Page 86 of Splitting Secrets
“Sonny, I know that it’s hard to wrap your mind around right now, but this is how everything was meant to happen. Even if you had known, I still would have died. You can’t stop fate.”
“No. I refuse to believe it was yourfateto be murdered in cold blood.”
She tilts her head, then looks at me through sad, wise eyes. “You aren’t supposed to understand it right now. Just know that I’m here with you now, in this form.”
I bite my lip to avoid arguing any further. Poppy didn’t deserve to die. I’ll never accept that. But I suppose seeing her like this is better than not at all.
And if everyone else is right and we’re coming up on war, I’ll be sure to get my revenge.
45
Raze
“They’ve figured out that I’m the leak,” I inform my mother, Theo, and Griff as I walk through the front door of my childhood home.
The three of them are waiting at her dining room table for me after I texted them to meet me here immediately when I left James Stanson’s office downtown.
I cross the short distance through her foyer in three long strides, my adrenaline so high that my shadows thrash beneath my skin to be set free as fight-or-flight takes hold of me.
“What makes you say that?” My mom questions slowly. Too slowly. She should be up and packing a bag already.
“Besides the fucking murder scene he staged? I heard his thoughts,” I explain in near-panic, and Griff hisses out a string of curse words.
He and Theo are the only two people outside of my family who know about my Mirrane gift—except maybe Sonny. It took years for my mother and I to build enough trust in them, but they’ve proven to be worthy of the knowledge.
I can feel the end coming near, though. I won’t be able to hide my gifts if we end up in a war against the Syndicate, and tonight feels a lot like the start of a war. Especially if I’m forced to defend the people I love.
“You aren’t supposed to be using your gifts on them,” she complains with a pointed glare. “You know they have ways of knowing.”
I shake my head at her dismissively and wrap my fingers around the back of the empty chair sitting before me to stop myself from ripping her out of her own chair and throwing her into the car myself. “If I hadn’t done it, I would be split open right now.”
My suspicions were raised when James invited me for an impromptu meeting at his office in the city building downtown this morning. There were a few things wrong with the invitation, but the most glaringly obvious was that the mayor of Nocturne Valley has always gone out of his way to distance himself from me—the weapon of the Midnight Syndicate.
Nocturnians have always had their suspicions about him, especially once it was found that Ashton Payne was on the council of Supremes. It was a scandal their family never recovered from, and ultimately what led to Stanson dethroning them as mayor. James has been obsessive over using his anonymous mask when he’s acting as the leader of the Syndicate and donning his saccharine smile whenever he’s acting as the mayor.
Inviting a known associate of the Midnight Syndicate is quite damning. Never worth the PR risk.
Still, I was curious, so I decided to arrive at our meeting a few moments early without his knowledge. I draped myself in shadows and walked right through his open door unseen.
What I found was enough to make my skin crawl.
Mayor Stanson had wrapped his entire office in thick plastic. From his desk to his bookcases and the pure white couches sitting off to the side—everything was covered. A steel table sat in the center of the room, covered in every weapon he could dream of.
He was going to kill me with his bare hands, Dexter-style. And have fun with it, too—the fucking psycho.
I’m not surprised they’ve caught onto me. With Sonny having been in and out of consciousness, I’ve been spending more time with her than anything else. Even my classes were canceled so I could sit at her bedside, waiting for her to wake so I know she’s safe.
What shocked me is how enthusiastic James was with his set up.
I’ve been killing for over a decade, and I’ve never hadthatface when anticipating my next victim.
Griff is already sliding his chair out and heading toward the basement, where my mother keeps her bug out bags for this exact occasion. “How long do you have to get out of here?”
“I’d say an hour, max. Our meeting should have started about—” I check my watch. “Twenty minutes ago.”
“They’ll know you came here,” Theo accuses, his voice raising three disbelieving octaves. He’s pissed atmefor wanting to bring my mother to safety before she ends up wrapped in clear plastic and stabbed to death?
“I know,” I push defensively, shifting my attention toward my mother. “I had to make sure you got out, though. You need to get your go-bag and leave town.”
