Silas had called me valuable, and now I was locked up in a cage. Fair enough. But keeping Angel out of his reach turned out to be the right thing to do, otherwise I was positive she would be caged up, too. The most difficult decision of my life - dropping her off into the hands of a total stranger - ended up being the most important decision, too. I thanked the gods she was anywhere but here.
But to make sure Angel was permanently safe, I knew what I had to do.
Lie.
The only problem was Kassius. Would he believe me? Would he understand what I was trying to do, or would he ruin everything?
Once again, I had no other choice. I had to trust Kass - and doing that meant utterly betraying the trust he had in me.
When I opened my eyes, they were rimmed with tears. Zenon’s face was neutral, while Silas furrowed his brow.
“I…” I lowered my gaze, pointedly avoiding looking at Kass. “I can’t tell you.”
“And why is that?” Zenon asked.
“Because even if you found her body, there would be no point.”
There.
I felt the tiny jolt of shock running through everybody present.
Silas was the first to speak. “Her… body?”
My mouth tightened. The tears threatening to overflow in my eyes finally broke. They slipped silently down my cheeks. “Yes.”
“Dear Halo,” Zenon murmured, his face surprisingly full of sympathy, “do you mean to tell me that the child is no longer alive?”
I raised my head to stare at Kass. This was it. The moment where he would believe me, and ruin our relationship for a final time - or realize I was lying, and doom our entire family?
“Yes,” I said, my voice low and cracking, “Angel is dead.”
