79
Ivy
“There are nearly two hundred names on this list,” Maeve said as she set down the final book. “We need to send this to Sao and have Elara cross reference it with those we have in custody, and our records. Some of these names likely won’t appear on our master list of traitors, but I want protection on all these people.”
It had been a trip. No one believed me about the ghosts, but if I had to guess, there were plenty down there. It wasn’t a finished basement like the one Kerry had in my childhood home. The one here was more like a creepy dungeon.
You’d think there were charms for spiders, but no. Plenty of resident ones to outnumber us.
And to my horror, there had been cells. For rabid vampires or something, but still.
We had a mini prison.
That was so up on the list to get rid of.
“I recognise one of these names,” Hawk said, staring intently at one of the books. I couldn’t help but stiffen as I watched him try and reach at the memory. “I…saw it once.”
“Before your memories were wiped?” I asked softly.
Hawk looked up at me, blinking. “Yes.” He closed the book and sat back, eyes closing. “But I can’t catch the memory. It wasn’t important until…” Dark eyes opened, finding mine. I couldn’t help but suck in a breath; for a moment, I wasn’t looking at the confused yet gentle half-demon who escaped Dante with me—for a moment, it was the half-Fae commander I stared at. The one who used his body to shield me when the training rooms caved in around us and my magic was stolen, who pushed me away constantly and said he never wanted the bond with me in the first place.
Then Hawk blinked, and the male I knew too well was gone. Replaced with confusion, shame.
“A priestess’s daughter,” he murmured, shoving the tome away. “I remember a girl being attacked.”
“The Seer,” Rowan said, voice tight. “The one my mother told us about. At the attack on the temple outside of the academy.”
I remembered that; it’d been during the time I’d been healing, when Nyx first warned me of the danger Dante posed. After the attack at the academy that led me to learning Hawk was my mate.
“There was a poison witch, too,” I remembered, glancing at Rowan. “Two little girls had been attacked at the same time.”
Maeve made a sound in the back of her throat as she searched her tablet. “Both held powers Dante wanted because we’d taken them from him. The Seer because he didn’t have one, and a poison witch to replace the one we took into custody at the attack in the human world.”
My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat. “But they were saved, weren’t they?”
Maeve looked up at me, her expression carefully shielded. “The young Seer’s mother took the brunt of the attack. Was harmed in the process. She had to be placed in the care of the priestesses full time and is catatonic.”
Tears burned my eyes, tears I tried to blink away. “And the girl?”
“She’s still in hiding, as far as I can tell.” Maeve shook her head, the mask slipping for a moment, revealing I knew she wouldn’t want the others to see. “The other child, the poisonwitch, should be in lockdown. All our towns in the human world have been put in darkness. They should be safe.”
My belly gave another uncomfortable twist as I sat back. “There are probably a lot of children on those lists. They’re easy to manipulate. To turn into the perfect soldier.”
“As far as we can tell, all the children you guys got out were shifter children,” Adrian said gently. “Dante likely never got a chance to go after the ones he wanted.”
He would not keep them together,Thor said, hand on my wrist.He would hold them somewhere else. The shifter children were kept in cages to make them shift. Other creatures would be elsewhere.
I was going to be sick. “The children we rescued wouldn’t have been with other children—if he had them.”
“We never found any evidence that he had others in the compound,” Maeve replied, “but I can have Elara send agents back in to check again.”
Shaking my head, I pressed a hand against my churning stomach. “It’s too late now,” I said, looking between her and the others. “Dante would have moved them somewhere else. And if he has these other creatures and he’s preparing?—”
A piece of paper appeared on the table, discarded by shadows. The magic sent a chill down my spine.
“Who is it from?” I asked quietly, hands trembling as I rested them over my stomach protectively.
Damon used his shadows to lift the paper into the air. “It’s from Sao.”
