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“Find me for what?”
We swiveled to find the woman in question standing at the end of the hallway, a basket in her hands.
She looked nothing like the Lucia who trained me at night, and I wouldn’t know who I was staring at if it weren't for her hair. She was dressed in one of the soft dresses they’d given the rest of us, hers boasting a pleated skirt, cinched waist, and yellow color; she looked gorgeous in it. Her hair had been undone from its braid, leaving the thick strands to billow around her.
“Mikey is gone,” I blurted. “Tarragon and Blossom are keeping them until we give them an heir.”
She dropped the basket she was holding. “He—What? Where? Where are they holding him?”
“We don’t know, but we have to get out of here,” I begged. “Please. It’s not safe for us, Lucia. If you care about Mikey—”
“Grab your shit,” she snapped, cutting me off, “and follow me.”
She stalked into Mikey’s room, and the rest of us scrambled into ours.
A rucksack was packed into the bottom of the little closet. I stuffed it with my boots, the daggers Commander Thorn had given me, two of the dresses I liked, and as many of the books the scholars had lent us as possible—the ones on Nephilim and Grigori History, as well as the ones on fated mates.
Lucia emerged from Mikey’s room with his rucksack on her shoulder and her hair tied up. “I knew they were getting desperate, but I didn’t realizehowdesperate,” she said.
We stood in the hallway, waiting for her to instruct us.
She turned to us. After a pause, she sighed. “My sister has always wanted children. Tarragon couldn’t give her any, so he let her lay with other men.Unseeliemen, the ones she could reproduce with. The problem is that Tarragon is possessive. He’s composed to the outside world and looks like the more amicable of the pair, but in reality, he’s insane. It’s rubbed off on Blossom, too.”
Sariel and I exchanged nervous looks.
“She got pregnant, of course, and they were happy. But then the fathers started to go missing,” she continued. “It turns out that Tarragon was killing them off. He would sometimes become incensed whenever he thought about another man’s seed growing inside her, throwing tantrums and raging. He’d never hit her, but… you must understand that Blossom could take life from plants. She could suck the life from an entire field with just the flick of her wrist.
“When they joined their powers, it changed, growing to the extreme; Tarragon gained her ability tenfold. He could take life from any living thing with little thought. He could create decay from the inside out,” she said, gulping. Her eyes dropped to the ground. “Blossom never once made it full term.”
Reese gagged, and my heart dropped in horror.
Oh, God. Oh God, Sariel,I thought, sagging against him.
“It took us forty-three miscarriages before we realized Tarragon was doing it,” Lucia said miserably. “Blossom doesn’t believe it. Even now, she sees him as the same man who rescued us from our parents. And I guess, in some way, he is, but he’s not right anymore.
“Even if you did stay here and fulfill their wish, your child likely would not have survived.”
My knees were weak as Lucia hoisted Mikey’s bag on her shoulder. “Just so you know, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this because Mikey would be devastated, and he’s already been through enough. Now, stay close to me and follow my instructions. I’ll get them out of the dungeons—you’lldo as I say and wait for me.”
When we could do nothing but nod our agreement, she pulled open the door leading into the main hallway. While we followed her out, she whispered, “Keep yourselves alive.”
14
MOTHER KNOWS BEST
SARIEL
Lucia left us at the entrance to the Queen’s Garden with instructions to split up and hide amongst the maze of flowers until she returned.
We paired off; Reese and Johnny went to the left and disappeared out of sight, while I dragged Aria after me to a hidden concave I’d found amongst the flowers surrounding the fountain. Avoiding the Guardians was easy enough with the added cover of the hedge walls. They weren’t tall enough to cover us, but theyweretall enough that we only had to duck slightly to be out of sight.
We could hear Guardians patrolling, talking, and laughing. From the spot I’d dragged Aria to, we could see the ones who stepped into the space around the fountain.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been hiding before a familiar voice made me tense.
“They have to be here, Grel.”
Who the hell is that?Aria asked, panicked.How do they already know we’re gone?
