The answer came quickly enough.
“I don’t need to remind you, Miss Vespasian, that the future of your remaining family rests on your shoulders.” Zeke peered at me over the frames of his glasses, his hard, glittering gaze making his threat completely clear. “Your brother’s continued antics provide more than enough reason to exile all of you to Cryon, and if you are found to have committed additional transgressions, the Vespasians will be exposed to the vastness of space. Is that clear?”
Cryon might be worse. There were terrible rumors about how people went crazy, started to eat each other and stuff. A shudder racked my body.
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and nodded. There wasn’t anything to accuse them of, not at the moment. Without proof and facts, talking nonsense about a Projector and a Return Project and rogue Elders would do nothing but make me sound like a desperate nutcase and get my parents killed in the process.
“Very well. As you may have surmised, your friend and roommate Analeigh Frank was caught out of bed and in the Archives, researching unauthorized historical events and compiling them in a file. What do you know about this?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“The file was started by you several days ago.”
“I believe we talked about the reason for my research at the last, private hearing.” Heat flooded my cheeks, part anger and part embarrassment at having to bring up my supposed crush on Oz, the boy who betrayed me.
“Your other roommate, Sarah Beckwith, created technology that allowed your brother to travel untracked through the past, and we know she encrypted the personal files in both your and Analeigh’s brain stem bio tattoos. You’re going to say you knew nothing of this, either?”
“I know about the private files but not about her helping my brother.” I cut my eyes toward Sarah, but she avoided my gaze. “I enjoyed having a place for my private thoughts.”
“That is normal for girls her age, Zeke. As we decided with Miss Beckwith—her using her impressive skills to give her friends what amounts to a diary is hardly worthy of this council’s time,” Darya interrupted in a scratchy voice.
“Yes, but that does not explain where she was last night.” Zeke’s eyes snapped back to mine after glaring at his colleague.
My silence lasted until Truman lost his patience, slamming his hand down and startling me out of my skin. “Answer the question, Miss Vespasian! You were missing last night while your friend added to your unauthorized research files. Tell us how and why this instant, or the Enforcers at the back of the room will be dispatched to your parents’ house without further consideration.”
“I …” I swallowed again, fisting my sweaty hands. Booth had said to lie, but the best one danced outside my reach. Nerves buzzed in my ears and tears burned in my throat. Analeigh was gone, Sarah had been sanctioned.
“I took her to the past so we could be alone.”
Oz’s voice forced the deep breath I’d taken out in a whoosh. The room exploded with shocked exclamations and excited whispers. Zeke pounded his gavel, shouting over the din, as I looked up to find Oz standing, his own hands clenched.
Sarah’s eyes filled with tears of betrayal, and sliced my battered heart in two. After all of the promises I’d made her that nothing was going on, here was her boyfriend, admitting the opposite in front of all of our classmates.
It wasn’t true, but there was no way I could explain that to her now.
My voice had abandoned me. Oz climbed down the bleachers and arrived at my side the same time Zeke finally gave up on settling down the room and ordered everyone out. Truman’s furious gaze flicked from his son to me and back again. Even though I refused to meet it, the pain from the white-hot accusation burned my skin.
The room fell silent after everyone exited, reluctant expressions on most faces. I tried to catch Sarah’s eye, to convince her with my gaze alone that she could trust me, but she refused to look up as she filed past us and out of the room.
We were alone with the Elders. As before, I wanted to protest, to punch Oz and run, to deny it all—but doing that would put my family at risk. If Oz had been acting with the permission of the rogue Elders and it meant I could stay at the Academy and try to figure out what was going on, try to find a way to get Analeigh back, then let them think it.
“Mr. Truman, where did you procure a cuff? Neither of you are full Historians so they haven’t been issued to you.” Zeke asked the question carefully, eyes warning Oz to play along.
That told me all I needed to know about whether all of the Elders were involved in this harebrained, potentially deadly scheme to try to restore Earth Before.
“It’s mine,” I said. “I found it in Jonah’s room at home.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oz shift slightly. His cloak fell farther down around his wrists, hiding the cuff he probably still wore. If the Elders glimpsed his surprise in the slight jerk of his shoulders, they said nothing.
“Where is the cuff now?” Booth asked.
“Jonah took it back. He was just here. Did you see him?” I couldn’t help the sass. Knowing that at least some of the Elders were in as tight a spot as me right now gave me a slight edge of power.
Truman glowered. “You would be wise to watch your smartass mouth, Miss Vespasian.”
Minnie Gatling waved in his direction, a frown on her wrinkled mouth. “Language, David. Now, the two of you have been sneaking off to engage in an affair of sorts, since Mr. Truman is betrothed to his True Companion, Sarah Beckwith. Since you discovered a cuff in your brother’s room, the past seemed like the safest place to meet without being discovered. This is correct?”
I ground my teeth together and nodded.