Thanks to the women in the house stealthily conducting a coup while they were stuck in a disastrous gala dinner, Ace was now back in his old room at his uncle's house. It felt as if he had never left. They should have seen this coming. Mandy was never one to let go once she was determined to achieve something.
"The caller you are calling is not answering. Please try again later."
Ace sighed in exasperation as the automated message echoed in his ear for the seventh time. He had been trying to call his elder sister, Lyra, to apologize, but she wasn't answering. Even his heartfelt text messages had gone unread. If he could get in touch with Dame Wasp right now, he would ask her to hack into Lyra's phone and set up a video call so he could apologize directly.
"Argh!" Ace groaned aloud, rolling onto his bed in frustration.
Thanks to Layla staying over at their place tonight, he couldn't use his curse energy, let alone talk to his toy summons through the status screen or practice curse arts. It was maddening.
After speaking with Dame Wasp at the women's shelter, they had come to an unsettling conclusion—Layla was a mortal agent in the C.I.B. who was fully aware of the 'World of Curses' and had been granted access to state-of-the-art curse gadgets to detect and combat threats from that world.
Yes, Layla was mortal, but she was not to be underestimated. Although she couldn't sense, see, or use curse energy herself, she was armed with an arsenal of Curse Gadgets, like the folding phone she had been casually waving around during their first meeting. According to Dame Wasp's research on the Curse Web, it was a curse energy detector. Its sensors could pick up on curse energy in her surroundings, and its cameras were capable of seeing curselings, all while functioning as an average smart phone.
Apparently, the latest curse energy sensors had an impressively wide range of 70 feet. Because of this, Ace didn't dare use his curse energy—not even in the safety of his own home.
After extensive research, governments around the world discovered Cursed Gadgets—a hybrid of curse cores and electronic devices—arming mortals against the threats from the 'World of Curses.' According to the Curse Web, nine countries, including their own, now possessed cursed gadgets capable of killing Void-tier curselings or even curse users.
Ace recalled how Layla had been discreetly using her folding phone cursed gadget on his family members and himself when they first meet. It became clear that she was trying to determine if any of them were curse users. Fortunately, thanks to his curse art's curse concealment effect, Layla's gadget hadn't been able to detect any curse energy from him.
The fact that Layla hadn't used her device on anyone else—and had even found an excuse to spend the night at their house—was troubling. Ace frowned, deep in thought, his brow grew narrower thinking she must have a strong reason to suspect that someone in his family was either a curse user or connected to one. Otherwise, why go through the trouble of befriending Mandy and spending a night at there home.
He couldn't help but wonder what had given her that idea. Replaying everything he'd recently used his curse energy for, he tried to pinpoint what might have prompted the C.I.B. to send a special agent to monitor his family. The only thing that stood out was his use of Dame Wasp to cheat on online gambling sites. Could that really be it? he mused, biting his lip.
Just then, Ace sensed a faint trace of curse energy emanating from outside his door. His body tensed, and he moved soundlessly to the door. Opening it swiftly, he caught Layla in the act. As he expected, she was pointing her folding phone—her cursed gadget—at his bedroom door.
Layla jumped, startled by the sudden confrontation, but she quickly recovered, leaning into her training. "Oh my god, you scared the heck out of me!" she exclaimed with an uneasy laugh.
"Did I? Sorry," Ace replied coolly, his expression neutral. He tilted his head, feigning curiosity. "What are you doing upstairs? Isn't the guest room downstairs?" He pretended to be oblivious to her actions, genuinely surprised to find her there.
It was obvious to Ace what Layla was up to—she was using her cursed gadget to search for curse users or traces of curse energy in the house. But she was bound to find nothing. Ace had already used Emi's presence-erasing talisman to scrub all traces of curse energy from his estate, fearing they might attract curselings.
"Actually, I came to find you," Layla said, her tone shifting as she scrambled to improvise. "But I didn't know which room was yours or you would be up this late, so I was just... Now that you're here—"
Before she could finish her excuse, Ace interrupted, cutting her off mid-sentence. "Nope, not interested!" he declared, slamming the door shut in her face without another word.
Staring at the closed door in front of her, Layla blinked in dumbfounded silence. A second later, she snapped out of it and hurriedly knocked on the door, raising her voice in protest. "Ace, you misunderstood me, you little perv! I'm here to talk about you and Ava, nothing else!"
"Still not interested. Go away—unless you don't mind being registered as a sex offender," Ace retorted coolly from the other side.
He leaned back against the door, his arms crossed, mulling over the situation. He wouldn't have opened the door at all if he could have been completely certain that the curse energy outside was just Layla and her cursed gadget, not something more concerning. But now that he knew, Ace was now more concerned about learning exactly what she knew as speculating wasn't going to get him anywhere.
Layla huffed in frustration, stomping her foot against the floor before storming off. Her operation tonight was a complete bust. Not only had she nearly been caught red-handed, but she had also failed to detect even a trace of curse energy in the entire house. The lack of evidence gnawed at her, fueling her irritation.
Exhaling sharply to regain her composure, Layla debated calling it a night. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and let the day's failures wash away. But a nagging thought lingered. What about the car? The one her friend had said the curse user had been spotted driving.
Determined to finish the job, Layla slipped out of the guestroom window and made her way toward the garage shed. She moved silently through the cool night air, her eyes focused on finding Mandy's nephew's car. However, she failed to notice Ace monitoring her from his bedroom window.
Ace narrowed his eyes as he sighed, stepping away from the window he left his room. Ensuring they were at least 80 feet apart, he summoned both of his toy summons.