8. Ava

AVA

I f I was going to figure out what happened to Liath, I needed to find out what she was doing the day she disappeared.

And nobody knew a college girl’s schedule better than her best friend.

The bell of the campanile was ringing as Lisa and I climbed the stone stairs toward the Darkmoor Dining Hall.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and a shiver went down my spine.

I was being watched. Again.

I peered into the thick shadows out past the pools of light from the Victorian iron lamps that lit the brick pathway, seeking out his face.

He was out there somewhere.

Watching.

I repressed a shiver.

From fear but also… something hot ran underneath my nerves, too .

I practically tumbled into the thick wooden doors of the dining hall, the warmth welcoming after the cold outside.

I glanced back over my shoulder. I could swear I saw a figure moving in the shadows outside before the door closed shut behind me.

“Do you see Aisling?” I asked Lisa as I scanned the hall, echoing with voices and the clank of cutlery.

I always felt small anytime I stood beneath those high, peaked ceilings. Outside the reach of the iron lamp lining the stone walls, the mahogany eaves appeared black like a scorched rib cage.

High-backed chairs screeched across the stone floors as students prepared for dinner.

Commons was a Darkmoor dinner tradition, three courses of pomp and circumstance for Dublin’s future politicians and corporate heirs.

Lisa and I usually ordered a pizza to the Dark Diaries office up in the turret and ate in the two disintegrating leather chairs with our feet in each other’s laps, tossing story ideas back and forth for the paper.

“There,” Lisa said, pointing toward the back of the dining hall.

I spotted our honey-blond friend sitting alone at a table.

As I weaved through the elegantly set tables, I realized how Lisa had been able to spot Aisling from so far away.

Aisling was staring into space and had a whole half table to herself.

She barely registered me as I lowered myself slowly in the chair opposite her.

She was a mess. Mascara smeared around her green eyes. Tear tracks cut through the blush and foundation on her cheeks.

Her usually perfectly curled blond highlighted hair was showing dark regrowth and it was pulled up into a messy bun on her head.

Despite the heat in the dining hall, she shivered in her coat.

A pang of pity stabbed at my heart. Grief at losing Liath was hitting her hard.

She and Liath had been besties since they were in junior high and crushing after the same boy. They’d been inseparable since, their names always spoken together in the same breath.

My chest twanged with sadness. Aisling’s usual cheery smile and eternal optimism was gone, stolen, like the girl I knew disappeared with Liath.

“Maybe we should get her home first,” Lisa whispered next to me.

I nodded.

Aisling needed a hot shower, a good meal, and a soft bed. We could ask her questions after we’d taken care of her.

I glanced around as Lisa and I stood; groups of students nearby sniggered and whispered behind their Chanel Le Vernis French manicures. Fucking assholes.

Just as Lisa and I went to hoist a slumped Aisling from her chair, the front doors of the dining hall slammed shut. The deafening noise resounded in my chest. What was louder was the sudden and complete silence.

Commons had begun. There was no leaving now.

Lisa and I slipped back into our seats as the Latin grace was read, the student’s voice droning out the words like a cult initiation.

My Latin was a little rusty, but it was something like:

Thank you, Lord, that we are not poor.

Thank you, Lord, that Daddy doesn’t ask questions about what we buy.

Thank you, Lord, that we are not Liath Byrne, missing and forgotten and probably not shopping anytime soon.

Amen.

I drummed my fingers on the table as Grace ended.

From the side doors came the food carried on silver trays by servers in crisp white shirts with the school’s insignia on the breast.

With them came noise again in the dining hall. Grumbling about class schedules for the new term, posting dorm room makeovers to Instagram, comparing winter break vacations in Aspen versus Liathco, darling.

I forced a smile at the servers when they came around to our table and waved off the plates of food. “Just tea, please.”

I leaned forward. “Aisling, we need to talk to you about Liath.”

At Liath’s name, Aisling began to cry.

Shite.

Lisa wrapped her arm around Aisling as I reached across the table and grabbed Aisling’s hand. She clung to my hand as if I was a lifeline.

“It— It’s—” Aisling said through sobs. “It’s my fault she’s gone.”

Goosebumps raced up my forearms and a cold prickle spread across my upper back.

Aisling knew something .

Aisling pressed her face into her free hand, her shoulders shaking as she moaned. “It’s my fault. My fault.”

