Page 104 of Serpent & Saviors

A guttural sound emerged as he choked out, “You lied?”

“The woman—” She stopped, shaking her head. “Never existed.”

He flinched. “Never existed?” His breath left him in a sharp, pained exhale.

I didn’t need to be inside the man’s head to know the storm raging inside him. The realization. The guilt. The horror of it. Alek leaned forward as if to intervene, but I shot him a look. Not now. This wasn’t ours to touch. This was between them. A brother and a sister, standing in the wreckage of a truth long buried.

“Mum and Dad can never know. I met the Pianist first and I don’t know roughly—”

“Sixty days,” Victoria supplied as Isabella nodded.

“And sixty days later is when I first encountered the Swan. There’s still one of us missing. Her nickname is undetermined.” Isabella finished her statement and lowered her eyes, but not before I saw the pangs of sorrow fill them.

Kinsley momentarily let Victoria’s hand go and threw her arms around the shaking, dark-haired girl to her left. Soothing words washed over her, and I was astonished once more at the depth of their connection. Once she straightened back up and looped pinkies with the other two girls, Victoria spoke.

“Sebastian, a long time ago there were four little girls. I was Summer, Kinsley was Spring, and Isabella was Autumn. We are still missing one sister. Her name is unknown to us by anything other than Winter,” Tori shared.

The look on his face was haunted, and he once more shook his head.

Tori continued, her voice rising with emotion. “I need to look Cameron in the eyes when he has no power left. As you know, he tortured me. What you don’t know is I journaled for years, detailed everything out with precision. Things that happened to me, to Kinsley, to Winter, and even things about Isabella. Cameron used everything I wrote and tortured me with not only my greatest fears, but theirs as well.”

“Stop,” Sebastian commanded.

She shook her head. “No, I need you to hear this. Without their strength, I would never have made it through, so I’d like to put it to a vote. I want them with me when I confront Cameron.”

Sebastian glanced around the room, looking for support—backup.

“And I want in, for what he did to my season sister,” Kinsley growled. “It’s the closest Izzy and I will get to exacting revenge in our lifetime.”

Nik shook his head. “Baby girl, it’s too risky. If things go south—”

“They won’t,” she retorted confidently. “We vote. We’re a family and that is what we do.”

“I need to do this. We need to do this. It’s closure for me, for us. You can’t know what it will mean, Sir,” Victoria added.

“Counselor, how long have you known?” Alek asked, his cheek twitching.

“Not until I read her journals. So two weeks, tops. This one is the biggest secret keeper of all.” I notched my head in Kinsley’s direction. She at least had the sense to look down. “Followed by Bellaruso.”

“We are all ayes. Time to vote, gentlemen,” Kinsley said, once more confident and not reading the room in the slightest.

I knew where I stood, but I let everyone go before me.

Nik exhaled sharply, already shaking his head. “Nay.” His eyes flashed to Alek’s.

“I’m with Nik,” Alek said, and Kinsley’s face fell.

Sebastian’s fists clenched, his entire posture rigid with barely controlled anger. The intensity rolling off him filled the room. He wasn’t just going to vote—he was pissed that we were even discussing this. Alek called his name.

“It’s a hell fucking no for me,” Bash spat, his voice edged with frustration. “This is crew business, not a fucking beach holiday. The girls don’t belong in the middle of this shit. I know you’re hurting Tori and for that, I’m sorry.”

“I stand with the girls. I’m an aye. My little Swan is wicked talented with a knife. I’ll even let you have a single cut, just not the jugular or carotid artery this time,” Ivan said with a wink.

Sebastian shot to his feet, his jaw clenched as he glared at Ivan. “Are you serious? You vote yes? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, just stood and stormed from the room. I was torn on whether to stay or go. The voting was almost finished. Pasha hadn’t voted yet. I needed to know where he stood.

“Dancer?”