Chapter 113

Jason

“And the unofficial story?” Her voice is heavy, filled with foreboding.

My eyes meet hers, hard steel meeting liquid mirrors of pain. I can neither confirm nor deny with certainty, but Deidre knows me well enough to read what I won’t say.

Was it Sirius? She doesn’t have the voice to ask aloud. Even in my mind, her words are trembling with the answer she isn’t prepared for.

I struggle. I’ve known this day would come. For years, I’ve struggled with how I would ever say it. How I could tell her. How I could ever make any of this make sense.

Inconclusive, I send back.

“What the hell do you mean, ‘inconclusive’?” Her eyes are glassy, revealing the true emotion she’s failing to hide despite the venom in her words.

I brace myself, knowing that I don’t have the answer she wants. “Mark and I investigated. We pulled in Janas, too. We turned over every rock, everything around him. There were traces of scent I didn’t recognize, but there were also traces of someone that I did.”

“Sirius?” s