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“Evan!” Celie was the first one to react, and unexpectedly, she ran towards him. It looked like she wanted to hug him, but of course, she didn’t. Instead, she grabbed onto his shirt sleeve, taking in his ragged appearance and bloody face with panic. “What happened to you? You’re going to bleed to death!”

“It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry about it.”

“That certainly looks worrisome…” A firm and slightly upset voice spoke.

Evan turned to the silver-haired woman, her stormy grey eyes narrowed at him. He deflated a little. “Rhea.”

“It’s been a while,” Rhea stepped closer, placing a hand against the bleeding gash on his forehead. The wound started slowly sealing closed. “I see you’ve been engaging with interesting people.”

Her eyes flickered to Delos, and finally, the third person spoke up.

“Okay, we found Big Bro. Great! Now can we go back and look for the others?” Elysia’s usually bright eyes were red-rimmed.

“Look for whom?” Evan turned to Celie. “What happened?”

Celie heaved a tired breath and started explaining.

When Evan had suddenly disappeared along with Aaron from his closed room, the five friends had been shocked for just a brief moment before they started panicking. None of them had ever witnessed such a phenomenon before.

Celie was the one who shook off the shock first and came up with the idea to seek out Rhea. She was the only one, besidesEvan, that Celie knew who could deal with such supernatural stuff.

Even though Celie had always been a little wary of Rhea, she was their only source of direction. Celie and her friends asked around until someone finally pointed them in the direction of the antique shop. When they swarmed into the cramped space, Rhea wasn’t really surprised when she heard how Evan had disappeared, but her expression hardened.

Without thinking twice, as if she knew exactly where to find Evan, Rhea led the group towards the restricted land of the Old Temple. But the situation escalated when, halfway across the land, Nick, Rumi, and Wren suddenly disappeared. Even Rhea was shocked when the children vanished from under her nose.

As Celie recounted the incidents, Elysia grabbed Evan’s hands. Tears stained her flushed cheeks as her composure shattered and she finally cried out, “Please find them, Evan! My…my brother is gone too. Please find him.”

Evan instinctively squeezed her hand back in reassurance, still not sure how to comfort a crying person. Then suddenly, he frowned. “Uh, yourbrother?”

Wren and Rumi were siblings, so was Nick Elysia’s brother?

When Elysia just kept sobbing, Celie answered, “Wren is her brother. They’re twins.”

Evan stared at his sister and almost asked,Are you sure?

Because how? This pink-haired, bright-faced ball of sunshine was a blood relative of the gloomy-faced, dark-haired boy who had a daily word limit of two sentences? And not just any relative.Twins?

Not only were they the farthest apart in personalities, but they didn’t even closely resemble each other.

Well…if Elysia painted her hair black, and Wrentriedto look less melancholy, maybe there could be some semblance of similarity between them.

But the way Elysia was blubbering uncontrollably, it was evident that she was scared for her brother. There was no need for confirmation.

With a gentle hand on her shoulder, Evan assured her in his best big brother voice. “We’ll find them. I promise.”

Upon hearing that, she started crying harder, and clung to Evan.

When Rhea removed her hand from Evan’s wound, the bleeding had stopped. “This will have to do for now. Let’s find the kids and go back.”

“Wait. Aaron is still with the—”

“That is not your problem to deal with anymore,” Rhea firmly cut him off. “Aaron made a choice, so he has to bear the consequences.”

That stumped Evan into silence for a moment. “Consequences?” his brows furrowed. “What do you mean? What choice?”

Rhea’s lips pressed into a straight line. “Aaron wasn’t forcefully taken away, Evan. He colluded with the Covenant of Nightshade willingly, on his own accord.”

Evan’s blood froze in his veins. “What?”