The Edge

Adoette: Part Eleven

The timer was enough, barely. Helen showed up after twenty-five minutes and knocked on her door, which was also helpful. "You ready?" she asked.

"Mm." Adoette sat up and yawned. "Did you sleep?"

Helen didn't answer, instead looking over her shoulder and down the hall. "Arian's up, too. He said he wants to help. I'll get the coffee going."

It was transparently obvious that Helen hadn't slept. Her gait was a bit unsteady, and she just looked exhausted. Adoette thought about calling her out on it, but that would just lead to an argument that would be wasting time. She could drag Helen to bed later. Right now, they had work to do.

Coffee was distributed, along with the information, with each person getting a chunk of files to go through. They started working in silence, but after a few minutes...

"Well, that didn't last long."

Adoette looked up from the files she was digging through. Helen was slumped over with her head on the table, fast asleep. Arian laughed quietly. "I saw that coming," he said. "You want to take her work?"

"Yeah, I'll get to it when I'm done with mine." Adoette turned her attention back to her computer...for about five seconds. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

Everyone seem good to you?" Arian might have been a dumbass, but he was fairly good at reading people and their moods. He was also really nosy, which helped. "I know things have been tough since Mom and Dad died...I just don't know if something about that might've contributed to Cass running off."

Arian shrugged. "I mean...Helen's been more bossy than usual. Probably compensating. And Matteo is...Matteo. If he was super shaken up, he's not showing it. Then again, he's always been the stable one."

"You don't think Helen is the stable one?"

"You do? She worries too damn much. Matteo is reasonable, at least."

Adoette supposed he had a point, though in that way where he was saying the right thing in a judgey way. "I guess so. What about Luca? He really took it hard."

Arian's usual mildly-to-moderately mischievous smile faded down to a somber one. "Yeah. I remember."

"I think he's still taking it hard."

"Probably. Don't know what we can do about it. Not unless you've learned any necromancy since the last time I saw you."

"No, that'd be too much power for me." Adoette lightly drummed her fingers against the edge of her computer. "How have you been doing?"

"I've been good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm good. Y'know, it's..." Arian's silver eyes wouldn't look directly at her, instead moving to focus back on the computer. He thought he was slick, but he could be really terrible at lying sometimes. "It is what it is. It happened. It was going to happen eventually. I was ready for it."

Adoette doubted that. No one was ever really ready to lose a family member, especially when their parents were only in their sixties. Sure, you could make the argument that at least Mom and Dad were together now (and she believed that, she really did), but that still left the rest of them in a rough spot. And now with Cassandra gone...

Mom and Dad would've known what to do.

Or maybe she wouldn't have left at all if they were still alive.

She didn't know that one for sure, but the thought lingered.

"Still sucks, though," Adoette said, giving Arian an open to be honest.