I opt for an abrupt subject change. Talking to Leo can’t be any more charged and awkward than hanging out during what I suspect is Cillian and Rhys’s first real fight. “Hey, where’s Leo?”
“You can’t see him.” Rhys looks down and calmly turns the page in his book.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you can’t see him.”
I snatch the book Rhys is determinedly staring at instead of looking at me.
He glares, pushing his glasses back into place. Cillian is conspicuously silent, sitting back in his corner and turning pages on a demonic bestiary with slightly more aggression than is required.
Rhys tugs his tweed jacket around his trim waist, nervously buttoning and unbuttoning it. I’m always surprised when I catch him in his pajamas and they’re not tweed too. “I mean, your mother specifically instructed us that Leo needs to be kept in isolation.”
“From me?”
“Well, obviously.”
“Last I checked, you and I decided to take over the Watchers Council. We don’t follow them anymore.”
“It’s not the council. It’s your mother. And … I agree with her.”
I flinch away from him as though he’s struck me. “What the hells, Rhys? Why are you so anti-Leo now? You were the one who helped him when he tried to kidnap me to get me away from his mother!”
Cillian slams his book shut. “I’m with Nina. She deserves answers.”
“Sometimes people look for answers in the wrong places!” Rhys snaps. “Or they refuse to find the right answers because it might hurt!”
“Sometimes other people don’t want to help you get answers because they’re being selfish and think they know better than you d
o what you need!”
“Sometimes other people’s parents are both dead and they can’t ever talk to them again, so excuse them if they think their boyfriend should talk to his own mother instead of consulting Watcher texts for what seems to be a family issue!”
“Sometimes you should mind your own business!”
“That’s it! I’m not researching a thing for you until you stop pouting and go speak to your mother!”
I can feel my anger rising, and I don’t have time to deal with wanting to murder someone. Especially not two of my best friends. “Can you two focus?”
“No!” they both shout, turning to me.
Rhys recovers first, looking back down at his book. “Nina, Leo let his mother come here, knowing she was a demon. He let her prey on us. And yes, he helped us in the end, but I don’t think that wipes his slate clean. That day when he told the truth, I was helping him because that meant helping you. And now I’m not going to help you, because it’s the only way I know to help you. Leo is poison. You’ve not been yourself since he ‘died.’ We can pretend otherwise, but it’s true. I don’t want to see how you’ll change now that he’s back. We’ll all be better off once he gets well and we can send him away forever.”
“You know that’s not going to fix things. We have to face our problems. Pretending issues aren’t there when they so obviously are is what got Watchers where we are today. Nowhere. Gone. I’m not going to pretend like Leo isn’t here, or wait for him to get better and leave. He’s one of us, Rhys. If your dad had been a demon, I wouldn’t turn my back on you. If Cillian’s mom turns out to be mixed up in something bad, we’re not turning our back on him.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“It’s perfectly relevant!”
“You haven’t had to watch yourself suffer for the last few months! He hurt you, and now he’s back, and I won’t see you hurt again!”
I laugh, a sharp, harsh sound. “I didn’t have to watch myself suffer, I had to feel myself suffer. I had to live it. You don’t know what’s best for me.”
Rhys adjusts his glasses again. “My mind is made up. There’s a reason Slayers had Watchers. Sometimes someone less close to the problem needs to make the decision.”
Cillian drops his book on the floor. He may as well have slapped Rhys. Rhys stares in horror, but Cillian leans back, folding his arms. “Maybe some people need to decide for themselves what will help them be better off.” Then he slowly, deliberately puts his feet on top of the book like it’s a footrest.
Rhys stands, sputtering. “Get out of my library!”