“I don’t know. It has to do with Xavier.”
“Ah, the Lindqvists,” he said, as if recalling tiresome dinner plans. He pulled out a chair from his desk. “Sit down.”
I sat on his bed. He took the chair.
“Jessica, I know Peter was your favorite—”
“I washisfavorite.”
“But he blew up his rabbit,” Sebastian said.
“What does Mister Fluffernutter have to do with this?”
“Peter always pushed things too far. He made our traditions gaudy and savage. He didn’t know his limits.”
“Are you saying I should know mine?”
“I’m telling you what you already know—Peter was the most damaged of us. Back home, we could make allowances. Here, he was a liability. For us, for the other families, for Helshire itself. Now things are settled again.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Peter had been culled for being UnMorton; he was a solved problem. The easiest path was to ignore the missing money and a pair of keys. But Sebastian was wearing a winning smile, staying on message.
He was politicking me.
“Gertie seemed to think otherwise.”
He blinked. “Gertie?”
“We had a chat about Peter. She told me to ask you about Xavier Lindqvist. Which is odd, because you despise Xavier.”
Sebastian turned away, looking out the window at the dark. A reset traveled through his body. “I have a lot of friends I despise. And I asked him not to invite Gertie.”
“To what? Where were you tonight?”
“The Lindqvists were holding a memorial.”
“A memorial?” It took a moment to hit me. “ForPeter?”
“Yes,” Sebastian said. “They loved him. They’d brought him into one of their traditions, here at Helshire.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Alas, I’m sworn to secrecy.”
I stared at him, recalling my mother’s fears about the Belmonts’ bad luck. “Why are you keeping our old enemies’ secrets?”
“Alliances are useful, Jess. Trust is their currency.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Listen,” he said. “Maybe you should talk to Xavier yourself. They’re probably still there. One condition—you have to keep this to yourself. You can’t go spilling to our elders.”
“If this tradition is open to Mortons, don’t they already know about it?”
Sebastian smiled a little.
“Traditions change.”
15