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As one. They were all looking for Cara as one.
Noa took a step forward, guiding him to follow. Diel lifted his feet, feeling as though they had been coated in cement. He made it a few steps toward that ledger at the head of the table. Then Sela stepped out from the line of brothers and put his hand on Diel’s shoulder, an extra support.
Sela and Noa led him to the seat Gabriel had vacated for him. Diel sat down, and, taking a deep breath, he stared down at the page before him. He scanned his frantic gaze over the handwritten names, searching down each column. There were names, then, beside them, some kind of code that Diel couldn’t decipher.
He reached the third column, when he stopped breathing and his eyes stopped searching. Every muscle in his body tensed as he visually traced the letters over and over again.
Cara Nolan … Cara Nolan … Shunned …
Diel closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. She was alive. His little sister, after all these years … she was alive and out there somewhere.
Diel’s shoulders shook with the relief that overcame him. But also the fucking dread that Cara was under the command of the Brethren. What were they doing to her? Were they torturing her like they had the Fallen and the Coven?
Comforting arms wrapped around him from behind. Noa. She placed her mouth by his ear and whispered, “She’s alive, baby. Your sister is alive.”
Diel kept his head bowed in silent distress for several more seconds, then lifted it, eyes wet and cheeks red. He took a deep breath, then said to Gabriel, “The code beside her name?”
“Some kind of Brethren cipher, we think.” Gabriel looked across the table to Jo and Candace.
Jo lifted her chin. “We can break it,” she said. “I’m sure we can. We’ve already been working on it for you. We’ll break it, in time.” A sprig of hope seemed to plant itself in Diel’s chest, but the fucking worry for his sister was at the forefront.
“Did you hear that, baby?” Noa kissed his cheek. Diel kept hold of her arm around his shoulder. “We’re going to get Cara back to you. Your sister …” Diel couldn’t even imagine that moment. It seemed too impossible. Too out of reach.
But he looked down at the ledger again, and her name was there, written in black ink.
She was alive. That was all that mattered.
His eyes dropped further down the page, and name after name made him slowly begin to seethe. All these women, most probably taken as young girls like Cara. What had they done to deserve the Brethren’s judgment? Have an imperfection? Or was it something else?
Diel read the names, all deemed “Shunned” … Simone, Aoife, Donna, Destiny—
Diel froze. Cold infused his body as he read that last name over and over again. He finally ripped his eyes from the ledger and looked up at the man beside him, his fucking best friend and brother.
Sela frowned. “What?” he asked, pushing his long hair back from his face. “What is it, D?”
Diel tried to open his mouth, but he couldn’t fucking speak. He stood and pointed at the name that had rendered him speechless.
Still frowning in confusion, Sela followed Diel’s finger and scanned the name. The name “Destiny,” which shared the exact same cipher as was by Cara’s name.
Diel watched Sela turn to stone in front of him. He could feel the confusion radiating off the rest of his brothers, but Diel stayed by Sela just like Sela had stayed beside him. He stayed right by him as a harshly panted “No!” slipped from Sela’s lips. Sela backed away from the table, face ashen as if he had just seen a ghost.
Diel knew that Sela just had.
“Sela …” Diel said. Sela’s back hit the wall behind him with a thud.
“She’s alive,” Sela said in disbelief.
Gabriel moved toward him. “Sela, what—?”
“Destiny. My Destiny,” Sela blurted. “I thought she was dead. I thought Auguste had killed her.” His brown eyes were wide, shining with shock.
“She?” Bara questioned.
“My one,” Sela said, no more explanation to it. “My only one.” Diel thought of Sela’s paintings and sculptures, showing the same girl in each one.
Gabriel must have connected those things with the name in the ledger, as he let out a shocked breath. “The one you recreate? Destiny. She’s real?”
“Yes,” Sela whispered. Then the shock seemed to give way to a flood of violence that shook his taut body. The emotion was stripped away from Sela’s face, only for rage to contort it into something sinister. The killer rose to the surface, soul black as night and as evil as the devil himself.
“Auguste,” Sela spat, pushing himself off the wall. He was a volcano about to erupt.
Diel moved to his best friend and took hold of his head. “Look at me,” Diel demanded, sharing in Sela’s rage. “Look at me, brother.” Sela met his eyes. “We’ll get them back,” Diel said, feeling the truth of those words. “We’ll get them both back, Destiny and Cara.” And he felt the determination build inside him.
