing that I ought to go inside, but I saw something I hadn’t expected—a light coming from somewhere inside the house. I’d expected everyone to be asleep, in which case the lights should be off, but apparently Amelia’s charm had failed at its job. I slipped quietly inside and saw that the light was coming from the kitchen. I couldn’t get to the stairs without being seen by whoever was in there.
I crept across to the stairs, but as I had expected, I was spotted. I looked around and saw, to my surprise, Nicole, sitting alone at the kitchen table with a piece of paper in front of her.
“Wha’ … how long have you been here?” I asked in a whisper, coming in to sit with her. “What’s that anyway?”
She sniggered as she pushed the piece of paper in front of me. I saw that it was a note from Mum, explaining how everyone in the house had seemed to simply get too tired to stay up, and needed to go to bed because they were getting nothing done. The note said how they would be asking us all about it in the morning, but to wake them if anything serious had gone wrong.
“They hung it on the banister, obviously the first place we’d look,” said Nicole, still sniggering.
“How long have you been here?” I asked her, pushing the note back at her.
“’Bout fifteen minutes,” she said.
“How come you left so early?” I persisted, watching her and thinking of what I’d done on the dance floor earlier.
“Oh, I just didn’t feel like partying anymore,” she said, looking a bit miserable as she stared at a spot just next to the note on the table. “Still, it was a pretty good party, considering who was around.”
I could tell she was trying to keep my attention off the first point she’d made, but like earlier, I wasn’t going to take the bait. “You don’t look like you enjoyed it too much.”
“No, really, it was fun,” she said, looking up at me now. “I just don’t know what I expected to happen, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well none of us did,” I said. “But that’s okay. It looked like most of the Young Army took it upon themselves to have as much fun as possible, from where I was anyway.”
“I noticed,” she said, and I was unsure for a moment if I’d broken the tension or intensified it. “They wanted to dance with as many people as possible before the end of the night.”
“I’m not sure if it was that,” I said. “I just think most of them were brought closer together by the occasion.”
Nicole snorted derisively.