“Let me help you,” Travis said.
The walls around the memory were solidifying.
The images were becoming clearer, a sign that Lucius had stayed too long, but he wanted to know how Hacinda and Travis knew each other and who she had been protecting.
Was this the reason she had betrayed him?
He needed to stay to hear the rest of it, to finally have the answers he sought.
Hacinda gazed past Travis, almost as if she was looking right at Lucius, which was impossible, because this was a memory—one where Lucius didn’t exist—but yet she looked right at him.
“I had a friend once,” she said. “That I betrayed. I was more than a friend to him; but he was a dear friend, and I ruined him. I did it to save Mario. It feels cruel and wrong, and I regret it. But that betrayal, it—”
“Lucius!” a voice called to him, but he was finally hearing what he needed to hear.
“Lucius!” The voice was louder, and suddenly, everything was shaking and moving.
“No!” he yelled. “Tell me!”
Hacinda continued to stare at him as if he was there. She opened her mouth, and the dream shattered.
Tavia stood over him, smacking his face.
He blinked his eyes. “What? Why did you wake me?”
“I think he’s waking up,” Tavia said.
Lucius looked over as the guard moved, a sign the tonic was wearing off. Dazed, Lucius tried to stand and wobbled a bit, but Tavia pulled him to his feet and looped her arm around his waist.
“What do we do now?”
“Leave. He’ll be waking up soon. Come on, hurry.”
“There’s someone here looking for you.”
Lucius already knew who it was, but they had no time for that. “Come on, let’s go.”
Tavia pulled him to his feet, and Lucius tried to gather his bearings, but it was difficult because the answers he saw were in that guard's mind.
But if they were caught, he’d be right back in that coffin, and Tavia arrested or worse—taken by the same organization that kidnapped him.
And he couldn’t let that happen.
Hehadto keep going.
He just didn’t seem to have the strength to do it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lucius dragged his feet forward, each step slow and sluggish.
Something was wrong, but Tavia didn’t have time to ask or contemplate it. Instead, she opened the door and peeked out.
There was no female hovering by, so she pulled Lucius out and closed the door behind him, quickly returning to the ballroom. S
She didn't know how long they had or what to do, and Lucius seemed dazed.
“What's the matter?” she whispered as she tried to make it seem like they were drunk and in love. She smiled, laughing, wobbling on her feet.
