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“Four.”
Young Leda thought that over for a moment, then declared, “If you weren’t such a softy, you’d be able to afford better boots from all that money you make on bounties.”
Calli laughed. “Likely so. But someone wise once told me that people should always do the right thing. Otherwise, what’s the point of life?”
“I like you, Calli,” young Leda told her. “You don’t treat me like I’m stupid just because I’m a kid.”
“So you want to come live with me?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Ask me again when the job’s done.”
“What job?”
“Your job. I’m not just going to lead you to those underground tunnels. I’m going to help you catch the kidnappers too.”
“We will face many dangers,” Calli warned her.
“I live on the streets. For me, just fetching breakfast means facing many dangers.”
Calli and young Leda walked off together down the street.
“Calli told me one of the jobs Gaius had gotten her led her to me,” I said to Nero. “This job. Gaius got Calli the job. And he was waiting in that alley to head me off, to make me change direction so I’d cross paths with Calli. I’d once thought we’d met by chance, but nothing was by chance. It was all meticulously arranged. Nero?”
Nero looked away from Calli and my younger self. “Sorry, Pandora. I was distracted.”
I smirked at him. “Curious to know what I was like as a child?”
“You didn’t have a handle on your mouth back then either,” he scolded me. “Mouthing off to a stranger, an adult who was much bigger than you, and who was armed. What were you thinking? How could you be so reckless?”
“You’re chastising me for my recklessness twelve years ago? Seriously?”
“With that mouth of yours, it was a wonder you survived long enough for us to meet.”
I snorted.
“Leda, this is no laughing matter.”
“Of course not, General Killjoy, but laughter makes me keep a grip as I watch my past unravel before me—and realize that my whole life was completely manipulated. I never had a choice in anything.”
Nero set his hands on my shoulders. “You did have a choice. You chose to help Calli.”
“Gaius had probably been watching me and knew what kind of person I was. Hell, he’d made me into that person by having me grow up with Aradia. He knew where Aradia’s house was. Where I was. He could have told the gods or demons at any point where I was living, but he had me grow up with Aradia. And then he made sure Calli took me in. He also made sure that Calli took in Zane, Gin, Tessa, and Bella. Why? Who is Gaius Knight? And what does he want?”
I looked at Arina. “Can’t you tell who he is? Isn’t that information kept somewhere inside the Vault?”
“I can’t tell,” Arina replied, and she looked frustrated. “Whenever I try to figure it out, I’m blocked. In fact, whenever I try to find out anything more about you, Calli, or your foster siblings, my magic is blocked. Whoever is blocking me understands my magic extremely well. That’s the most unsettling thing of all.”
Indeed. Arina’s magic was on the passive magic spectrum. There weren’t a whole lot of people around here who knew much about that kind of magic.
“Whoever is doing this, whoever put these visions into the Vault, they’re only letting us see what they want us to see,” Arina said. “And no more.”
Then, suddenly, I felt a rough jerk, and the three of us were ripped from the streets of Purgatory and thrown off the Road of Time.
