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“What do the Covent want?”

“My city,” Arkane replied coldly.

“Why haven’t they taken it already?” I questioned, confused. “If you say they took something from the Alacteon, why haven’t they used it to their advantage?”

Arkane gave me a sly smile. “Let’s just say, what they stole is useless without the right eye.”

Interesting. What could it be? Instead of voicing that question, I asked, “Why the sudden breach of truce?”

“Not sure.” He waved a casual hand. “All I knew was that it was Alan Dumfred who gave the shipment that night; only we didn’t know whom he gave it to until today,” he explained after a brief pause, more in a conversational tone than his previous seriousness. “But Alan ran right after the incident. We were on the hunt for him, but he was dumb enough to return and get himself in trouble with you Valerians.”

I paused briefly, wondering why Arkane doubted me when he had known all along that the Covent was responsible. Did he think I was working for them? When Alan Dumfred accused me, Arkane said nothing. It seemed trifling unless it was on purpose. I was soon learning that everything out of Arkane’s mouth was so carefully constructed for a reason, almost as if he had built his entire life to become this perfect machine. Either Arkane doubted me and questioned my knowledge, or he deliberately planted a seed of doubt in my head. But why?

My brows furrowed. “It would be hard to escape Twins under your radar without getting caught. So someone…”

“Exactly,” he muttered, sighing. “Someone on the inside helped him.”

“So you have a traitor amongst you,” I stated.

“Yes, and he was helping Alan hide, but lucky for us, being the stupid fool he was, he didn’t abide by their orders and came back to the Twins because he had a bone to pick with his ex.” He waved a hand as he explained.

Alice Flannel sadly lost her life. Her death flagged the Valerian outpost in our city, which forwarded me the job of eliminating Alan Dumfred. What an unusual chain of events that led me to meet Arkane Stormhold.

“Did he say who?”

“He didn’t know. They contacted him anonymously.” He exhaled. “Knowing what we do, they won’t be caught that easily. The Covent is not stupid enough to leave behind proof. If it’s not them, it’s still a true threat, one that means business if they took a shot at my father.”

“How is she?” I asked in a gentle tone. “Your mother.”

He averted his gaze. “In a coma,” he said flatly like it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. And I didn’t want to pry further. But I could tell from the darkness that crowded his eyes that he loved his mother and everything he was doing was for his family.

I knew what it was like to have it all snatched away from you when you least expected it.

At least there was something in common between Arkane Stormhold and me.

CHAPTER 6

BELLE

My eyes glazed over the broken taillight of the car in front of me while I remained stuck in the middle of a four-by-four lane with no way out. Although I shouldn’t expect much on the Castor Down road.

The city, like its name, had two divisions—the Uppers and the Lowers. The Uppers were where the rich, powerful, and influential people lived, and the Lowers were where the commoners like us lived among the gangbangers, addicts, and petty offenders.

There was a clear hierarchical divide.

But unlike the other cities, this city had its own rules, and there was only one word its people followed—the word of the Stormholds.

They kept the city in order, and the people respected it.

The city itself was beautiful. Surrounded by the stormy ocean, with lush forest and fertile grounds, it extended from the mainland like the split heads of the Gemini twins, while the Sky Bridge connected the Twins—the Upper Twin to the Lower Twin.

Only it wasn’t like any other bridge. Its long vertical beams merged with the high poles and had two levels of four-lane roads, engineered perfectly over the deep blue Atlantic. But there was one peculiar feature that we Lowers didn’t question. Or more like we weren’t allowed to question. The two-roadway system on the bridge. We, commoners, were only allowed on the Castor Down pass, while only the Upper citizens had exclusive access to the Pollux Upper pass above us. It could take you anywhere in the city within minutes.

I’d never been on the Pollux road. It was mostly used exclusively by the Stormholds. They sometimes even had it closed just for the family.

Thinking about them made my mind go straight to the one man who’d been absentmindedly invading my consciousness far more than I liked. It had been a day since I last saw him, after he gave me his word that he would let me know when he found the man with the missing fingers. And since then, only silence.

My mind couldn’t help but try to make sense of it all. No matter how hard I tried. I just couldn’t figure out why some men associated with the Covent raided a home in the sleepy town of Grimoire almost a decade ago. Or were they simply hired criminals? Was it all really a random robbery that turned sinister, or was it part of something bigger?