Page 445 of A Society of Traitors

The horror in her eyes was so obvious that even I could see it. And it scared me. Not because I was afraid of Quentin, but because of what the others could see in him.

I pressed my lips together.

Something inside me wanted to defend him. For some reason, I trusted him like I would trust no one else in this town.

Was I a fool?

“He won't,” I assured more to myself than Emely.

“Oooh no, Julie.” Emely stood up and tied her long, black-brown hair back into a ponytail. “You're blinded by your feelings for this man. So much so that you're ignoring all the warning signs.”

I bit my tongue.

She was right.

I tried to see Quentin, but I always ended up seeing Erik.

Memories of that moment came flooding back when he had revealed to me that the Councils had taken his family away from him. I could only imagine that it had something to do with the Tiberius family breaking the rules of Quatura society, but I didn't know anything more specific.

All I had known at that moment was that I wanted to take him in my arms and take away all the pain that his underground life had left on him.

Erik may not have any visible scars, but they ran across the inside of his soul, forming a patchwork quilt that I wanted to study to find out what I had to do to make him forget every single stitch.

“We have made a blood oath that forbids us from causing each other physical harm.”

The three stared at me, and overwhelmed, I looked down at my fingers where ice was collecting on their tips.

“What if, just like us, he’s simply fed up with the conflicts between the species?” Larissa said thoughtfully. “And maybe what he shows in the seminar and in the lab is just a façade?” She looked from me to Emely. “What if Julie is really important to him, to Erik?”

“We don’t know,” Emely said, slamming her books shut.

I had to ask her to keep this to herself before she disappeared and maybe got the idea to talk to her uncle about it.

“We could find out.”

I looked at Larissa, confused.

Emely paused.