Chapter 495: Unexpected Link
Arkai flinched so hard his wolf ears slammed against the glass window of the car.
The back door had swung open without warning. No approaching footsteps, no shadow in the window. Just the sudden, inexplicable appearance of his very pregnant girlfriend sliding onto the seat beside him as though she had materialized from thin air.
"Oh, God, I didn’t see you—did you sneak—" Arkai’s hand flew to his chest, his heart hammering against his ribs. His wolf instincts, usually so sharp, had registered absolutely nothing. No scent. No sound. No movement in his peripheral vision.
She truly had not been there, and then there.
Cecilia blinked at his reaction, then chuckled sheepishly. She took off a small, unassuming ring from her finger and hid it. "It’s a little trick I got." She slipped it back into her pocket silently.
Arkai stared at her. Then at her pocket. Then back at her face. Whatever she had been hiding, he knew he just needed to accept that he was dating a genius inventor turned lesser goddess, and not to ask.
He had been understandably angry. Confused, too. After the courtroom, when she had actually turned toward Arzhen, he was flabberbasted.
But then she had actually walked away with him, had actually left Arkai standing in the marble hallway with his fists clenched and his wolf snarling inside his chest.
He had wanted to stop her. Desperately, to be completely honest. He had wanted to put himself between her and that tiger bastard and refuse to let her go.
But then he looked into her eyes and saw something that made him pause. No fear or longing or even resignation. It was a plan.
Before leaving with Arzhen, she had turned to him and said quietly, "Track me with the location app."
And he did.
He had told the chauffeur to follow at a careful distance, far enough back to avoid detection but close enough that the location app’s blue dot never left the center of his screen.
When the dot had stopped at a public park, he had waited. And waited.
The park was open, visible from multiple angles, and he could see them, two distant figures walking the gravel paths beneath the cherry trees.
He had kept his phone in his hand, waiting for a message, a signal, anything. But she hadn’t sent anything. She had just walked with Arzhen, and talked with Arzhen, and then—
Then she was in the car. Like magic.
"You thought only the three of you could use the location app?" Cecilia pursed her lips, a tiny, huff escaping her. "I tracked your phones too." She settled back against the leather seat, her manila folder in her lap, her posture relaxed for the first time in hours. "Let’s go home."
Arkai gestured to the chauffeur, and the car pulled smoothly away from the curb.
The park receded in the rear window, the cherry trees, the golden pond, the distant figure of a weretiger still standing frozen on the gravel path.
Cecilia reached for her seatbelt, ready to move on.
Arkai glanced at the manila folder in her lap. Perhaps it held secrets more dangerous than it seemed.
His wolf ears twitched with curiosity, but he held his tongue. Whatever was in there, whatever Arzhen had given her, it was hers to share or not share as she saw fit. He felt like he shouldn’t ask.
Cecilia noticed his glance. She noticed the way his ears had twitched and smiled. She reached over to squeeze his hand.
"I will discuss this with the three of you later, alright?" She tapped the folder with her free hand. "This won’t be anything comprehensive either. He obviously still wants some leverage over me. He’s not going to give me everything at once."
Arkai nodded, his shoulders finally beginning to relax. Then, carefully, he asked, "Is it... about your late adopted mother? Dr. Silver?"
Cecilia looked down at the folder. The cloud necklace shifted against her collarbone as she breathed. "Yes," she said quietly. "It’s about her."
She slowly opened the file, her fingers careful on the manila surface, and asked, "Did Damon update us with anything?"
"Yes. Anton is starting the press conference just now." Arkai glanced at his phone, where the live broadcast was still playing on mute.
The mighty tiger at the podium, his silver-streaked fur gleaming under the camera lights. "The way he’s framing his return is like someone in a witness protection program coming back to light and reclaiming their original identity. So it works."
Cecilia hummed, flipping through the folder’s contents casually. Her eyes scanned the pages, reports, old photographs, timelines, names.
"It seems he’s going to request being subpoenaed as an official witness on the case now. But I heard he’s also trying to sue Arzhen individually for his attempted murder."
"He is." Arkai nodded. "Do you want to visit him next, today, after the conference?"
"It’s dinnertime soon." Cecilia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe it’s a good thing to be seen in public with him. I’ll ask Damon to hire a paparazzi."
[Wow, Cecilia, we almost thought you’re a true person from this modern world!]
The System’s voice chirped in her mind, and Cecilia’s lips twitched with a suppressed smile. "Just came out now? Did you find the gods?" she whispered back in her heart.
She had been asking the System to try and find where the gods were. For weeks now, ever since Momo and Bunny had disappeared from the apartment above hers, ever since her calls had gone unanswered and her texts had gone unread.
And the System, despite its obvious terror of the two deities, had somehow agreed to help. It left her for a couple of hours each day, scanning the world for any trace of divine presence, and then returned to give its report before staying with her for the rest of the day.
But today, like every other day, the answer was the same.
[Sorry, Cecilia. We thought they would be in Australia around now, but they weren’t. We are confused too...]
"You looked properly, right? You didn’t half-ass it just because you’re afraid of them, right?"
[W-we are afraid of them.] The System’s voice was small and defensive. [But we want to help you too! We are not... that much of a coward...]
Cecilia smiled. "Alright, alright, thank yo—"
She stopped.
Her mental voice cut off mid-word. Her hand, which had been idly turning the pages of the file, froze on a single sheet of paper.
Her eyes, which had been scanning casually, locked onto a series of words that seemed to leap off the page and strike her like a physical blow.
Special heat suppressant... production records... chemical composition analysis...
Summer Silver—consulting chemist—
List of customers...
Sienn—
"Cecilia?"
She blinked. The world rushed back in. The hum of the engine, the soft leather of the seat, the concerned pitch black eyes of the man beside her.
She closed the file unhurriedly, calm, placing both hands flat on top of the folder as though it might try to escape.
"Yes?" She smiled.
"What’s wrong? You suddenly... went pale." Arkai’s wolf ears tilted forward, his brow furrowing. "Are you nauseous from reading in a moving car?"
Cecilia chuckled. "Yes, a little bit."
Something painful bloomed in her chest. Yet she kept the smile on her face and her hands steady on the folder.
"Do we have water?" she asked casually.
Arkai reached into the storage compartment between them and produced a tumbler, handing it to her. "Drink slowly."
Cecilia smiled and nodded. She unscrewed the cap and lifted the tumbler to her lips. The water was cool and clean, but she barely tasted it.
Her mind was entirely elsewhere.