My face fell, thinking about Arc. About what I’ve seen himdoto Dimitri. I doubted those two would ever be willing toshare…
“What happened, Dimitri?” I asked finally, stopping my useless cupboard searches, facing him on the other side of the island counter.
His shoulders tensed, grip tightening around his small cup.
“We were having such a nice talk, did you really have to ruin it?”
I frowned. “I’ve seen things.” It caught his attention, but his face remained unreadable. “And I can’t explain it. I can’texplainwhat happened—why I’ve seen my oldest friend change from a mindful, benevolent person to a ruthless monster. And I’veseenwhat he did. Like I usually do when I end up in Arc’s mind, but this time he had no idea I was there. He couldn’t hear me or even feel my presence.”
“How are you even getting into his mind?” Dimitri asked.
“I—” I stopped myself from brushing his question off.Honesty. No more lies in the tie group. “I’m kind of his guardian angel. When I fell, I ended up sharing a connection with him, and I’ve been by his side ever since.”
Dimitri’s bright red eyes were scrutinizing. “What did you see?” he asked, tone clipped.
So I told him. Everything from the moment Nomin and a whole army found them in the desert, to the vague memories I have of him escaping, and the weird mind attack that happened right before he came back.
“It seems like you had a front row seat. I don’t get why you’re asking me what happened,” he drawled, turning his back to me and heading to the sink to wash his cup. “But you did get things right. Nomin isalso Lola’s mate. And the Warlock who basically raised Arc, from what I understood.”
“RaisedArc?” It made no sense. Warlock and Witches didn’t live more than a few centuries at most, certainly notmillennia.
Dimitri shrugged. “Look, I don’t remember most of the things you saw,” he said, his voice turning darker. “I was in and out of it. And I don’t feel like talking about it for now. Not until Lola gets too impatient and forces me to go back there to get Arc back—which I’m not too eager to do.”
That made me pause. “You didn’t tell her?”
He let out a heavy sigh, dropping the cup in the sink and turning to me with a hard look.
“OfcourseI didn’t. How do you think she’ll react if she learns one of her mates is actively hurting the other? She hasno soul, Carter. No anchor for us to tie ourselves to. We mightneverbe the happy binded group you’ve pictured in your wildest angel dreams. Arc and I won’t ever get along, and Nomin is barely more than an empty shell—”
“That’s not true,” I interrupted, shaking my head softly.
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“About Nomin. I don’t think he’s an empty shell. Hereached outto me. Not in the most pleasant way, sure, but he did try to contact me.”
Dimitri exhaled a shaky breath and turned back to the sink, hands gripping tightly at the lip before he picked the cup back. “What did he say to you?”
“I—I don’t remember. Not much anyway. He asked me to save you, I think. And byyou, I mean you two or maybe other people. He said ‘us’. Then it all became a bit blurry and I heard you.”
He scoffed. “You heardme?”
“Yes. Something about a cage before it started to sound like a violent fight. You arrived back here the next day.” I wish I was able to read and understand the emotions in his eyes. He was impossible to figure out. “So I don’t think he’s an empty shell. I think he’s fighting to get free. I think he might be an asset when we go back there.”
Dimitri stared at me. Was it some sort of surprise? Confusion?Anger? All of those would make sense. After all, he’s been held and tortured there. By both ArcandNomin. The last thing I expected him to do was to go back and try to get his jailers out, even if his mate begged him to go and “save them.”
But maybe Lola, if she was insistent enough, would convince him.
No matter what had happened, we couldn’t just leave them there. Arc needed to come back and owed us answers.
It was almost 8:00 p.m, and still no signs of Lola. What if she wassoupset that she went back to the state she was in when Dimitri and Arc first disappeared?
I doubted Maggie—or whatever their names were—was happy with the idea of Lola crashing in her space again. With Vladimir now living in her old apartment, there were little chances I’d find her over there.
So, I prepared a coffee and took off, bringing my peace offering with me to the Archives.
I kept repeating what I wanted to tell her in my head. We had to clear the air. Get rid of every dumb secret that threatened to make the angry stage longer than it should be. Haven’t we spent enough time angry at each other? Fighting for dumb things? For repressed feelings and untold things?
It was time we both placed all our cards on the table.
