Page 130 of The Art of Exiley

“So, what’s with the radio silence?” I ask. “And the big middle finger to everything our families believe in?”

“Yeah, right. None of this extremist stuff the Oculus is up to has anything to do with our families’ beliefs.”

I’m so relieved to hear her say this. It’s been hard to rely on my gut that all of this is wrong when the people I trust the most think it’s okay. Knowing Izzy feels the same confirms that I’m not overreacting. And it means that the Oculus is diverging from the Families’ values, as opposed to the other explanation that I was starting to dread might be true, that this is who they have been all along, and everything I grew up knowing was a lie.

Now that she’ll finally speak to me about it, I’ve been squeezing Mom for as much information about the Families as I can. It seems the Oculushas always had grander plans than the mere stewardship of the rest of the Families. Kor’s father, Aragon, had dedicated his life to finding the exiles so their innovations could be shared and had passed this passion on to Kor. But now, as more of the Inner Chamber are being brought into the new operation, there are many who don’t agree with the radical changes.

Izzy is surprised that I’m choosing to act against Kor.

“I tried to warn you, but you were never going to listen to me over him.”

“You didn’twarnme. You just told me not to go to Italy without any explanation. I thought it was a drunk text!”

“I’m sorry for how I handled things. I didn’t know who I could trust.”

I want to be hurt that Izzy didn’t have faith in me, but considering how many people I’ve mistakenly trusted recently, I can’t blame her for taking the wiser approach.

Izzy explains that as soon as I told her about my abilities and she’d begun to research Sires, it uncovered a lot that concerned her about the Oculus and their methods. Once she found out about the abductions, she knew she couldn’t be a part of it, but she wasn’t sure if the Families would let her walk away. Luckily, Georgie wasn’t the only one to identify her from the Hidden forum. Nora Montaigne had as well, and she’d used her influence to keep Izzy safely away from the Families’ demands.

But Izzy is still in touch with her brother, Roman, who keeps her updated. “And I still have access to all their databases,” she adds slyly. So she has a lot of useful information.

She can’t answer all my questions, but she shares enough that I can put the pieces together to get a sense of what Kor has in mind.

And it ain’t good.

“I have to talk to Kor and try to stop him.”

Izzy crinkles her brow. “How? They’ve already left.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean they’re already headed to Arcadia. Roman called to say goodbye around dawn.”

I freeze in panic. How is all of this happening so fast? I close my eyes and breathe deeply. I need to think. “Do you know how many others are with him?”

“Kor, Roman, and Alfie are the only Inner Circle members. Roman mentioned a few others, but they’re not Inner Circle, so my guess is they could be medics or engineers for tech or transportation?”

“We need to warn Genesis,” I say to Georgie, who flicks her eyes to Izzy nervously.

“I get it,” Izzy says. “Time to talk about the big secrets. I’ll bounce. I miss you, Ada. Catch you soon, Boots!”

As soon as Izzy’s window closes, Georgie asks, “Should I get Master Loew?”

“Um, no, he doesn’t know about… my connections.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll get the blond jerk. Hang on.” She scrawls a pigeon.

A few minutes later, Rafe’s too-pretty face appears on my screen.

“How’s New York?” he asks, not looking remotely excited to see me. Guess he got over whatever we had pretty quick. I shouldn’t be surprised.

“It’s not great, but we have bigger problems.”

“I assume so if you’ve bothered to reach out to me after so long without a word.”

Georgie raises her brows to the heavens.

“Be pissy all you want later, but at this moment Kor is on his way to Arcadia.”

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