I leaned closer, keeping my voice down. “What do you mean?”

Lisa held Aisling closer and glanced around the hall. “Maybe we should do this later?”

We were already getting too many stares.

But Aisling knew something about Liath’s disappearance and I had to know.

I squeezed Aisling’s hand. “Babe, tell us what happened. We’re not going to judge. We just want to help find her.”

Aisling shook her head, wiping her face with her trembling fingers, smudging her mascara even further. “You’re never going to find her. She’s gone. And it’s my fault.”

I took out a tissue from my handbag and handed it over to her. “Here.”

I stared at Aisling as she hid her face into the tissue, dissolving into sobs.

What did she mean, it was her fault? Did she know who took Liath? Did she… inadvertently help them?

I wanted to push, to grab her and shake her for answers, but I knew I couldn’t push. I had to be patient. Had to wait until she was calmer.

I reached out and placed a hand on her forearm, squeezing softly. “Take your time, babe.”

Over her shoulder I spotted the dean, his gaze latching on mine.

Crap.

If he knew I was investigating Liath’s disappearance, he’d tell Ebony. Ebony would tell the commissioner. I’d get into so much shit .

I ducked my head and tried to stay out of his line of sight as the server came round with tea, setting out three cups and a steaming ceramic teapot.

I poured tea as Lisa handled the sugar and milk.

Once Aisling’s hands were clasped around a steaming mug of Earl Grey with way too much milk and way, way too much sugar, I tried again.

“Aisling,” I asked, leaning over the table, pushing aside my saucer. “Tell us why you think it’s your fault she’s gone.”

Aisling stared into her tea as if it might have answers. “I was supposed to meet her out the night she… disappeared.”

The moment Aisling’s words sank in, it felt like someone had poured ice water through my veins. My heart skipped a beat.

This was it—the first real lead, the first solid thread I could pull on since she vanished.

Aisling knew the location… the place Liath was just before she disappeared.

“Where?” I asked, my heart racing.

Aisling sniffed and ran a hand across her button nose. “At The Vault.”

The Vault was an upscale bar, aptly named because it was located in the literal stone vaults of an old medieval dungeon in Temple Bar.

It was one of Liath’s favorite places to party. Lisa and I had met up with her and Aisling there often.

“What happened?” I asked.

Tears welled up in Aisling’s pale-blue eyes. “I was running late. By the time I’d gotten there, she was gone.”

“Aisling,” Lisa said, tucking an arm around her shoulders, “you can’t blame yourself. ”

“It’s not your fault, babe,” I agreed. “Did you tell the police all this?”

Aisling snorted. “Fucking cops. They’re such eejits. So are her parents. Liath didn’t fucking run away.”

I knew it. I fucking knew it.

Here was proof Liath didn’t run away.

She had plans to meet her own best friend on the night she disappeared.

I frowned. It didn’t make any sense. And it shouldn’t have made any sense to the police. If they had Aisling’s testimony, they should have kept investigating. So why didn’t they?

Something didn’t sit right in my gut.

“It is my fault.” Aisling began to sob again. “If my battery hadn’t died… If I had just gotten there on time… he wouldn’t have taken her.”

He .

A sensation like a thousand tiny insects crawling under my skin made me shudder.

Was this Liath’s stalker? Was he the same man as my stalker?

“Aisling,” I said, leaning in even closer, “Liath left me a message about being stalked by someone. Is that who you’re talking about?”

Aisling let out a wail and her mug slipped from her hands, smashing onto the table, hot milky tea spilling over the edges of the table.

Lisa cursed, snatching a napkin and trying to mop up the mess.

I was sure half the dining hall was staring by now but I didn’t care .

I remained focused on Aisling.

“Aisling,” I urged, “do you know who he is?”

“ He took her,” Aisling wailed, her voice growing louder. “He took her and no one will believe that he took her.”

“Ava,” Lisa warned, her voice a hiss.

I shook my head. I knew we were getting too much attention. I knew I should work on calming Aisling down rather than pushing her.

But we were so close to a lead. A real lead.

Just a little more.

Just a little further.

“He fucking took her,” Aisling screamed.

I reached out over the chaos of ceramic and tea and grabbed her arm, getting her attention. “Aisling, who is he ?”

A long dark shadow came to loom behind Aisling. “What is this commotion?”

