Chapter 145: The Innocent and Guilty Say the Same Things

Jack came home a day early.

Blair was in the kitchen, halfheartedly drying dishes, when she heard the front door open. She knew it was him before she saw him. The air changed. It got colder, somehow, and sharper, and faintly smoky.

He walked into the kitchen in his long black coat, his travel bag still slung over one shoulder. There was mud on his boots. He looked tired in a way she had never seen before, as if he hadn’t slept in the time he’d been gone.

His red eyes found her immediately.

"Jack!" Clarice appeared in the living room doorway, one hand pressed to her chest. "You’re early. We weren’t expecting you until tomorrow."

"Plans change." Jack didn’t look away from Blair.

Clarice’s eyebrows rose. "The prince left this morning. Rather abruptly."

"Yes," Jack said. "I gathered."

He set his bag down by the counter. Then he pulled off his gloves, one finger at a time, and laid them neatly beside it.

"Ms. Willows," he said. "My office."

The dish towel slipped out of Blair’s hands.

* * *

Jack closed the office door behind her. He didn’t sit down. He crossed to the window, opened it a crack, and lit a cigarette.

Blair stood quietly with her hands knotted together and stared at the floor.

"You opened my folder," Jack said.

Blair’s throat closed up. "I-I’m sorry, I didn’t..."

"Don’t apologize." He exhaled a slow stream of smoke toward the window. "I gave you the puzzle. I gave you the laptop. I expected you to solve it eventually." He tapped ash over the sill. "I confess I did not expect you to do it so quickly."

Blair stared at the back of his head.

"You... wanted me to see it," she whispered.

"I wanted to see what you would do with it."

He turned around.

"The Crown Prince called me at noon," he said. "He wanted to know how a lesser in my care came to see his ID on a transfer form."

Blair’s stomach dropped.

"So," Jack said softly. "You asked him."

"I didn’t mean to," she whispered. "It just... came out."

"And what did he say?"

She told him. Haltingly, in a voice barely above a whisper, eyes on the rug. That Killian had never heard Heather’s name. That he’d wanted to know where she had seen the form. That he’d said he would find out who was using his name.

Jack listened without interrupting. When she was done, he drew slowly on his cigarette.

"Of course he said that," he murmured. "What else would he say?"

Blair looked up.

"Innocent men and guilty men say the same things, Ms. Willows. The difference is in what they do next." Smoke curled from his lips. "Killian has been careful his entire life. Today, he was not."

"Do you think..." Blair’s voice cracked. "Do you think he took Heather?"

"I think his name is on dozens of transfer forms, and every human on them is gone." Jack’s tone didn’t change at all. "Your roommate is one name on a very long list. I am far more interested in the list."

The coldness of it made her flinch.

"Now." He stubbed out the cigarette on the windowsill. "Tell me about the painting."

Blair’s heart stuttered. "I don’t know anything about it. I’ve never seen it before. I didn’t even know that room existed."

Jack crossed the office slowly. He stopped in front of her, close enough that she could smell the smoke on him, and tipped her chin up with one finger until she had no choice but to look at him.

His red eyes searched her face for a long, long time.

"You are telling the truth," he said at last. "I can always tell when you are, Ms. Willows. It is the rest of the time I wonder about."

His finger stayed beneath her chin.

"The prince will not come back here," he said. "He will look for his answers elsewhere. The next time you see him, it will be at the academy, when exams begin."

Blair didn’t know whether the feeling in her chest was relief or dread. Probably both.

"If you want to help me find the truth, Ms. Willows, then do something useful." He let go of her chin. "Win your seat on the student council. Killian will run for the council next semester. I am certain of it."

Blair blinked at him. "You said you wouldn’t help me cheat."

"I said I do not condone cheating." He turned back toward his desk, as if she had already been dismissed. "I never said you would need to. That will be all."

* * *

Blair made it to her room, shut the door, and sat down hard on the edge of her bed.

She stared at the laptop on her desk.

Jack had given her the puzzle. He had given her the laptop. And then he had left for two days, and in his place he had sent the one person in the world whose ID would unlock it, and sat him down right beside her.

He hadn’t brought Killian here to tutor her.

He had brought Killian here so she would find him.

Blair pressed her hands over her mouth. She was a piece on Jack’s board. She had been from the very beginning. The smart thing would be to walk away. To stop solving his puzzles and keep her head down, the way she always had.

But Heather was still out there somewhere. And Jack was still digging. He had a photograph of the sisters kneeling to a woman with her face, and he would not stop until he knew exactly what she was.

If she walked away, he would keep digging without her.

If she stayed, at least she would see what he found.

Blair lowered her hands and looked at the laptop for a long time.

Then she pulled her notebook into her lap, turned to a fresh page, and wrote two words at the top.

Student council.