I look to Baz. It seems like he should be the one to tell this part, as much of it as he wants to, but he’s back at his whiteboard, filling out the Everything we know column—ghosts, Visitings, vampires. Penny jumps up as soon as Baz adds Nicodemus to the list.
I take her place on the couch next to Agatha.
“When did this all start?” Agatha asks me.
“When the Veil thinned,” I say. “Natasha Grimm-Pitch came through to find Baz and found me instead. She wants him to find her murderer. When Baz came back, I told him I’d help him figure it out.”
Agatha’s eyebrows are almost touching in the middle, and her nose is wrinkled. “Why?”
“Because it seemed like the right thing to do.”
“It did?”
I shrug. “Yeah. I mean—it was an attack on Watford. A murder.”
“What did the Mage say about all this?”
“He didn’t. Exactly.” I look down at my lap, scratching the hair above my neck. “Penny and Baz don’t think we should tell him.”
“Penny and Baz think?”
“It’s Baz’s mum,” I say, “so I feel like I should respect his wishes on this.”
“But Baz hates you!”
I nod. “I know. We’re sort of … on a truce?”
“Simon, listen to yourself—a truce?”
“You went to a vampire bar!” Penny shouts from across the room. Baz must be catching her up. “What a pair of splendid morons you are! Did you take photos?”
“Vampires don’t show up in photos,” I say.
“That’s mirrors, you dolt,” Baz says.
“You can’t see yourself in the mirror?”
Baz ignores me and goes back to telling Penny about Nicodemus.
“But…” Agatha is staring at the two of them. “Baz is dark. He’s evil.”
“I thought you never believed that,” I say.
“I absolutely believed it,” she says. “You told us he was a vampire, Simon. Wait—” She turns to him, then back to me. “—did he just now admit that he is a vampire?”
I pull at the hair on my neck. I can tell I’m making an idiotic face. “I’m not sure it’s that simple.…”
“That Baz is a vampire?”
“No, he’s definitely a vampire,” I say. “I guess it is that simple. But you can’t tell anyone, Agatha.”
“Simon, you’ve already told everyone. You’ve been telling everyone since we were third years.”
“Yeah, but nobody believed me.”
“I believed you.”
“‘One of you’?” Penelope says loudly. “What does Nicodemus mean by that? That it was another mage who let the vampires in? Or one of you Pitches, someone in your family—”
“It wouldn’t have been someone in my family,” Baz protests. “Never.”
“Your relatives are famous betrayers,” Penny argues. “There was a time in the 1700s when they weren’t even allowed to sign contracts.”
“Yes, but we never betray each other.”
Baz keeps telling Penny about Nicodemus. And Ebb. “Simon’s the one who broke it all open,” he says, “without even opening a book.”
“Typical,” Penny says.
Baz doesn’t tell her the way Nicodemus threatened him or taunted him. He doesn’t tell her much about Fiona. He doesn’t say how fucking cool he was at the bar, or how he lost it completely as soon as he walked out. How I kissed him to save his life—and then kissed him just because I wanted to. (I’m just now realizing that maybe I could have saved his life some other way.…)
“So you’re staying here?” Agatha says. To me.
“No, I just came to tell Baz about Nicodemus, and then I didn’t have a ride home.”
“Who’s Nicodemus again?”
“The person who knows who the traitor is,” Penny answers, then turns to me. “I can’t believe you guys just walked away from him, knowing he has all the answers! If he’d told you who tried to hire him, we’d be done now.”
“We couldn’t compel him,” I say. “And we couldn’t beat it out of him—we were surrounded by vampires.”
Penelope folds her arms. “I guess.”
“The ethics on you, Bunce,” Baz says.
“What did you find out, Penny?” I ask.
“Not much, in comparison.” She leans back against a bookshelf and crosses her ankles. “I talked to my dad about the Humdrum. He confirmed that nobody blamed the Humdrum for the Watford Tragedy until years later. They just thought it was another vampire attack. Hey, Agatha, are you caught up yet? Maybe we could talk to your parents—your dad might remember something—”
“I’m not caught up,” Agatha says.
“Well, catch up,” Penny says. “It’s all on the whiteboard. I’ve got to say, it’s good to have you back.”
“I’m not sure I am back,” Agatha mutters. Only I hear her.
“It’s been really good,” I tell her. “Actually. Working with Baz instead of fighting with him.”