The dean stared down at us in obvious disapproval, his eyebrows furrowed over his glasses, his gray vest over his thin shoulders.

At Darkmoor you studied and kept quiet. It was not the place for mental breakdowns. And certainly not in public.

“Ms. Barry,” he said, placing his hand on Aisling’s shoulder, “you don’t look well.”

I forced a smile up into the dean’s stern face. “She’s grand, Dean McCarthy. We’ll take her home.”

The candlelight flashed in his small circular glasses as he tucked his chin into his chest.

“Ms. Barry, come,” the dean said in a firm tone, brooking no more argument. “I’m taking you to Dr. Vale. He’ll give you something to calm you down.”

Fuck .

I glanced at Lisa.

Her eyes were lowered, deferential to the dean’s power.

I couldn’t blame her. Lisa was on a scholarship to Darkmoor. It would be foolish to bite the hand that tossed the crumbs.

With Ebony as my mother, I could crash my Mercedes into the campanile and stumble into Journalism Research Methods drunk and high in time to fail the pop quiz, and it wouldn’t matter.

Aisling pulled her hand from mine and I thought I saw something in the last look she gave me before she let the dean tug her away. It was almost like an apology.

Aisling wanted oblivion. The good shit from the college’s on-site therapist. If she knew anything more, she didn’t want to remember it.

I sagged in my seat as the dean guided Aisling through a back door and out of the dining hall.

“I guess that’s that,” Lisa said, throwing the tea-soaked napkin onto the linen tablecloth and nodding thanks to the server who tugged the whole tablecloth into her plastic tub before wiping down the table and replacing it with another pristine white tablecloth.

Like nothing had ever happened.

Except I knew for sure that Liath had been taken.

And I had a new lead. My next clue.

Her last known location.

Descending the narrow stairs and pushing through the heavy iron door of The Vault felt like stepping back in time. Or crashing a séance.

There was candlelight everywhere. Flames flickered from brass sconces on rich panels of wood lining the low walls. On crowded tables, ruby-red wax accumulated like stalagmites.

Black speckled antique mirrors duplicated the dazzling effect. And there wasn’t even a single blue glare of a phone screen to interrupt it.

It wasn’t like there was a sign forbidding cell phones, but the students and faculty that came here seemed to know without being told: it was only fun when you couldn’t be held accountable for it later. Like in court.

Inside it was always midnight.

Empty bottles of wine rolled along the floor. Undergraduate girls with burgundy lips walked their fingers along the wool-clad thighs of guys too old for them.

And the old dungeon air was thick with a sweetness that smelled of sex.

“Maybe we should have come earlier,” Lisa shouted over the din. She swatted away a hand that lurched toward her from a hazy corner booth. “We could try again tomorrow.”

I shook my head. According to Aisling, this was the last place that Liath had been before she disappeared. I wasn’t turning back without getting answers.

With a renewed determination, I grabbed Lisa by the elbow and pulled her through the crowd.

The bar was the length of the room and the mirrors behind it as tall as the ceiling. We squeezed our way into two recently vacated barstools and I caught the bartender’s eye with a discreet flash of Ebony’s black Amex.

The bartender, all hypnotic blue eyes and rugged jawline, smiled as he slid two cocktail napkins in front of us.

“Pick your poison,” he said seductively, leaning in close enough that his musk slithered beneath my nose.

“I was hoping to order something off the menu,” I told him.

His eyes flashed and he licked his lower lip. “My kind of customer.”

In the mirror behind the bar, I saw Lisa roll her eyes. She wasn’t one to play the seduction card.

“I need something from you,” I said, lowering my voice and chewing on my bottom lip. “I need it real bad.”

The bartender’s grin turned hungry as he leaned forward conspiratorially. “My number?”

“Information.” I showed him a photo of Liath from my phone. “Do you remember seeing her in here?”

The change in the bartender was immediate. Gone was his charming smile and his eyes flashed with something, but it disappeared before I could identify it. Annoyance? Anger?

Fear?

He pushed himself from the bartop he’d been leaning on like it was on fire. “Busy bar. We get all sorts of girls in here.”

My skin prickled.

He knew something.

I leaned in closer. “Do you remember if—”

“I haven’t seen the missing girl, okay? If you’d like a cocktail, please let me know. Otherwise…” Without another wo rd, he moved on to other customers down the bar without looking back.

