Page 64 of Invidia

“My brother’s creation,” the king offered, not expanding any further than that. “I don’t understand how it could have fallen into the wrong hands. Only a select few of us, plus the Council of Shades, have even seen it.”

“Where are the new Hunters?” I asked sharply.

“Sebastian and Cora are here,” Meera put in, frowning. “And their surprise and confusion does appear to be genuine.”

“Their scents indicate as such,” the king agreed. “But Lochan hasn’t been seen for hours.”

“Iris?” I prompted.

“Safe in her room with Damen,” Ophelia replied. “Did you see Soren and Astrid in there?”

I filled them in as quickly as I could. “Can I speak to Sebastian and Cora? I need to get back out to the in-between as per the lieutenant’s orders, but she would want me to do this first.”

“Go ahead,” the king said, stepping back and gesturing toward the bench where the two of them were sitting. There was no crowd of admirers surrounding them this time. They sat alone, looking convincingly confused.

“Do you have any news?” Cora asked hopefully the moment I approached. “We have no idea what’s going on, we don’t know where my brother is—”

“We believe your brother has somehow taken Tallulah and Austin back to the human realm, and is keeping them captive in a bright room that no Shade can access.”

Cora’s jaw went slack as she stared at me. “No. No, that can’t be right.”

I looked to Sebastian to see his reaction. He wasn’t stunned the way Cora was, but he was frowning. “I swear to you, as far as I’m aware, we all came here with the same good intentions. We were both handpicked for this role, given our remit by senior members of various Hunters Councils from around the world. There was a very genuine push to open a dialogue with you all, to try to find some semblance of normality before the Hunters started a revolt.”

“Why Lochan?” Meera asked. “You, I understand. You had that connection to Verity, and perhaps they thought that would come in handy. Lochan doesn’t have a pre-existing relationship with anyone.”

“Well, no,” Sebastian admitted, his cheeks flushing. “That was something I raised with a few of the higher-ups. But Lochan is Cal Thibaut’s protegee. No one can really tell him no—Mr. Thibaut holds the purse strings.”

Meera cursed softly. “You didn’t think that was pertinent information to mention? That Lochan works closely with Austin and Tallulah’s grandfather?”

Sebastian’s blush darkened. “I had assumed that Lochan would bring it up himself in his conversations with Tallulah. And I certainly didn’t have any reason to believe he had separate goals in mind.”

He switched his attention to me, eyes narrowing slightly. “You’re the one who guards the in-between, right? Shouldn’t you have seen them leave?”

“The in-between is an expansive place,” the king cut in sharply. “And there were deliberate obfuscation methods at play from the Hunters. I suppose you don’t know anything about that either.”

Sebastian’s scent soured, but his words had done enough damage. The mood in the dining hall had shifted, the negative attention I usually found directed my way back in full force.

They could hate me all they wanted. I wasn’t going to politely and silently stay out of the way like I had time and time again.

“I’m going to check in with Selene. I’ll send a runner to report back if there are any new developments,” I told the king, giving the royal couple each a brief bow.

Before I could leave, Meera tapped my arm, cautiously requesting my attention.

“Don’t give up on her, okay?” she murmured, something a little harder and more vicious in those dark eyes than I expected. “Don’t underestimate the Hunters either.”

“I won’t. I’ll be bringing Tallulah home. You can be certain of that.”

Chapter 23

Why was my mouth so dry? My head was pounding, and my stomach was churning like there was a whirlpool forming in my gut, even though I didn’t think there was any food in there to actually throw up.

“Tallulah! Wake up. Come on. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

Was that Austin? The words were such a low hiss, I was struggling to place the voice.

“’m awake,” I slurred, annoyed that my tongue was being so uncooperative.

“Tallulah.” Okay, that was definitely Austin’s voice. Austin’s serious voice. “I need you to wake all the way up, because we are in something of a predicament right now.”

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