I sighed. “I know why you acted. You said you have no control over your life. You’re the hundred and fourth son,” I exaggerated, “with no purpose but to be a pawn in your family’s power game.” I stopped twirling my hoodie and wrapped my arms around myself. “It was wrong, but I don’t think there is a person alive who doesn’t understand the urge to be more than they are.”
I locked my gaze with Erick; I swear I saw a tear form in the corner of his eye.
“You wanted to be more, and people died. Here’s your penance: face every family you hurt and say why. Then live with it. You’re an Adler Michelson; use your power to be better.”
Erick glared at me, though his barrel chest deflated.
Voices murmured, and I let them, still holding Erick’s gaze. My roommate wasn’t evil. In his own way, he’d helped me. He was a womanizing asshole who discarded people like dirty laundry, but he hadn’t set out to hurt anyone. I hated it, but of the three so far, he was the only one who deserved a second chance.
Deirdre Grierson cleared her throat. “That… was not what I anticipated.”
Unlike the other two, two guards came up on the stage and asked Erick to come with them. I pursed my lips, questioning exactly how much of a prisoner Erick had actually been. Two hundredth son or not, were the Griersons really willing to risk angering one of the leading London families?
“Free will!” A woman screamed. I was ninety percent sure it was Everly.
I beamed while Deirdre Grierson scowled and nudged me toward Seth.
“And how did you get here?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.
Seth turned pink. “Ah, Hero asked me if I would volunteer to help, and I said yes.”
Everly had to have put her twin up to it. I took a deep breath. “How are you still alive, Seth?”
Someone barked out a laugh that sent a ripple of chuckles through the crowd.
Seth looked like he wanted to bury himself, while Deirdre Grierson’s face glinted with murder.
I met her grimacing face. “I’ve never met anyone as gullible, or with as much bad luck, as Seth. He just wanted to be my friendand ended up literally standing in the wrong place too many times. Let the poor guy go.”
Deirdre Grierson took a sharp breath. “It seems there has been… a mistake.”
One created by Everly to make her family look bad; I was sure of it. Score one for friends!
I took a single step toward her. “Yes. A lot of them. What do you think this proved, other than only the people involved in these situations know enough to judge them?”
My heart raced. I knew this because I lived it—friends, enemies, every tangled piece.
Deirdre looked down her nose at me. “The people will judge. Not you.”
I almost laughed. The people? She meant herself, dressed up in a prettier word.
Her voice carried back to the boxes as she twisted my freeing of Seth into proof of the Architect’s control.
I bit my lips shut, tuned her out, and stepped to Seth. The man took my offered hand, just like he had when we first met. Instead of him pulling me forward with concern, I pulled him off the platform before Deirdre could drop him. “You’ve got to stop blindly taking everyone at their word.”
Seth’s face pinched.
Two people walked up to the ring, and I did a double take. Hero’s stoic face was locked onto Seth, almost with the same intensity he guarded his twin. Next to him stood a woman who couldn’t be much taller than me. Her long black hair was up in a pile of messy braids on her head, and her dark eyes bounced between me and Seth. Even being a woman, I couldn’t help but notice the ample, bouncing cleavage supported by a vest of blood red, over her simple cream dress.
Blood red. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Was Hero dating?
I forced myself to stop staring and gently pushed Seth toward the edge of the stage. “I don’t know if you understood Everly’s plan, but thanks for your help,” I said.
“Yeah. Um.” Seth mumbled. “I had no idea. Hero just said he needed my help… I’m just going to get out of here now, if that’s okay with you.”
The two helped him down. The woman grabbed Seth and kissed him hard, while Hero clapped his back, squishing her between them. Before they disappeared into the crowd, the woman took one final look at me, with eyes begging me for something I didn’t understand.
Or maybe I did. The woman after Ravana’s impromptu party stuck out in my memory. But I’d only just learned I might be doing something. There was no way people were already talking.
