Taega nodded. “At least, that’s what we believe. And what Loren’s father believed. But Erasmus had a great deal of secrets; there were some things he didn’t reveal to anyone, even his closest friends.” Her gaze settled upon Dallas. “Even your father.”
Dallas was too stunned to say anything.
Taega went on, “Shortly after creating Loren and hiding the Well, they brought her to the city temple in an effort to protect her. There were people that had dug up the old history of the Arcanum Well—the secret Erasmus had so carefully buried nearly two thousand years prior—and they wanted to use Erasmus and his wife to find the Well and take it for themselves—and then kill them. They knew they couldn’t hide forever, and they wouldn’t risk their child’s life, so they gave her up. A priest at the temple took her in under strict instruction that only Roark—then namedElix Danik—could adopt her. Little did Erasmus know that his precious human baby would eventually inherit his gift and be able to track the Well herself—and therefore be put in the same danger as him. To protect Loren, Roark and I changed our names, our jobs, and began using Nacht Essentia to hide our auras. We’ve been using it for years, and we were some of the first people to discover the plant’s existence. It only hit the streets in recent months, which alerted me to the problem we now have on our hands.”
Darien said, “Where is the Well now?”
“No one knows. It could not be destroyed. It could not be replicated without the experiments creating cursed creatures.” A heavy, unusual pause. “It could only be remade. Legend says, before he died, Erasmus hid it where no one would ever find it.”
Darien said to Loren, Maximus, and Dallas, “We need to find the other half of the scroll. There needs to be a way to find the Well replica and destroy it. I don’t care what Erasmus said—if something can be created, it can also be destroyed.”
“You can try,” Taega said, and there was nothing unkind in the words. She was speaking only to Loren when she said, “Your mortal body has problems handling the gift you inherited from your father, which is why your blood sugar tends to drop so low and without warning. Human bodies simply aren’t built to hold magical abilities.” Loren pressed a hand to her mouth, her stomach churning. This was all too much.
Too much.
“Your real name is Lily,” Taega went on.“Liliana.That’s why I gave you the last name of Calla. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to acknowledge you as a part of my family; it was because I wanted at least one of the names you were called to have some truth to it. So that not everything in your life was such a blatant lie.”
To the sweetest lily in all the valley,her amulet said. Not meaningless after all.
A sharp knock came at the front door. Loren jumped in place, knee bumping the desk.
Taega’s hair glinted in the firelight as she turned to peer out the doorframe—at the foyer. Her wings rustled.
The door handle rattled. “Open up,” barked a gruff male voice.Bang. Bang. Bang.“Taega Bright, we have a warrant for your arrest.”
Darien’s hand went to his holstered pistol. “Fuck.”
Taega looked like she was going to throw up. “It was a setup,” she whispered. “You need to get out of here.”
“Wait,” Darien said. “This whole thing is afuckingconspiracy?”
“We were getting too close to the heart of this case,” Taega murmured, as if to herself. “I knew we were getting too close.”
Maximus was shaking his head. “This’ll never stand up in court.”
“It can,” Taega countered. “If a person has the right connections.” The people who had attacked Dallas last night…they must’ve been at Fleet Headquarters to plant evidence against Taega, something big enough that even the MPU would need to investigate her—one of theirown. And when they’d found Dallas snooping, they’d had to do away with her.
A fist banged on the door again. Taega ushered them to the window and pulled it open. Cool air swept into the room, drying the sweat on Loren’s skin. One after the other, they slid over the sill and clung to the wall outside, Loren going last.
“Taega,” she panted as she slid onto the sill. “Do you know who’s doing this?”
But the lock on the penthouse shattered as the door was kicked open, slamming into the wall with a bang. Darien’s arms wrapped around Loren’s waist as he helped her sidle down the building.
Loren glanced up once last time, to see Taega shoving the window shut.
And although she forced a smile, her eyes were anything but happy.
—
When they made it back to Hell’s Gate, Darien cut the engine. For a long while, he and Loren sat in the car in silence, the song of the cicadas vibrating through the night.
Darien opened his mouth to speak, but Loren cut him off.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Her face was so cold, her downcast eyes so empty, that Darien felt his heart crack in half.
“Don’t you do that.” His voice was thick, and he was shaking his head. “Don’t you close yourself off from me, Loren. What Taega said… You are the same person you’ve always been, Lola. You are just as real and important as everybody else. The fact that you were born from the Arcanum Well doesn’t mean anything.”Hewas born from it, too. Descended from it. He wasn’t sure how to feel. Aboutanything.
And Loren still wouldn’t look at him.
