“Between the letters having my address and Savvy’s ex doxing my information, she had everything she needed to find me in Happiness.”
“The dress,” Sterling’s words carry a clinical tone as he studies a photo on his tablet. “The white dress in your package. That’s not a wedding dress like we first thought.”
I shake my head. “It’s an indoctrination dress for the ceremony where you officially become part of Roots of Salvation. Terra called it crossing over, from Styx to Stone.”
“Jesus,” Chase breathes.
“I never had the ceremony,” I continue. “I was supposed to the night I escaped. Terra had been planning it all year. She said I was the chosen one—the one she always wanted and hadwaited for. She was grooming me to be her successor, but I wasn’t like the other kids.”
My hands are shaking, so I clench them together in my lap. “I don’t remember much about my parents, but I thought of them often. I don’t even know if the memories of my mother’s kind eyes or my father’s gentle tone are real, but I never told another soul that. Even as a child, I knew it was dangerous to recall any memory of them. But it’s what I clung to during her sessions. She tried hard to erase them, and I fought hard to hold them close.”
“Fuck.” Chase crashes into a chair at my side. His grief for my loss makes that one curse word feel like it weighs a metric ton.
“Miriam educated me on the real world behind Terra’s back. She must have known that whatever Terra was planning for me was bad. I think she started teaching me from the very beginning because I don’t remember ever not having private lessons with her. She didn’t want me to end up like her sister. And Terra needed me to move ROS to the next level—in her vision—under her complete control—but I never understood why it had to be me specifically, and Miriam would never say.”
“That night, Miriam told us that Terra was escalating my crossover and it wouldn’t end well. That’s why we rushed into our plan and Valen called his aunt. We moved too quickly, and it all fell apart.”
“So,” Grant says. “She’s been planning this for years. Everything we’ve learned so far made me think she was impulsive and emotional. Waiting fourteen years doesn’t fit that profile.”
“Unless something, or someone, was keeping her contained.” Valen’s voice is a deep warning.
“Mom,” Sterling heaves. “You think she found a way to keep her away from you both.”
“The timeline fits,” Grant says, with a crease to his brow.
“With both Aunt Vivi and Miriam dead, there would be no one left to control her,” Valen agrees.
“What did they do?” I ask. “Keep her on house arrest? How do you keep someone hidden for a decade?”
“We’ve been…learning a lot about our mother since her passing,” Grant says carefully. “I can’t give more details until I unravel it all, but it’s possible my mother’s life had a darker side we never knew about. She wasn’t a villain,” he’s quick to add. “But I have reason to believe that she had the means and the motive to lock a devil like Terra away.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Valen shouts.
I flinch and curl in on myself.
I’ve come a long way in a short amount of time, but the violence in his tone has me reverting to the scared shell of a woman I was a few weeks ago.
Jesus, Clover. Get your shit together.
“Please, Valen.” There’s a sadness in Roman’s gaze as he answers. “Trust us a little longer while we figure everything out. Right now, your top priority is Clover. That means finding Terra, if it is Terra, and putting an end to whatever her disturbed goals are.”
The tightness in Valen’s jaw showcases his displeasure, but I can also see the love he has for his cousins, and it’s because of that love that he bites his tongue and allows them their secrets. For now.
“Terra hasn’t just been waiting though.” Valen’s voice is still hard. “What we saw at the compound isn’t desperation, it’s calculated revenge.”
“She wants us following her breadcrumbs.” The words tumble out as the story threads all weave together in my mind. “She always loved playing games that made her feel powerful. That’s what the stalker wall was. An invitation. She’s saying Iknow where you are, I know who you love, come and find me before I get to them.”
Grant’s smile is sharp. “Now that we know what she wants, we’ll use it against her.”
Silence settles over me as I grasp his meaning. “Use me, you mean.” I glance around the table, waiting for someone to deny it.
“No fucking way,” Chief says through gritted teeth. “We ain’t risking her. Not now, not ever.”
“We’d never put her in danger,” Sterling says carefully. “But if we could create the appearance of her being vulnerable, accessible, it might draw her out.”
“No,” Chief shouts at the same time I say, “A trap.”
Wrecks whines under the table and nuzzles his head deeper into my lap.
