I shook my head. “I don’t believe any of you. But thank you for finally telling me somewhat of the truth.”
“I’m sorry, Gray. I loved you. I promise that was never a lie. But…”
“But what?” I prompted, my heart racing in my chest.
Slate’s mouth opened and closed. “But…” he started again, seeming to search for the right words. “You were never mine.”
The ancient symbolsscrawled within theBook of the Arcaneblurred together, forming odd pictures that reminded me of cloud gazing from the King's Palace balcony when I was a child. Squeezing my eyelids shut, I puffed out my cheeks and blew out an anxious breath. Propping my palm on my forehead, I threaded my fingers through my hair as I glanced up at Orion sitting across from me.
Orion’s eyes were bloodshot. Hours. We’d been at this for hours as the sun began to set. Exhaustion and strain were wearing him thin as he studied the texts with every spare minute he had. Ever since Chrome disappeared, he’d hardly left his office, determined to decipher the sigils of the language that we believed originated from Arcadia. He’d definitely made some progress with his translations, all thanks to Slate, which annoyed me because it gave him another excuse to linger around.
After I managed to fade us back to the Hollow from the leveled King’s Palace, Slate had explained how he’d been traveling between our world and Arcadia for the past two years. During his time in Arcadia, he’d picked up on a good portion of the language and learned quite a bit about its history. Since then, he’d been working with Orion, helping him to translateThe Book of the Arcanewhile informing everyone about what we were dealing with when it came to the Tempest queen, Celanea.
“Well?” Orion asked without pulling his eyes from his notes. Hisshort hair, the shade of pale sand, sat askew on his head, evidence of his frustration.
I leaned back in my seat, slumping down. “Nothing that we didn’t already know.”
“Please elaborate,” he droned.
“Well,” I started, “we already know that Infernals are basically Celestials, cursed to be more intelligent forms of the Endarkened. They’re dangerous.”
Orion hummed his agreement. “Nothing about the veil at all?”
“Not yet,” I replied as I continued to flip through the pages, seeking any information about the Twin Soul Bond or how to rebuild the veil.
Orion straightened, running his hands over his face. His beard grew longer by the week.
“When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?” I asked, my eyes narrowed.
“That,” he began, “is a question I don’t think I’m capable of answering.”
“Orion…”
Dropping his hands to his lap, he shrugged. “It’s the burden we carry. I just wish I could carry it with the strength and grace that Jonas and Lilly did, or even Chrome. He was born to lead, as were you. The only difference is that you haven’t accepted it yet.” Orion reached for a glass bottle about a quarter full of brown liquid. His drinking had escalated in recent months, but I genuinely couldn’t blame him. I wanted nothing more than to join him, but I had to fix the veil and restore Chrome.
I scoffed. “I’m not meant to be a leader, Orion. I can’t even lead myself.”
Orion’s smile grew wistful as he seemed to revisit the past. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard those words.”
I scrunched my brows, ready to press him further, when the door opened and Slate strolled inside Orion’s officewithout so much as a knock.
“Would you please go away?” I snapped. Just being around him triggered my anger. It was impossible to go anywhere without him crashing the party, even if he was helpful. It was just another painful reminder of how he’d been living a separate life behind my back.
“Nope.” Slate walked further into the room, pulling out a seat next to me before plopping down into it. “I can help you.”
I clenched my jaw. I’d rather eat glass. “Are you going to tell me who this mysterious person is that you know who could help us?”
“Nope.”
“Then you can’t help.”
“You’ll meet him when he’s ready for you to meet him,” Slate said, shrugging. Leaning his forearms on the oak desk littered with scratch paper, he angled his head to peer at me from the side. “Let me see the book. I know I can help you.”
I stared at him, the tension between the three of us tightening by the second.
Orion sipped from the liquor bottle, weariness tugging his features down more and more by the minute.
Now that Slate was actually alive and Chrome was…well…somewhere biologically altered, my emotions were all over the place.
