The chaotic puzzle pieces began to rotate in my mind. “I have a theory. It’s a bit crazy, but hear me out.”
Lorenzo and Scar stared at me intently, waiting for any sort of clue.
“What ifHenryinterrupted the magic?” I suggested.
Scar frowned, obviously let down by this idea. “But didn’t you just say earlier he was a lousy magic student?”
“Yes,” I replied, “but what if that was a lie?”
Lorenzo’s brows raised in sudden interest. “I see. So you’re saying he lied to you to cover his tracks, because it would be easy to find out that his sudden appearance and the flickering barrier would be connected.”
“Exactly!”
Scar’s face twisted with confusion and irritation. “So…Henryhas something to do with Angel? That he was the one who abandoned her? I knew I hated that guy!”
The puzzle pieces continued to fall into place. “You know, he did get strangely aggressive when I brought up Angel the night we broke up. It was almost like he disliked this child—this baby he had, supposedly, never met. I thought it was a bizarre that an omega, who is supposed to be naturally nurturing and kind to children, was essentially telling me to leave her.”
Scar’s face twisted into a snarl. “That bastard!Hewas the one who abandoned Angel?”
Angel, who had been sitting and gurgling in Scar’s lap the entire time, half-heartedly tossed the empty applesauce cup across the table. The plastic container hit Charlotte gently in the head.
Charlotte, who had been playing with some of Angel’s toys, was taken off guard by the sudden impact. She growled and shifted into her panther form, glaring right at Angel. Angel began laughing at the way Charlotte’s tail lashed back and forth.
Lorenzo frowned at his daughter. “Charlotte,” he began warningly.
But Charlotte didn’t listen. Half playful and half annoyed, Charlotte pounced across the table at Angel before of us knew what was happening.
“Angel!” Scar cried fearfully.
My blood ran cold. Even a playful panther cub’s claws could inflict serious damage on a baby as young as Angel. My whole body twisted and tensed, ready to shift and body block Charlotte from touching Angel.
But then something amazing happened.
Charlotte hit something. Her body bounced back as she yelped in surprise, stumbling upside down over the table.
My heart nearly stopped beating when I saw it—the translucent, shimmering sliver hovering in midair. It was small, only a sloppy rectangle of a few inches across, but it had been enough to repel Charlotte. Angel suddenly laughed again, full of excitement, and clapped her hands. As she did so, the barrier sliver faded.
The awe and realization hit me like a tidal wave.
“She knows clear magic,” I breathed.
Lorenzo’s expression matched how shocked I felt. “I can’t believe this… A child so young shouldn’t be so capable ofanymagic, especially not as something as powerful and difficult as clear magic. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
All of us turned to stare at her. Under the attention, she grinned a toothy grin and clapped with excitement.
“So, what does this mean?” Scar asked quietly—cautious, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.
I faced him. “Angel is Henry’s biological child.”
