Page 54 of Splitting Secrets
Me, Beatrix, and Ava keep our faces neutral. I’m glad Jonah is maintaining the same unfiltered communication that we’ve had since Matilda was brought down into the cells and began pointing fingers. We’ve been through so much together in the past few weeks, it feels wrong to put on a mask and pretend.
“He wasn’t given a choice,” Quinn states plainly, her gaze flicking between the four of us.
“We’ve accepted the circumstances and have appreciated the effort Raze puts into our mission,” Theo adds.
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. As iftheyhad a choice. “Matilda mentioned the first time I met her that my mother had come into the shop for protection spells. Wouldn’t that mean that she at least knew about me?”
Quinn raises her eyebrows at the mention of her friend, but quickly schools her expression in a halfhearted attempt to hide her shock. She certainly hasn’t mastered the skill as well as her son.
I toss my napkin on the table. “Right. You’ve got this organized resistance going, yet there seems to be all these huge secrets being held from each other...”
Her expression darkens. “What are you trying to insinuate?”
“I’m not insinuating anything. I’m trying to get a grasp on how quickly the Syndicate is going to infiltrate this movement and have your son kill us all. What I’m hearing are a lot of inconsistencies.”
“You’re underestimating us,” Theo argues, dropping his friendly, happy-go-lucky act.
“You should be careful how you speak to me in my own house, girl,” Quinn warns in that same condescending wayMatilda would, finally showing her teeth. “We’re the only thing standing between you and the death you seem to crave so badly.”
“That’s the point,” I say, holding my thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart. “We’ve just come this close to losing our lives because we found journals that he was keeping in Raze’s office. And because Matilda sent me into the woods with some mystery tonic that showed me years’ worth of visions. Hell, Raze looked me dead in the eye and all but confirmed he’d kill me if those two men commanded him to on the beach.”
“He knew they would have to go through their own bureaucratic bullshit before they could give that command,” Quinn interjects, which tells me they’ve had the conversation before.
“How are we supposed to believe that any of you want to help when all you’ve done is use us as playing pieces in your ridiculous little game?”
“It appears you’re fresh out of other choices, now aren’t you?” Quinn argues. “What you’re witnessing here is a fraction of what this movement is truly made of. These inconsistencies are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. And whatever you experienced in those cells is child’s play compared to what they’ll do to all of us if we’re caught.”
“Forgive us if we seem ungrateful for the risks you’ve taken to bring us to safety,” Ava interjects, her voice calm and smooth—always the voice of reason. “These past two months have had us questioning everything we thought we knew, and our worlds have been flipped upside down.” She tilts her head toward me. “Sonny had no idea the gifted bloodlines existed before she came to Ravenshurst.”
Quinn scrunches her nose. “That was a misstep on Divina Ellery’s part.”
“Regardless, it’s the truth. We’ve experienced trauma that we haven’t even begun to process. We miss our families. We haveno idea what our futures hold anymore. And it appears that until one of us makes the decision to trust the other, none of this will work.”
“How are we supposed to trust them when Raze is the one they’ll send after us if we’re caught?” Jonah asks her.
“Raze will not hurt you,” Quinn repeats the same mantra Matilda had been saying since her first day in the dungeons.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Beatrix pipes up. “If he has to choose between killing us on their command or compromising everything you’ve all built, what do you think he’ll decide?”
“It won’t come to that,” Theo insists.
Quinn jabs a finger into the wooden table. “Look, we’re all on the same team. We all agree that the Midnight Syndicate has been exploiting the Landry name and the families who founded this town for over a century, correct?”
We nod.
“Then, it doesn’t matter if Matilda didn’t tell us about Constance having a daughter or Raze keeping your relationship from us,” she says, offering me a pointed look. “Those are small details, and when you’re in a war, the small details are not worth getting tripped up on. Because make no mistake, we are in a war. And the moment you four escaped those dungeons, you became enemy number one.”
“So, what are you saying?” Ava asks. She wants to hear the words outright, with no room for interpretation.
“I’m extending the olive branch. I’m offering my trust first. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that.”
I swing my gaze toward my friends, who all have an equal say on whether we’ll be accepting the offer of peace. Quinn is correct in one regard: we don’t have any other options. If we walk out of here without agreeing to play their games, we’ll be completely on our own.
Is that a risk we’re willing to take in a world we had no idea contained so many sinister secrets? It’s clear that we mean something to them—or at least, I do, according to Finley, Matilda, and Raze.
None of us are likely to make it a week before being captured and killed.
When it’s clear the others are thinking the same thing, I turn back toward Quinn.
