Page 122 of Trivium

Unsurprisingly, Lennox couldn’t keep quiet for long. “I’m actually surprised this didn’t happen sooner.”

Ahmina had so many questions, but she couldn’t ask them because her throat was raw and the heaving didn’t stop.

82

LOVELEENA

“Are you working with Ash Veloria?” Loveleena asked Ren point blank, her dagger pressed to his sternum. There was no way she was letting Ren lead this conversation. She would leave no opening for him to spin a story.

She wanted the truth.

Ren was freeing traitors, defending the creatures—with Park, which he had conveniently avoided telling her about. It was starting to look a lot like Park’s disappearance was his fault.

“Answer me!” she yelled as they stood in the dimly lit living room of the abandoned house. Ren looked at her for a long moment before he sat down in that same armchair.

The same armchair they…

She wanted to erase their night together from her memory and never think of it again.

She stepped forward, keeping her dagger directed at him.

“No,” Ren said, looking in her eyes.

She searched his face, looking for any hint of deception. But all that she could see was exasperation. Ren looked exhausted. Dark circles shadowed his undereyes, and his normally clean-shaven jaw was covered in stubble.

“You need to come clean about everything. All of it. If you don’t tell me what happened to Park right now, and why the fuck he’s catatonic, working with Barrow, and why Barrow tried to steal Ahmina’s blood, I swear to the Goddess I will murder you.” She seethed.

“To explain it all I need to start at the beginning.” He sighed. “You might want to sit down for this.”

“I’m good where I am.” She pushed the tip of her dagger slightly forward.

“I could steal that dagger from you before you even know what happened. So, if you don’t mind, lower your fucking weapon,” Ren growled, and she grudgingly obliged, if only because deep down she knew it was true.

“Magic from the Veloria line is strong because it was the first human family to be granted magic. Magic after that was powerful, but the creatures were cautious, slowly providing weaker gifts of magic to other families. That is, until the war between creatures and humans broke out, and they stopped gifting magic all together.”

“We’ve got a puker,” Lennox interrupted, hauling in a sickly Ahmina through the door with Zeina following.

“There’s a bucket over there,” Ren instructed, a look of indifference on his face.

“Twin and triplet magic seems to be the strongest. It’s almost as if the magic is amplified. Maybe because magic was first gifted to a set of twins. To be honest, no one really knows why.

“Keep in mind, this all happened over several years. Enough time passed for word to spread, and families in other cities were also given magic. It wasn’t only Jarrians. Magic was spread to Celestia, Astoria, Edina, and beyond. When the Great War broke out, Jarrians built the wall and created the Academy, while Ash ran off, syphoning magic from everywhere he could. Creatures. Humans.”

“Yeah, you told us that already. That still doesn’t explain the blood.”

“Let me finish,” Ren snapped. “Over the years, he’s attacked almost every city on the continent,” Ren continued. “Many fled to Astoria and Celestia during the war. Although some refused and remained here in Jarrah. Over the years, Ash has tried to tear apart every city. Celestia has been in ruins for years. And when we found out he intended to return to Jarrah and take it down too, we came here to stop it.”

“Came here? From where?”

“Astoria,” Lennox interjected. “That’s where we are from, where our families are from.”

The lost cities.

Loveleena swallowed. Park had been right all along. There was more out there.

“We’ve been working to take down Ash and his followers,” Ren said.

“Wait, let’s just back up for a moment. All the magic that was gifted by the creatures has been passed down?” a sickly Ahmina choked out. “That’s how we have magic?”