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His eyes brightened. “See? You’re already getting the hang of it.”
I squirmed. “I did a lot of talking. What about you?”
He chuckled. “Fair is fair, I suppose. I’m an open book, Miss Isra Valence. Ask me about anything.”
“Well, I talked about my family. What’s your past and your exquisite pain that made you into the menace you are?”
He clinked his bottle to mine. “The relationship with my family is strained. Nonexistent, actually,” he answered easily.
“Did you slime their bedrooms or something?” I joked.
“Nah. How do I put this simply? Rumor had it that I’d be expected to take over the family company, despite the fact that I made it very clear I didn’t care to. A few of my jealous cousins framed me for an attempted coup, turned all my blood relations against me and got me exiled. It’s been…” He tapped the air, counting quietly to himself. “Nearly sixteen years.”
“What assholes,” I said in commiseration.
He raised his bottle in salute and took a swig. “Undoubtedly.”
“And you haven’t spoken to any of them?”
He made an uncertain noise. “Define spoken. They’ve sent me various legal papers, but that doesn’t qualify as family time.” He folded up the empty pizza box and dropped it on the floor. “I wonder if they’re still scared.”
“Scared?” I asked.
He stretched out and leaned against the headboard. “I’m the strongest in the family. That’s enough to scare everyone, especially the old old members.”
“See, I feel like that should be a joke, but you don’t seem like you’re joking. You don’t have an affinity, but you’re the most powerful? That doesn’t exactly make sense, Razai.”
He rested his hands behind his head. “The truth rarely makes sense to those who don’t see the full picture.”
My mind wandered into his statement, pushing and pulling at it. “All I know is that you’re holding back all the time. If you’re the most powerful in your archangel family—”
“And my family is quite impressive,” he interjected.
“—then your ‘weapons and combat affinity’ is much, much deeper than you let on.”
He tried to hide a smirk with a sip but ended up snorting the beer up his nose and nearly dying on my comforter.
“Fucking hell,” I chuckled. “Pull yourself together.”
“Sorry,” he rasped. “But yeah, I guess you can say I keep myself under the radar. It’s easier that way. Better to stay out of sight than on the front lines with a target on my back.”
I shook my head. “Don’t even know what that means, but I get the principle. Making waves and attracting attention brings trouble along every time.”
I could relate.
It was strange how easily I’d slipped into this new job, though. With an almost careless abandon that defied my own self-preservation. And yet, nothing’s fallen apart yet. I haven’t even felt as worried as I should.
The mystery itself still ricocheted against my thoughts. Nothing sticking or clicking or making sense. The whole thing was just… impossible with the information I had. Each fact was a piece of the puzzle I had to solve, and the pieces fit together even when I didn’t expect them to.
Maybe speaking with the victims will help. Interviewing more students. Getting them to speak—
“Holy shit,” I said, heart thumping.
“What’s up?”
My magic vibrated and buzzed, pushing and pushing. “Okay, so I’ve had all the information from those files and Post-its swimming in my head, and now that I’ve taken a mental break, I just connected something. They’ve all taken Clave’s class. All four of them. Not at the same time, but last year, each of them took Clave’s class.”
Razai frowned. “So?”
