“She didn’t assemble us, we forced ourselves on her,” Nico countered. “But now she loves us.” He leaned over, throwing his arm over my shoulder and pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I missed you, L.”
“I missed you too, Nico.” He squeezed me tight before letting me go.
I met Declan’s stare from across the table. “You kept your promise.”
His wings twitched behind him. “I told you I intended to.” There was a slight lilt to his lips as he spoke.
“What promise?” Luka asked.
“He promised me we’d be together again soon.”
“So she could tell you everything she didn’t get to tell you. She wanted us to relay her message after Luce knocked you out, but I told her she’d have to tell you herself.”
I kicked him under the table, but the bastard didn’t even flinch.
Luka rested his arm across the back of my chair. “And did you? Tell me everything?”
“In less words, but yes.”
“She confessed her love for you,” Nico cooed.
“It was pretty romantic,” Kara agreed.
“And dramatic.” Luce crossed her arms.
“I hate you all.” I threw a piece of bread at my sister. “You finally get me back, and this is how you treat me?”
The table went quiet, causing my stomach to clench. “I meant that as a joke.”
“I know,” Kara said quietly. “But we need to talk about it.”
Luka placed a hand on my thigh. “Is there anything you can tell us now? Anything important you might have learned?”
I nodded, pushing away the memories of my blood splattering across Adreona’s office. Of her blade piercing into my brother’s thigh. Of all the innocent lives lost at my hand.
“It goes a lot deeper than we realize,” I started.
They all listened as I recalled what I had learned from Adreona and Lorenzo. Luka didn’t act a bit surprised to find out about his uncle’s involvement. The only emotion he showed was the tightening of his fist and the straightening of his shoulders. I knew he never liked Lorenzo, but it was still his family.His uncle.
I felt strongly about Lorenzo and he wasn’t my uncle. I’d give Luka time to process now, but I’d press him about it later.
And I’d tell him exactly how I got the scars on my back. I’d tell them all, but not now. Not today. I wasn’t ready yet.
“Where do we go from here?” Kara asked, tearing my thoughts back to the present. “What’s our next move?”
“We have to find some way to stop the Vanir and the Panateia once and for all,” Luka declared.
“If we don’t, they’ll never stop,” I added.
“First, we need to get back to Alethens. Your people need to know you are alive and well, that you’ve been rescued,” Declan said.
Everyone nodded in agreement. “You’ll need to send out a message,” Luce added. “Everyone was so receptive to getting you back, in helping us find you. I wonder if we could get them to continue to help us.”
“Do you think that would work?” I looked to Declan.
The harpy shrugged. “It’s worth a try. The more people we have behind us the better. Especially now that we know the Panateia and Vanir are working together. Who knows how many they have in their combined organizations.”
“But a message to the courts isn’t good enough,” Kara mused. “We need to go there ourselves, convince their leaders. If we can convince the leaders of each court to side with us, in theory, their people should follow them.”
