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“You knew,” I managed to choke out over the rustling of documents and furious huffs of Ren going through the remaining contents of the box.

“I swear to you, Vi, I did not.”

I swiped the rest of it into my already overfull bag without looking, a couple of photographs falling to the floor. Staggering through the sensation that the world had turned on its axis, I knocked on the door.

“Let us out.”

“Vi,” Ren pleaded. “I swear, I didn’t know.”

The teller's curious face peeked through a gap in the door before she opened it enough to let me pass. “Everything in order?”

“Yes; I’m ready to go,” Isaid quickly, half running out of the vault and into the lobby before Ren caught up to me, catching my sleeve.

“Vi, please. There has to be an explanation?—”

I jerked my arm out of her grip, looking up at her wide-eyed face, feeling like I was seeing a stranger.

No, not a stranger. Someone I knew so much more deeply than anyone else. So much more than I could’ve ever imagined knowing.

“It wasn’t a past life we shared, Ren,” I hissed, making my way through the door. “It was this one. And it's over.”

She stumbled back like she’d been slapped, buying me valuable time to make a split-second decision once I was on the busy street. The bus has just pulled into the stop in front of the bank, letting out a group of commuters.

I hadn’t fully thought to move before I was stepping onto the bus, fishing in my bag for some money to pay the driver. I slid a hundred from one of the bands, handing it to him.

“Keep the change, but go right fucking now, please.”

He laughed. “Alright, Miss.”

The bus jerked into motion, nearly taking me off my feet as I turned to watch Ren’s shocked face disappear from the window.

They lied.

All of them.

The weird moments we’d shared. The sense of déjà vu. The undeniable pull that I felt toward them. They knew me. They’d been with me.

I sank into the closest seat, my head going between my knees as I tried to breathe.

I’d been part of their coven before, and not one of them told me.

Anger bubbled up in a deep well inside my chest, making it hard to think straight. But two things were clear.

Kaylee was in one of the pictures, so she knew. And there was no way something this major had happened to me without Danny knowing.

And when I found them? There would be hell to pay.

vi

. . .

The hissof the bus doors was my soundtrack as I jumped down onto the sidewalk, all but running toward Danny’s. Given I didn’t have any forethought as to where I was going and jumped onto the first available bus without any consideration for its route, I’d needed to make a few transfers, but it gave me time to think.

In the heat of the moment, I’d felt so betrayed that I couldn’t even think straight. It was like the words Ren had said to me in the vault didn’t even begin to sink in until I was already halfway into the Upper City.

But once they did? Once I realised that Ren was as confused and hurt as I was, I knew she hadn’t known.

Even with my entire world feeling like it’d been flipped upside down, I knew something for sure: Ren wouldn’t lie.