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  Chapter Five

  Claire stared at the calendar on her Smartphone, unable to comprehend how it was now the nineteenth of May. The last thing she remembered was running for the stairwell on the twelfth of May, desperate to warn security about the intruder. Everything had gone black and she had woken up here. Apparently, the world had been going on without her for a week. Huge bouquets of flowers were piled on a long table next to her bed, but she didn’t have the energy to get up and read the tags.

  According to the doctors, she’d suffered severe brain trauma and they had kept her in a medically induced coma because of brain swelling. Now, her brain was back to normal and so they had pulled her out of the coma. When she awoke, she hadn’t known what day it was or why, exactly, she was in the hospital. But she had been certain of one thing: she needed to talk to Seth Morley. She had to tell someone she could trust about the man in the black hat. And who could she trust more than a dragon shifter?

  Claire had first tried to find his cell phone number, but no one seemed to be able to find the jeans she’d been wearing the day of the explosion—the ones with Seth’s number stuffed into the pocket. She’d grown quickly agitated over the loss of her clothes, and had begged the nurses to look for them. One of the nurses took pity on Claire and made it her mission to find the jeans, but when she had, they had been washed. The paper in the front pocket was destroyed.

  Claire had thrown a fit about it, and she was embarrassed to say she might have acted just a little bit like a three year old having a tantrum. But she’d been so frustrated that she hadn’t known what to do. She needed to talk to Seth, and she had no idea how to contact him without his phone number. She’d already searched online using her Smartphone. There were no direct numbers listed to any of the employees at the Dragon Utilization Department. She’d tried calling the general line, but had been routed to voicemail after voicemail, none of which seemed to belong to Seth. When she’d been on the verge of tears again, one of the doctors had come in and promised to track Seth down if Claire would promise to calm down.

  Claire had done her best to remain calm since then, but it hadn’t been easy. The longer she had to sit here by herself, playing over and over in her mind how the man in the black hat had set the explosion off, the more anxious she became. She didn’t want to push the doctors and nurses too far, though. She had a feeling they would try to sedate her again if she started freaking out too much. She’d already heard them whispering about how bad all of this excitement was for her brain in her condition.

  Claire frowned. She didn’t feel like she had a “condition.” She felt tired and had a bit of a headache, but otherwise, she felt normal. She wasn’t sure what someone should feel like after being in a coma for a week, but she would have expected her symptoms to be a bit more dramatic. With a sigh, she reached for the television remote next to the hospital bed. She might as well watch something and distract herself as much as possible.

  When she pushed the power button on the remote, the television immediately came to life, playing the local news channel. Claire sat up a bit straighter. It hadn’t occurred to her to look at the news yet, since she’d been so obsessed with finding Seth’s number. But now, she realized that she wanted to know what was being said about the explosion. Perhaps the man in the black hat had actually been found. It had been a week, after all, and the world had gone on without her. The High Council would no doubt have made it their priority to find whoever had been behind the explosion, and if they’d worked quickly they might have already taken care of the problem. Then there would be no real need for Claire to talk to Seth and tell him about what she’d seen. This thought made her a little sad, and for a moment, she considered turning off the television. If she remained ignorant of whether anyone had been captured in connection with the explosion, then she would still have an excuse to talk to Seth.

  Claire’s curiosity got the better of her, though, especially when the screen suddenly flashed with a breaking news announcement that said the High Council was holding a press conference. The screen had only these words scrolling across it for a few moments, and Claire wondered how all of the television crews were holding up now that their building was destroyed. She knew things must have been difficult, but it seemed like they were making do, at least. The news was still running, after all.

  Moments later, the screen changed to show a camera pointing at the front steps of the High Council building, where Head Councilor Morgan held most of his press conferences. After a moment of shuffling sounds, a news anchor appeared in front of the camera.

  “Good afternoon. We’re reporting to you live in front of the High Council Building, where a press conference will be taking place any moment now. The High Council did not give any hints as to what this conference will be about, but we expect that it will have something to do with the explosions that took place at the Torch Lake Today building last week. As many of you know, the High Council has promised Torch Lake’s citizens that it will not rest until whoever was responsible for the explosions is found and brought to justice.”

  The news program cut to scenes of the Torch Lake Today building, presumably from just after the explosion. Claire’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t seen any footage yet, and watching as the building where she had worked went up in flames felt quite jarring. Fire trucks and ambulances surrounded the building, along with large crowds of people. Claire realized that she didn’t even know yet whether there had been any fatalities, or how many. She wasn’t even sure how she herself had gotten out of the building. One of the firemen must have rescued her, because she could not remember anything past running into the stairwell.

  The television cut back to the news anchor, who was now pointing toward the High Council building. “Councilor Morgan has just stepped out, and is about to begin his speech.”

  The camera zoomed in on Councilor Morgan, who stepped up toward the crowd with a big smile on his face. He paused for a moment before speaking, presumably to cast an amplification spell over his voice so that he could address the crowd without needing a microphone.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed citizens of Torch Lake, I am coming to you today with happy news.”

