Page 77 of Demon Found

The simple way she states that is jarring. One nice thing? Was her childhood that bleak? She’s never talked about it.I didn’t know.

I didn’t ask.

“I know what I saw. You don’t have to believe me.” Chano pulls a crumpled bag from his pocket. “We can test it.”

Shit. The suppressant father told me Seth was giving her. That’s how he’s been dosing her. I look down and my gaze catches on my allegiance mark. My finger glides over the pattern.

“We don’t need to test it. I know what it is.”

Every single pair of eyes in the room turns in my direction, and precisely none of them are friendly.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I plow on. “I’m making a choice right now. I’m choosing this allegiance over my father.”

“Well go you,” Lorelei snaps, her lip curled.

“Let him speak. That’s no easy choice.” Chano’s words surprise me, and I give him a slight nod.

“My father knows what you are, Lorelei. He’s been paying Seth to dose you with suppressant. It’s why you’ve been having so many problems accessing your magic.”

Lorelei takes a few short strides away, placing herself as far from me as the tiny dorm will allow. She perches on her desk, arms folded and shoulders hunched.Why doesn’t she say something? Shout at me. Anything.

“How long? How long have you known?” Zephyr’s eyes are lit with a rage I didn’t know he contained.

“A week. I swear just since Solstice break.”

“What am I?”

Lorelei’s three little words break me. She’s not angry. She looks sad and lost. Without thinking I walk toward her and take one of her hands. “You’re an aether elemental.”

Lorelei’s mouth gapes open. “My third element is aether?”

“Your first. You’re anaetherelemental. Lori, there are no true aethers left. None. You’re it. You’ll be powerful and valuable. Especially to people like my father.”

A cloud of dust explodes in my face, and I duck. Chano pulls his hand out of the wall inches from my head.

“What else, silver spoon?”

“Nothing.” A knot forms in my stomach. I force my next words out, slimy traitorous syllables that physically hurt. “My father didn’t say anything else.”

Backing away from Chano’s advancing bulk, I hold up my hands a second time. “I don’t have the full picture, but my father is a dangerous man. We have to be careful.” At least that much is the truth.

The room descends into chaotic chatter, and I hunch over, propping myself on the wall, picking dejectedly at the busted plasterboard.It’s done.They believe me.

Naeve tugs me aside, Zephyr at her shoulder. She’s agitated.

“Youknowyour father wants her for the rebellion. It’s the only thing that makes sense. You have to tell tell them.”

I blink. Naeve never stands up to me. Never. Zephyr nods behind her. Is it really so easy for their loyalty to shift? What’s so damn special about Lorelei anyway? Except . . . everything. I get it. And yet I can’t put her above the cause.

“And have one of them betray me, betray the cause? I didn’t go through everything to fail now. I won’t do it.”

Zephyr’s abject disappointment splinters my soul.

These are the kinds of decisions I make all the time.You try being me.

Chapter Thirty-eight: Lorelei

Wrappingmyarmsaroundmy knees I rock backward and forward. It’s what every little girl wants, right? To be told they’re special. Except, I don’t. This is terrifying. I’ve been consuming suppressant for half a year. No wonder my powers are fucked. Seth . . . my heart squeezes painfully. He never, ever cared. He was being paid to poison me. My only family. And he used one of the only good memories I have to do it.

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