Page 176 of Rite of Unity

I stood.“Thank you for your time.”

Her mother appeared at the door to see me out, still flustered, touching her hair.I thanked her and left.

In my car, I leaned my forehead against the steering wheel.

Did I want to believe her, or was she telling the truth?

I thought of Maryn’s pale skin.Her jagged nails.The tremor in her hand.All of it spoke of a woman who had been through exactly the sort of traumatic incident she’d reported.

I touched my tablet, and the car rolled forward.

The Covenant Bureau of Information’s reception was nothing like the stripped-down terror of its lower floors.Up here, where they brought people who mattered, where they occasionally filmed propaganda videos, the furniture was real, the lighting warm.

The guard at the desk stood when I walked in.

“Mr.Hale.”

“I’d like a word with your guest.”I didn’t slow, moving past him toward a questioning room.“Calden Charles.”

I sat on the edge of a metal folding chair in a sparse room, silently counting each shiny black lens.

Calden entered, wrists free of cuffs, smirking when he saw me.He was infuriatingly composed.Not a man who’d spent two nights in custody—a man who’d been mildly inconvenienced.He took the chair across from me with the ease of someone choosing a seat at a dinner party and leaned back.

I smiled; all teeth.“Finally where you belong.”

The corner of his mouth lifted, and he tugged at the cuff of his sleeve.

“I’m here to collect your alibi for Friday night.”

He tilted his head, lips curling up.“Have you been promoted from field auditor so soon?”He glanced at the two-way glass.“Does nepotism know no bounds?”

I banged my fist on the metal table.The sound cracked through the room, and I straightened, glancing up at the camera.“I know you weren’t with her.Just give up the alibi so her name isn’t dragged through the mud.”

Calden’s false calm dropped.His hand slid below the table.A muscle jumped in his jaw, there and gone so fast I almost missed it.

“Shocked to learn there’s one girl in Centrum who isn’t falling all over herself for you?”

I squeezed my fingers into a fist, knuckles turning white.

“Did you and Sera plan it together?”My jaw popped from grinding.“I know what she gets out of it.What do you get?”

He held my gaze and said nothing.

Heat flared through me.I stood, straightening my jacket.“Stay away from my match.”

Something shifted in his face.Sadness?

He wasn’t going to give me anything.We both knew it.

I walked out.

In the corridor, I kept my pace even.The report was Sera’s.The button was Vera’s.Maryn’s story was the truth.

I’d have to clean up this mess before Maryn was eliminated, though.

I stopped at the end of the corridor, hand on the door.

He could spend another night.