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“Still, twin artifacts,” said Gertrude. “I didn’t expect you to start so big.”

I finally got it. “Your children,” I said to Arina. “Your twins. They were created by this spell.”

Arina’s voice quivered. “They were.”

“You tweaked the formula,” Gertrude said. “You experimented with the magical universe. Tapped into it. Your experiment created twins who look like their parents and have some of their magical traits, but they are really children of the universe. Two children, born from the mysteries of the magical abyss.”

“When Thea asked you to make that wand, she didn’t know what she was creating, did she?” Bella asked Gertrude.

“No.”

Bella looked like that one word had just sealed her fate.

“Thea thought she was just getting an immortal artifact from me,” Gertrude continued. “But then she went and gave the wand to Khalon. What a waste. After Thea and Khalon left, I gathered the rainbow magic mist made from the wand’s creation, forming it into a baby. A baby linked to the wand.”

“Bella,” I said quietly.

Ava had told Bella that her parents didn’t know she existed. This explained how that was even possible. Like Arina, Thea had thought she was just experimenting with magic.

“Why?” Bella asked Gertrude, her voice uneven. “Why did you use my parents to make me?”

“Because I was contracted to do so,” Gertrude said calmly, like it didn’t bother her at all.

“By Ava?” Bella asked.

“Yes.”

“I was a baby. A baby. Have you no shame?” Bella demanded.

Gertrude’s wrinkled face didn’t flinch. “I am a businesswoman.”

“So in other words, no, you didn’t care about the consequences,” I growled at her.

“And then? What happened after you created me?” Bella asked Gertrude. “How did I end up on Earth?”

“One of my sisters brought you there,” Gertrude said. “And another of my sisters made sure Callista Pierce found you. She made sure Calli found all of you—and, later, that you found the four parchments hidden where Calli met you.”

Gaius Knight jumped through the blue shield, landing beside us.

“You called, sister?” he said brightly.

His face faded away to reveal a tall and slender woman with a black braid and a young face. I knew that face. River, the rogue Guardian had that face.

I squinted at her, just to be sure. “River?”

“No,” she said in a voice just like River’s.

It was the same voice as the woman in the purple veil who’d stolen the weapons of heaven and hell for Grace. I knew I’d heard that voice before. Now I knew where.

“I’m Inali. River is my sister. But you know me by my other face.”

Magic rippled across her. She was Gaius Knight for a moment, then she was Inali again.

Well, that there just blew my mind.

Bella remained composed. “You sent me the dreams I had of Thea’s grimoire. You sent them to me using the Vault. Just like you sent visions to Leda.”

“Yes,” said Inali. “We did.”