I couldn’t get Blackwood’s comment out of my mind.“When you’re ready for answers, you know where to start looking.”He’dtapped the markings on my arm—the ones he’d said he believed I was lying about. But it was too much. It was all too much.
Callum. My markings. The secret temple on the fourth floor. Lucanus being involved with the disappearances of angels. The mention of the Remnant—of a religion I’d thought no longer existed. My bargain with the king. My sisters. I didn’t know what to do—where to even start.
And even with my mind swimming in chaos from the information, a singular name kept popping into the forefront of my mind, a name that refused to vanish from my thoughts no matter how much I tried.
Callum Blackwood.
I walkedout of my bedroom, tugging on a sweatshirt just as the front door opened and Sage walked through, followed by my youngest sister. My eyes narrowed on Kira as she excitedly greeted Loxl, the fennex purring delightedly at her greeting.
“What isshedoing here?” I hissed toward Finn, who was currently making himself at home in my living room.
“I thought it would be good for her to be here,” he answered earnestly at the same time that Kira responded.
“Thanks for the warm welcome,sis.”
I sighed wearily before my eyes collided with her hazel ones. “That’s not what I meant, Kir.”
“Whatever you say, big sis,” she singsonged as she flopped over the back of the couch, landing on the pillows in a heap. She grabbed the remote, clicking the TV on as a pilaeria match came onto the screen, the announcer’s chatter filling the room softly. Sage walked over then, wrapping me in a hug.
“You finally found a reason to leave the temples and grace uswith your presence now, did you?” I teased when she pulled away, her blonde hair swaying as she grinned at me.
“Finn said it would be a night I wouldn’t want to miss,” she answered, a heavy question in her eyes.
“What in Aurelia did you text the group, Finn?” I demanded, a slight bite in my tone as I pinned my best friend with the most menacing glare I could muster.
Finn, to no surprise, decided to look off into the abyss, pretending to have not heard my demand.
“Finnick Oren Lancaster,” I snapped, his green eyes colliding with mine at the use of his full name. “What exactly did you decide to text all of our friends?”
I watched his jaw tick, anger flashing briefly in his eyes before he finally sighed, running a hand through his brown hair and responding. “That we needed to have an intervention.”
“For the love of all five gods,” I protested. “An intervention?” The word was a near shriek before my eyes whipped toward Emberly. “And you clearly agreed?”
I watched her toy with the edges of the throw blanket on my couch, her eyes darting nervously between Finn and me before replying softly, “Well, I don’t know, Rae. Maybe. Tonight . . . I don’t know what’s gotten into you—associating with the RSG, sneaking through the upper floors of Solis Court.”
“Not to mention the multiple episodes you’ve had,” Finn added to the already extensive list.
I heard both Kira and Sage’s gasps at those statements and sighed, realizing tonight was going to be avery, verylong night.
“Got it,” I stated, hurt rising within me. “So, what I’m hearing is that none of you—even after decades of friendship—trust me to be able to make my own choices, even if you might question them.”
“It’s not that we don’t trust you to make your own choices, Rae,” Emberly replied, ever the voice of reason in our group.
“It’s that your current choices are idiotic and putting you in danger,” Finn retorted angrily.
I huffed a scathing laugh. “Thanks, Finn.”
“Don’t give me that attitude, darling. You know I’m right.”
It took everything in me not to scoff once again. “Or . . .” I glared at him. “Have you ever considered that maybe you might not know everything? That there might be pieces of the story that you’re missing?”
I felt everyone’s eyes on me, a long pause stretching across my apartment’s living room.
“Well . . .” Sage broke the silence first. “If that’s the case, why don’t you actually let us in and tell us what we are missing?”
I paused, slightly reluctant as my gaze nervously darted around the room, landing on Emberly and Sage, before shifting to Finn, and then finally my youngest sister. Kira nodded at me, a slight upward tilt to her lips in silent encouragement.
I toyed with my lip for a moment, wondering what to even say, because if we were being honest, I wentsleuthingon a random hunch, had a far-too-vague conversation with a royal guard, and didn’t even really know what to think of the entire thing myself.
