Page 33 of Strange Familiars
“What are you doing, witch?” he hisses in my ear. His hot breath washes over my neck. I scream into the dead air, but his forearm clamps across my throat, choking my scream to silence.
“Nothing,” I whimper, struggling to voice the words. “Nothing.”
His voice drops low and deceptively soft. “Then why are you snooping around in the vault? Do you work here?”
I don’t have any way to escape this, so I try to bluff my way through. “Y-yes,” I say shakily. “I’ve been allocated to a new department and I…I just lost my way.”
I can tell he’s not buying it by the way he tightens his hold in my hair and gives me a little shake. “Your name and department, girl?” When I don’t answer immediately, he shakes me again. “Name and department! Quickly! Or mark my words: You’ll be disciplinedseverelyfor your disobedience!”
I blink, and tears run down my face, soaking into his hairy arm. “H-Hani Nguyen,” I stutter, unable to think of any other excuse. “You can ch-check my ID.”
Darghan Briggs lets me go, and I fall forward onto my hands and knees. Then he’s already in front of me, hauling me forward by the ID hanging around my neck.
He says nothing for several moments. Just stares at the small rectangular card. Then, eventually, he relents, drops it, and squints right at my face. I scuttle backward, pressing myself against the wall, trying to put as much distance as possible between Harrisford’s father and me. Will he realize I’m not Hani Nguyen? Will he recognize the suit I’m wearing, which once belonged to his now-dead wife?
Hopefully not. I’m desperately hoping he’s the kind of man who lacks basic observational skills. The type who thinks all Asians look identical, and who’d pay no attention to the clothes his spouse once wore.
The silence stretches on for so long I almost think that maybe,maybe, I’ve got away with it. But then his wrinkled eyes narrow, and his lips curl into a sneer.
My heart thrashes even more wildly. It’s disturbing how similar Harrisford’s smile is to his.
“Hani Nguyen is no longer here,” Mr.Briggs spits, his voice full of venom.
Then he raises his palm and shoots a spell at me, hitting me right in the middle of my chest. I’m thrown back against the brick wall. Pain shoots through my body. Black spots explode in my vision. And as I slide down the wall into a crumpled heap, the world wobbles, goes foggy, and completely fades to black.
14
Gwendolynne
When I come around, I’m slumped against the wall, my body still throbbing with pain. I’m cognizant of that fact that Darghan Briggs must’ve hit me with some sort of stunning spell. It had knocked me out for long enough for him to restrain me, because I’m now tied up, my wrists bound together with one of the electrical extension cords.
I struggle against my restraints, to no avail. Raising my hands before my face, I squint at the bindings, my vision hazy.
“Who are you?” Darghan Briggs is oddly calm. He’s pulled a chair up in front of me and is leaning back in it, his legs crossed at the ankles. A gun lies across his lap. “Where are you from?” If he genuinely doesn’t know, maybe Harrisfordisn’tworking with him?
“No one.” My voice is raw and scratchy, my words sounding choked. “I’m no one.”
“Are you from the Magical Liberation Organization?” He shifts in his chair, one hand palming the handle of his gun. His eyes—so pale blue, like two chips of ice—are fixed on me.
“What? No!” He’s jumped to that assumption so quickly; maybe, despite what Harrisford thinks, there’s some merit to the idea that the MLO was behind the gala explosion.
His eyes burn. “Then which organization are you from?”
I chafe at my bindings, the cords pinching my skin. “I’m not from anyorganization,” I grit out, wincing at the pain. “I’m just—” I pause, trying desperately to figure out the best angle; how I might get him to talk. “Hani…was my mother. And when she disappeared I—” I take in a big, exaggerated sniffle. “I just wanted to know what she was working on.”
Mr.Briggs’s expression softens, just slightly. “Well, I can assure you that you won’t find anything here.”
“I was just curious, you know, to see if there was a reason for her disappearance.”
He’s silent for a moment. “People run away all the time. Does there have to be a reason?”
I swipe at my eyes, wiping away nonexistent tears. “She would never, though…She’dneverleave. My high school graduation is coming up soon and I…” I cover my face with my bound hands and heave a great, shaking sob.
My captor lets out a sigh. “Listen, Miss Nguyen. I imagine that it’s difficult to accept your mother leaving. But you never know what someone is going through internally. She might have been deeply unhappy. She might have had a breakdown. She might have needed to escape.” He adds, his voice gentling, “Wouldn’t you want your mother to be happy?”
A trickle of cold floods my insides and I shake my head, letting out a shivery breath. Darghan Briggs acting all sympatheticnow, after everything else he’s done, is confusing me. “It’s not that. It’s just—I don’t buy her missing it on purpose. She wassoexcited to see me graduate! I was wondering whether it, you know, had anything to do with the surges.”
Harrisford’s father’s eyes immediately harden to flint. “The surges? Whatever do you mean?”