  Claire leaned forward, her heart racing in her chest. They must have just found the culprit, then.

  “After careful research by a team of experts, we were able to determine that the cause of the recent explosion at the Torch Lake Today building was a faulty gas pipe.”

  “What?!?” Claire shouted at the television. “That’s not right at all.”

  But Councilor Morgan seemed perfectly confident in his announcement. “While we are still saddened at the damage done to the Torch Lake Today building, things could have been much worse. The building will be rebuilt, and we have much to be thankful for. No lives were lost in the explosion, and we now know that this was not an attack by the Dark Warriors. We can all rest a little easier at night knowing that they did not infiltrate our city and cause harm. This explosion was a grave accident, but at least it was not a malicious strike on our city.”

  At this, the crowd cheered. But Claire could only stare in disbelief.

  “No,” she said to the empty room. “No, no, no, that’s not right. They’ve got it all wrong. Their experts are confused. This was the Dark Warriors. Or, at least, it was someone malicious! I saw the guy.”

  Claire could practically feel her blood pressure rising. She had to talk to Seth right away. Despite her vow to give the doctor some time, she started to reach for her call button. She didn’t want to be a pest, but this was an emergency! The High Council was being duped by someone, and that someone was liable to attack again if they weren’t stopped.

  No sooner had Claire reached for the call button, though, that a sharp, rapping knock sounded at her hospital room door.

  “Uh, come in.”

  The door creaked open, and none other than Seth Morley stepped into the room. He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans with a short-sleeved button down shirt in a subtle gray plai
d pattern, and he looked even handsomer than Claire remembered. The sight of him took her breath away, and, strangely, made her want to cry. It was almost as if seeing him made all of the emotions that had been pent up since the explosion come rushing to the surface. She took a few deep, shaky breaths and fought back the tears. She would not cry now. She could not. She had to tell him what she had seen, and the message she needed to deliver was too important to be watered down by tears. She sat up a little straighter, and smoothed her hair back, feeling suddenly self-conscious about how unattractive she must look right now, in her faded hospital gown with no makeup on. But she pushed those thoughts away, too. This wasn’t about her. What she needed to say to Seth was so much bigger than either of them.

  “You wanted to see me?” he said, stepping in and closing the door behind him.

  Claire nodded, taking another deep breath. “You better sit down.”

  Chapter Six

  For perhaps the dozenth time this week, Seth felt like the floor had been pulled out from underneath him.

  “You’re…you’re sure about what you saw? What you heard?”

  Claire nodded. “I’m positive. I had an audite spell cast so that I could hear everything that was being said, loud and clear. That explosion was no accident.”

  Seth leaned back in his chair, the uncomfortable fake leather of it squeaking underneath his weight. Councilor Morgan was not going to be happy about this—he had just made a huge announcement to the entire city that the explosion was not an attack, and now Claire was offering eyewitness evidence that there had, indeed, been malicious intent behind the explosion.

  “You do believe me, don’t you?” she asked. Her voice sounded small and shaky. Seth looked over at her and gave her a reassuring smile.

  “I believe you. I’m just trying to figure out why anyone would blow up the television building. I mean, if you’re going to launch an attack, why not do it against one of the major government headquarters? Or against a building where a bunch of people are sure to be hanging out, so you could kill them off? They launched an attack on a deserted floor of a building at a time when it was obvious there was no one around to kill.”

  “Because they wanted to make it look like an accident, and if people don’t die than it’s more likely to be viewed as an accident rather than an attack.”

  “Right, but why? Why make it look like an accident? What did they gain by all of this, other than damaging the television building, which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things?”

  Claire sighed, and rubbed her forehead. Seth felt a little guilty for being here. Claire appeared so pale and small. She should be resting, not stressing over what the Dark Warriors might be up to. But Seth couldn’t leave. Not after what she’d just told him. None of this made sense, and yet he knew that Claire was telling the truth. There was no reason for her to make this all up.

  “They were trying to distract us from something else,” Claire said slowly, still rubbing her forehead. “I don’t have any idea what that something might be, but that’s the most logical explanation, isn’t it?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Think about it, Seth. Say they wanted to break in to some government building and steal some sort of object or information. Normally, you can’t do that without attracting all sorts of unwanted attention. But if the whole city was focused on a building that had just exploded, security would be as low as it was ever going to be.”

  Seth frowned. “True. But I don’t think anything’s been stolen. There haven’t been reports of any break-ins.”

  “Maybe they just took copies of information. I don’t know. But that’s my best guess. Whatever the reason, I think the High Council needs to hear about this.”

  “Agreed,” Seth said. He didn’t add that he wasn’t sure how well the High Council was going to receive the news. Councilor Morgan was a great leader and had a kind heart, but he could also be stubborn as hell. And Seth had a feeling that Councilor Morgan was going to stubbornly stick to his belief that the explosion had been an accident. After all, what proof did Claire have besides her own word? And she had suffered a nasty blow to the head, making it all too easy to discredit her testimony.

