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“Go back to sleep,” Dallas whispered, shaking her long sleeves back.
“Where are you going?” Loren asked, keeping her voice down so she wouldn’t wake Sabrine. She glanced at the clock. “It’s Witching Hour.”
“I just need some air.” She made for the closed door.
“It isn’t safe!” Loren threw aside the quilts and got to her feet, the cold floor icing her bare toes. “If you don’t let me come with you, I’m telling one of the professors.”
“I’ll be fine, Lor.” She cracked open the door. A draft blew in, raising a chill on Loren’s chest and arms. “I promise.”
She crossed her arms. “Where are you really going? You’ve snuck out on more than one occasion. I think I deserve to know where my sister has been going so late at night.” As she said it, her stomach twisted with guilt.
If only she could tell Dallas what was going on with her. But if Dallas was keeping secrets, it was by choice, not a spell.
Loren had wondered for some time now where Dallas was sneaking off to throughout the school week. For a while, she’d assumed she was leaving to hook up with Maximus. After all, since Kalendae Loren herself tended to disappear on random days of the week. She would sprint out to the gates after dusk to meet with Darien, where she would either spend a few hours in his car or return with him to Hell’s Gate until dawn.
But Loren suspected there was something else going on here. They were sisters; she knew Dallas well enough to tell when she was lying. The problem with Dallas, however, was that she had a tendency to hold onto her secrets forever, even when confronted.
Dallas sighed, hand gripping the door knob. “The Umbra Forum.”
Loren’s mouth popped open. “Are you crazy?” When Sabrine stirred in her bed by the windows, quilts rustling, Loren lowered her voice to a hiss. “What could you possibly need from that place—”
“Enchanted stationary.”
Loren lifted a brow. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised; Dallas was having trouble keeping up with her studies, thanks to the time she had to spend training with the Aerial Fleet. But something still didn’t add up. “Uh-huh. Right. Enchanted stationary from the number one drug hub in Angelthene.” But her own words had her thinking of the plan she’d formed at Agatha’s yesterday…the plan she hadn’t figured out how to follow through with.
Until now.
“I told you that’s where Max buys it,” Dallas said.
Loren grabbed her coat off the hook on the door. “I’m coming with you,” she whispered.
The rings around Dallas’s pupils shone in the dark. “I can’t agree to that, Lor. It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s hardly less dangerous for you than it is for me. Besides, I’ve got the perfect disguise.”
“If you think you’ll be protecting me by coming with—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There’s something I want from there too.”
“Which is…?” Dallas prompted.
“Venom.”
It was hard to see in the dark, but she thought Dallas’s eyebrows had shot up. It was a probable reaction. “What for?”
“For me.” When Dallas gave her a blank stare, Loren explained, “I can’t bear to see Darien suffering from his Surges anymore. I want to try to get my magic back, and if Venom is the key, then…” She pulled her shoulders up in a shrug. “Then I am willing to risk it.”
Dal’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you guys weren’t talking.”
“That’s just…temporary.”
“You’re not still upset about what happened in their basement, are you? I mean, what did you think he did? Offed people with too many sleeping pills and laid them down for a peaceful rest?”
“No.” Definitely not. But this was the best excuse she had to stay away from him for the week.
“Well, you’ll need to start talking to him eventually.” Dallas hesitated, shifting on her feet. “Max said he’s having a rough time.”
The words were like a fist punching through her stomach, digging up through her ribcage and ripping out her heart.
