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I can’t. His tone was strained as if he was pained from saying it. I physically cannot tell you as much as I wish I could. Perhaps you could ask me a few yes or no questions to confirm or deny your suspicions.
Do I trust it? Not really. But it was better than nothing.
Fine. Do you know Samara?
Yes.
Wow, okay. He’s throwing it out there, isn’t he? I might as well ask, Do you work for her?
Yes.
Then how the hell do you expect me to trust you? Working for Samara was a dealbreaker. He should be in that cell with Morgan if he’s being serious.
You can’t. He answered, pausing. But you should.
What does that even mean? Why are you working for her? I just couldn’t grasp why. He was working for her, but helping us? It didn’t make sense.
All I can tell you is that Samara took what I treasured most. I want her dead, for good. But I cannot stay. I need to leave. Think about what I said.
Just like him to deliver information and leave. Yeah, sure, I answered, my tone dry.
Oh, and Ember? Call me Balt.
* * *
Ember
Ilay in bed for a few minutes, replaying my conversation with Balt, when Emily walked into the room.
“Hey, girl,” she said, plopping on the bed beside me. “You okay? Adina told us what she walked in on.”
My eyes opened, and I sat up, the old bedframe squeaking with every move. “Yeah. She tried to suck the air from my lungs, so I think it’d be wise for everyone to avoid her for now.”
“We have someone guarding each door to make sure she doesn’t escape. Plus, someone outside under the window in case she’s dumb enough to jump. That is, assuming she could get out of the cage.”
“Good,” I muttered, still wrapped up in my mind.
Sensing my somber mood, Emily placed her hand on my shoulder and raised her eyebrows, a silent way to ask if I was okay.
“Em, you guys can’t return to that bar or the apartment. Even with Morgan here, it’s too dangerous. Griffin needs to move into the warehouse for now. He can borrow Cassian’s clothes or whatever he needs—but he can’t go back.”
Her eyebrows furrowed, and she nodded. “I’ll tell him, but you know how stubborn he is. Not to mention, I need to ask Cassian and make sure it’s alright with him, though I doubt he’d object.”
“No!” I snapped, startling her. “You’re a luna. Make it happen.”
I hadn’t meant to be so stern, so I softened my tone to make her feel comfortable. “I have an idea regarding the object. Maybe we should check out some of the books in Cassian’s office. Grace had that book about the wraths when we needed it, maybe she has something about this object.” I shrugged, bumping her shoulder with mine.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll let Cassian know we’re going to be digging through his stuff.” She laughed, though I knew she was uncomfortable going through his things. He told her that she was his luna and had every right to do whatever she believed fit for the situation, but Emily still doubted her ability to do so.
One way or another, I’d show my friend that she didn’t need to ask for permission, and she was just as capable as the rest of us believed her to be—even if she didn’t see it for herself yet.
For hours, we scoured through books until, finally, we struck gold.
“Hey, Em,” I called over to her. “Check this out.”
I held up the book, showing Emily the page that had a picture of an object. The object.
“It’s called a Maledictio Propagator. It’s a curse expander, like Morgan said, and a puzzle. Apparently, you need to provide whatever objects are required to keep the curse from expanding.”
