“You couldn’t stay put,” she went on, voice low and shaking now. “You couldn’t wait. You just do what you want, to hell with the consequences.”
“I didn’t—” I started.
“Kieran is gone. So is Ash. Because they went looking for you.”
I glanced at Dev. He looked as bewildered as I felt. My ears rang. The ground tilted under my feet.
“What do you mean?” His voice had gone sharp.
“Come and see for yourself.”
She led us both to Elliot’s office. We found him sitting in front of a screen, remote in hand. When we walked in, he looked at us.
“Seph,” he sighed heavily.
“What happened?”
He gestured to the TV and pressed play.
I froze.
On the screen was my mother.
Georgina Quinn looked immaculate. Her blonde hair was smoothed down, her navy suit and pearls unmistakably expensive.
When she looked up, her eyes were red — as if she had been crying.
“This is a message for the Equinox Front,” she said coolly. “You sit there, hiding in your little rat holes, attacking the Light. Sending ferals after us in Light-strong cities. Destroying lives for your own selfish ends. As if the dark holds any power in Velithra.”
Cameras flashed around her.
“It was not enough that you killed my oldest daughter,” she continued. “My beautiful Sable.”
The lie slid out of her mouth like truth.
“You also stole my husband. Gideon Quinn.”
She drew in a steadying breath.
“And now,” she said, “you take my youngest daughter. Persephone.”
My face appeared on the screen.
I staggered back.
What the—
“Persephone is special,” my mother went on. “Different. She cannot fight for herself.”
My stomach churned so violently I thought I might be sick.
“And my husband,” Georgina continued, “has led Velithra to unprecedented success — particularly through his Light-central initiatives.”
The camera panned.
Prisoners.
A line of them, bound, exhausted, bruised.
