Staring back at him, I blink as the jigsaw pieces start to move together in my mind.
Alicia. The stunt she pulled with the car.
Sienna.
Shaking my head, I turn again, scanning the faces around us. My mother doesn’t meet my eye, her face solemn as she stares at the ground.
“I didn’t write that letter,” I say slowly, turning back to my dad. “We absolutely do not Deny Sienna. Where is she?”
My dad pales, holding his hand out. “She… she’s gone, Tristan.”
Gone.
Gonegonegonegone.
The word burns into my brain. “That’s not possible,” I croak. “She can’t be.”
The heaviness that’s been sitting in my core for the last few days expands, filling my body until I’m pretty sure I could look down and see stone.
She’s not gone.
They’re punishing us for being late.
“Tristan,” my dad says grimly. His hands land on my shoulders, squeezing. “Son. Sienna has been sent over the wall.”
My knees hit the floor, my dad coming down with me as he talks frantically. There’s noise around us, people demanding, asking questions. My hands grip the carpet beneath my knees, crushing flower petals into the material.
But all I can see is my Soul Bonded’s face as she stood in the hallway and asked me if we would be here.
We didn’t show up. And now she’s gone.
Denied.
Sent over the wall, alone and defenseless, where Erikkson’s cronies are waiting for her.
Jax’s face swims in front of me as he lands next to my dad. His desperate words sound muffled as he grabs my shoulders, shaking me.
“Tristan!” His words break through the stone wall. “Snap out of it!”
The noise breaks through in a rush, filling my head with crying and screaming. My hands push against the floor as I pull myself upright.
“That’s enough!” I roar, and the courtyard silences immediately. Sienna’s father comes for me again, but my dad pushes him back. “John, wait. There’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Allowing my daughter anywhere near your son was a misunderstanding,” John Michaels snaps. His wife, Sienna’s mother, comes up next to him, devastation on her face, and puts her hand on his arm. His shoulders shake as he turns to her, pulling her to him.
I have to pull myself together. I can’t afford to fall apart now.
I take a few steps, my eyes scanning the crowd. They land on someone, lounging in a chair and picking at her nails.
Stalking forward and pushing people out of my way, I grab Alicia’s arm, ignoring her squeal, and drag her back to the crowd of Councilors and parents gathered around. People gasp as I throw her down, and I pull my phone from my pocket.
“Tell them,” I demand. “Tell them what you fucking did, Alicia. Tell them everything.”
She whimpers, and my dad turns to me. “Tristan.”
I’m shaking, and I feel my pack step up behind me. On this one thing, at least, we’re completely united. Alicia Erikkson will not fuck with us again. And there’s no way we’re leaving here to find our Soul Bonded without making sure everybody here knows it.
I lean forward with a snarl. “You won’t tell them? Then I will.”