Lisa sighed when I looked over at her. “Ava, it is a pretty busy bar and it—”

“He knows exactly who Liath is.”

“How do you—”

“He called her the ‘missing girl.’ I never told him she was missing.”

Realization dawned on Lisa’s face. “So she was here.”

I nodded. “She was here.”

“But if he won’t talk with us—”

“I’ll make him,” I said.

She called out after me, but I was already pushing through the throngs along the bar.

The bartender groaned when I elbowed my way past a pretty girl with shoulder-length platinum hair, ignoring her complaints as I leaned past her.

The bartender scowled at me. “I told you—”

“Your boss, Mr. Foley…” I said, “I’m good friends with his son, Cormac. And I mean good friends. I’d hate to have to tell him that one of his bar staff was being rude and very unhelpful to me.”

“Fucking rich bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

I softened. “Look, I’m not trying to get you in trouble. I just want to know if you saw anything the night Liath went missing,”

“Like I told the other guy, I didn’t see a thing,” the bartender replied irritably.

“Who? What other guy? The police?”

But the bartender again moved on .

I pushed and squeezed my way through until I was in front of him again.

“Please,” I tried again. “Did Liath say anything to you?”

“Yeah.” The bartender laughed, although it was without humor. “What she always said, ‘another double vodka soda.’”

I ignored his dig and pressed on. “Do you know where she went when she left here?”

He poured a beer, handled some cash, and ditched me again.

I cursed him. Sweat was collecting at my brow. The unmoving air in the bar sweltered. With everyone packed in so tightly, the panic of claustrophobia began to tighten around my throat.

But I couldn’t give up.

Not yet.

When I caught up once more, the bartender threw his hands up in defeat.

“Look, all I know is that Liath was waiting for someone. She kept glancing at the door.”

I nodded. Liath was waiting for Aisling. “What else? How did she seem?”

“She looked… antsy. On edge. She kept jumping every time I came over to ask if she needed anything else.”

“Did you see who she left with?”

He shook his head and pointed to a seat farther down the bar that was currently filled by a guy in a suit. “One minute she was sitting right there. Next minute, she was gone.”

I stared at the seat, imagining Liath sitting there, glancing at the door, waiting for Aisling.

But then her kidnapper showed up instead .

“That’s all I know, okay?” The bartender threw his tea towel over his shoulder and walked down the bar to serve the next customer.

I didn’t bother following.

I didn’t call out after him.

My whole world had shrunk to the size of the mirror behind the bar. The only remaining sound was blood rushing in my ears.

In the reflection, at the back of the bar, stood not one, but two shadowy figures. Shoulder to shoulder. Matching black hoods. Identical sculpted faces and menacing steel-blue eyes.

I whipped around to face him. To face my stalker.

But there was just one man.

It must have been a trick of the mirror.

My stalker stared at me from across the bar, his glare penetrating through the crowd, intensity wafting off him in waves of burning heat.

Surely, he knew what I was doing here at the place he snatched Liath from. Surely, he knew I was asking questions about Liath’s disappearance, about his involvement in it.

There was no point in hiding it.

I willed myself to confront him. To demand to know what he did with Liath. To demand he bring her back.

We were in a crowded place. I was safe.

A shiver still ran through me at the intensity of his stare and the raw danger he exuded as I drove forward, ignoring every single cell inside me that screamed with alarm.

As I pushed through the crowd, weaving through revelers, his glare stayed firmly on me .

My heart raced faster with every step closer, pounding against my rib bones like it was trying to escape, a frantic, uncontrollable beat that made my chest tighten with every second.

This was it. I was going to confront him. I was seconds away from standing toe to toe with the man who took Liath.

A hand grabbing my elbow made me jump.

I tore my eyes away from his stare and turned to see Lisa, peering at me with concern. “Ava, where are you going?”

I turned back to my stalker.

But he was gone.

Disappeared like he was never really there.

I craned my neck, trying to peer through the crowd. “D-did you see him?”

Lisa frowned. “What? Who?”

I shook my head, unable to speak. How could I explain that the stalker who took Liath was now stalking me?

My phone buzzed in my bag, the noise of it swallowed up by the clink of glasses and echo of laughter.

I took it out and read the message, my blood running cold.

I knew without a doubt that this was from him .

Unknown number: Stop investigating. Or else…