Brielle Holloway: Deceased
The shock wave of hearing the news of my mother’s death crashed over me all over again. I shoved the paper back and tried to blink back tears, still digging through the file. If only these were as well organized as the rest of the Employer’s office had been. I skimmed past name after name until I found another familiar one.
Tavrek Holloway: Recovered
A sigh of relief slipped out of my mouth. Ambrose had said that my father was alive and had been sold to a wealthy family. Perhaps that was why the Employer didn’t want a bounty out on my father. I clung to that hope. No matter what had happened to my mother, I still had at least one family member still alive. Now to find the final one. My optimism dwindled as I neared the end of the file, but just as I was about to give up hope, I saw her name.
Nora Holloway: Recovered
I pulled out the paper and stared hungrily at it. Nora’s status was also recovered. That must mean that Ambrose knew something about Nora now. He might even have had an update that he intended to tell me before the Nightsworn came to raid. I had to find him and ask. I’d put a bounty on my father; why hadn’t I done the same for my sister?
Just as I was about to shove the drawer closed, the last paper in the file caught my eye.
Jillian Holloway: In Progress.
Puzzled, I pulled it out. The paper with my name lacked information found on the others. Could it be another Jillian? It was a common enough name. But the line on age said six years old, and the paper was dated some sixteen years previous. Someone was looking for me.
Questions exploded one after the other in my head. I’d never been sold until Lochlan had me go undercover. I’d been left behind when my family was taken. Had this document been forged? But how could anyone have known my name and age? Had they questioned my parents or sister and forced them to tell?
I kept looking at the documents, my brow knit in confusion, until I heard the sound of someone hammering on the street outside. I jumped and went back to Lochlan in the next room.
“I found them,” I told him, and showed him the papers. “Dahlia was right—my mother died. But my father is alive and I think Ambrose might have new information on my sister. And look, there was a document for me, too. See?”
Lochlan was staring out the window, glancing up and down the street. “Good, good,” he murmured distractedly. “We need to go. People are out there and they’re putting up notices.”
“We can get out through the back window,” I told him. “You won’t fit through the compost chute.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” he agreed, heading toward the back. “We need to go before anyone sees us here.”
“Did you hear what I said?” I asked as we cracked open the window and slipped out. “There was a paper with my name on it.”
“What?” Lochlan turned. “What do you mean?”
I handed it over. “See? They had the information from when my family was taken.”
“That’s strange,” Lochlan murmured, looking at the paper, then his head shot up. “Get down.” He steered me across the street while shielding me from view. “Someone’s over there.”
We ducked around the corner and Lochlan leaned back to look. “The Nightsworn are putting up some sort of notice. They posted several more while you were searching,” he reported in an undertone. After a moment, he added, “And now they’re leaving. I don’t think they saw us.”
I clutched the papers containing my family’s information. My father had been recovered. Was the Employer connected with the wealthy family who’d bought him? Had the family reported that my father was safe?
“Let’s go,” Lochlan said, heading down the street. “Roderick’s going to wonder where we’ve been all this…all this…”
He stared at the poster that had just been put up. “Oh no,” he breathed.
I followed his gaze and my knees almost buckled. The Nightsworn had put up another wanted poster, and the face pictured there was mine.
The nameGilwas scrawled at the top of the page, and Elvin’s style was unmistakable in the portrait. The worst part was that he knew my face all too well. In the section for aliases in the middle, “Jillian Holloway” was listed. There was no way I could hide now. Elvin must have drawn it, but he had been working for the Syndicate…unless he had been a double agent all this time, feeding information to the Nightsworn. That would explain why Elvin wanted to get so close to Ambrose and why the Nightsworn had taken Ambrose right as Elvin left. His whistling could’ve been the signal.
But it still didn’t add up. Elvin didn’t know I was a girl. Neither did Brent or Ambrose or any of them. How could they have known?
I whirled on Lochlan. “Did you have any part in this? Only you know my real name.”
Lochlan ripped the poster down and stared. “Who issued this?”
“You just said the Nightsworn were putting it up. Be honest. Did you tell anyone?”
“No one you would know.”