  “So you’ll talk to them for me?” Claire was asking. She sounded so hopeful that it broke Seth’s heart a little. He felt like he should warn her not to expect too much from the Council, but he didn’t want to crush her spirits right now. She needed to rest, not worry. He smiled as warmly as he could.

  “I’ll talk to them. No promises on how they’ll react, okay? But I’ll talk to them.”

  Her smile lit up her face, and Seth felt a rush of desire fill his body. Even here, in the hospital, exhausted and injured, Claire was undeniably beautiful. Part of him was glad that she had told him about the intruder she’d seen, if for no other reason than it gave him an excuse to stay in contact with her.

  Claire nodded happily, then settled down into her bed and closed her eyes. Within mere seconds, it seemed, her breathing had turned to the steady rhythm of sleep. She must have been exhausted. Seth should have stepped out then, but he couldn’t resist watching her for a few more moments. What was it about her that seemed to constantly draw him back?

  He wasn’t sure, but liked the feeling. And he liked the fact that she trusted him enough to choose him as her confidant about the intruder she’d seen. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt like there was something there between them. When all of this uncertainty about the explosion had settled down, he was going to ask her out on a proper date.

  The only problem was that he had a feeling that this uncertainty was going to last for quite a while.

  Chapter Seven

  “We appreciate your willingness to come forward and speak with us about this, Claire, but we are quite sure that the explosion was an accident.”

  Claire stared at Councilor Morgan, feeling like there was no way she could have possibly heard him correctly. “But, if it was an accident, how do you explain everything I saw?”

  She saw Councilor Morgan and Councilor Isviar exchange a worried glance. Councilor Morgan looked back at her with a gentle smile on his face, but his words felt like sharp jabs in Claire’s heart.

  “Claire, we had an expert look into things thoroughly. Perhaps what you saw was not exactly what it seemed to be. Or maybe you’re remembering things a little differently. You did take quite a blow to the head, and you were in a coma for a week. These sorts of things can play tricks on your mind, you know.”

  “You’re saying you think I’m imagining this?” Claire choked out. She blinked hard, trying not to cry. If the High Council already didn’t believe her, then crying in front of them certainly wasn’t going to help. It would just reinforce their belief that she was a confused little girl. She watched Councilor Morgan’s face, which he had arranged into a neutral expression. Claire knew that face so well. She’d done makeup for him so many times before television segments, and Councilor Morgan had always treated her with such respect. How could he just write her off now? Shouldn’t he trust her a little bit more? Shouldn’t he at least try to look into whether there was any proof of what Claire was saying?

  “Claire, why don’t you take some time off? I’ll talk to the directors over at the television station and make sure your job is secure. After everything you’ve been through, I think you deserve a break.”

  Claire felt anger bubbling up from the very core of her. She was being dismissed, just like that. She had come here trusting that her voice would be heard, and now the High Councilors were shrugging her off.

  “I know what I saw!” she yelled, jumping to her feet. “It wasn’t some sort of coma-induced hallucination. There was a man there, probably a Dark Warrior, who was intent on blowing up the television station and making it look like an accident. I don’t know why, exactly, but I know that we need to find out. Who knows what kind of harm they will cause if we don’t figure out what they’re doing.”

  “Claire,�
� Councilor Isviar said. “We’ll take your comments under advisement. But for now, unless we see some strong evidence to the contrary, we’re going to trust the experts that what they’ve determined is correct. The explosion was an unfortunate accident.”

  “Eyewitness testimony isn’t strong enough evidence for you?” Claire could feel her cheeks turning red with anger. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her head throbbed where she had been knocked out, which only made her angrier. Her head injury was what was keeping the High Council from believing her, but it didn’t matter that she’d been hit by a flying piece of shrapnel. She knew what she had seen, and she also knew that the High Council was making a big mistake by ignoring her.

  “Claire, please,” Councilor Morgan said. “We aren’t trying to make you feel badly. But as a High Council we have to look at all the evidence and make the most informed decision we can. Right now, the evidence we have shows that a group of highly-trained experts investigated the explosion site for a full week before coming to the conclusion that the explosion was an accident. I appreciate your courage and dedication in coming to talk to us. Truly, I do. But we cannot make big decisions for Torch Lake that go against the weight of the evidence.”

  Claire opened her mouth to protest again, when she was stopped by a hand on her hand. She looked down to see Seth’s palm over hers. He looked up at her with those blue, blue eyes, and he shook his head slightly. He was asking her to sit down. To let it go. But Claire didn’t want to let this go. She was in the right, and she knew it. She could not live with herself if she just walked away and let the High Council make a mistake like this. She opened her mouth to say something else, but he squeezed her hand, ever so gently, to stop her. She looked down at him and saw him shaking his head again.

  “Trust me,” he mouthed.