The girls all moved forward as one, and my hands shook as I reached for one of the goblets. The liquid inside smelled faintly of honey and something herbal.
“Drink,” the Council member commanded.
I lifted the goblet to my lips and drank. The elixir was sweet at first, then bitter, then sweet again. It burned slightly going down, and for a moment I felt nothing. Then the world tilted.
Not physically; I was still steady on my feet. But everything felt... different. Like all the walls I'd built around my thoughts and feelings had suddenly dissolved, leaving everything raw and exposed.
This was the truth serum. And it was already working.
“Approach the altar one at a time,” the Council member said. “Speak your deepest secret.”
The first girl stepped forward. She was trembling, and her cheeks were pink.
“I...” she started, then swallowed hard. “I had an affair with my English professor in my freshman year.”
The chamber was silent. No gasps, no reactions. Just dozens of eyes watching and judging.
The girl went on, giving us the full details of the story. Names, places, and so on. Finally, she stumbled back from the altar, and the next one took her place.
One by one, the girls confessed, each secret more scandalous than the last. Each confession was delivered with the eerie calm of someone who couldn't stop themselves from speaking.
Finally, it was my turn.
I approached the altar on unsteady legs, hyperaware of all the eyes on me. The Council. The Reapers. Roman, looking concerned. Julian, looking...
I couldn't read his expression at first, but a few seconds later, it finally clicked.
He was worried.
It suddenly dawned on me that I could destroy him right now, if I truly wanted to get revenge on him for everything he’d done to me in the past. I could tell the Club everything; that I'd been investigating them, that I'd found the tunnels, that I’dinfiltrated their initiation ceremony. I could expose how Julian had lied to cover it up. Betrayed his own Club for me.
I could end him with that single confession… and he knew it. That was what the concern in his expression was about. He was standing there, completely vulnerable, waiting to see if I'd choose revenge.
The words pressed against my lips, demanding to be spoken, but I didn’t say them. Because beneath the serum's influence, beneath all the confusion and anger and fear, there was something else. Something I'd been trying to deny for weeks, but couldn't any longer.
I didn't want to destroy Julian. Even after everything he'd done, even knowing what he was capable of, I didn't want to hurt him.
“My confession is about me and my sister,” I began.
Julian's posture shifted slightly. Relief, maybe, or continued wariness. He still didn't know where I was going with this.
“And our mother, too,” I added. “It all started with her.”
The relief on Julian’s face was unmistakable now. Whatever I was about to confess, it wasn't about him.
I drew a shaky breath and continued.
“My mom is a wonderful person, but she’s never been good at sustaining romantic relationships.” My voice sounded distant and mechanical under the serum's influence. “She broke up with my sister's father when she was three months pregnant with her. Three years later, she broke up with my father when I was a toddler. After that, she hopped from man to man.”
I paused, the memories crowding in.
“Only one relationship lasted longer than a few months. His name was Neil.”
The name tasted bitter on my tongue.
“Neil was really nice to us. Said he wanted to take care of us. My sister and I loved him, but we noticed that Mom changed alot after we moved in with him. She seemed jittery and anxious all the time, and she wore a lot more makeup than usual,” I went on. “We were only eight and nine years old, so we couldn’t understand what was really going on. Not until they let us out of school early one day, and we decided to walk home instead of calling Mom. When we got there… we heard them fighting. But it wasn’t just an argument. Neil was attacking Mom. Really going for her.”
I paused to swallow the lump that had gathered in my throat. Roman was staring at me with recognition flickering in his eyes. He'd already heard this story from Cal.
