Page 137 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts

The wind carried sounds of conversation, and Zacharia recognised the voices of Mikhail and Amelia. The reptilianturned her head towards them, then her eyes scanned Zacharia’s features. Her pupils dilated. “Aren’t you…?”

Zacharia’s hand shot to his belt holster, drawing his weapon and aiming it at her.

She raised her palms in surrender. “I’m Kathrine, and until recently, I was one of the Chosen of the Queen of Reptilians. I helped the former Oracle escape from Antambazi, and I gave you the journal of C. so you could learn more about the reptilians. Last night, my fiancé, Sevar, tried to kill me, but I escaped. And from now on, the only goal in my life is to destroy those who betrayed me.”

Without lowering his weapon, Zacharia studied her. This was the woman from the video at the Righteous’ club.

“And you must be Zacharia,” she said. “I’ve seen photos of you. At first, I didn’t recognise you, because I didn’t expect to meet you here. At least not until I heard the Oracle’s voice.”

He was about to play the surprised fool and lie that there was no Oracle close by, but she said, “On my former fiancé’s desk in Antambazi, there was a note with directions on how to reach this place. I followed them, thinking it was yet another of his secrets. If I’m reading this right and your hideout is nearby, you need to get out of here as fast as possible.”

51

Amelia

Amelia rose from the sofa, too anxious to stay in one spot. Kathrine’s appearance just an hour ago could change everything.

A second later, Presiyan strolled into the common room. “Jasmina has searched the area with Mor and Viktor. There are no signs of reptilians. Still, they’ll do another round. Zacharia and Alex are watching the woman, Kathrine.”

Mikhail moved away from his position by the window. “It’s a trap. I still don’t understand what kind of trap, but there’s no way she stumbled on the coordinates by accident.”

Callan rested his elbow on the arm of the sofa. “It doesn’t matter if she’s lying. They know our location. We must evacuate.”

“I’m willing to trust her,” Amelia said. “We must take advantage of her appearance…”

“You trust her?” Mikhail raised his voice, stirring that familiar irritation within her. “And because you trust her, you expect us to let a snake into our den?”

Amelia straightened her shoulders. “Kathrine is ready to tell us everything about the Queen and Antambazi.”

“And what’s the guarantee that she won’t lie?”

“She’s helped us before.”

Mikhail laughed. “And she’s also caused just as much harm. Don’t tell me you’re so naïve to believe that the Queen wouldn’t come up with this kind of plan to infiltrate one of her protégées among us.”

She forced herself to maintain a neutral tone. Her reactionswere so sharp because the opposition wasn’t just anyone, but from Mikhail. Their relationship had been swinging between two extremes in seconds. From trusted allies to enemies and back again. “I was in Antambazi. Call it intuition, but I don’t think Kathrine is lying.”

“I was also in Antambazi, Amelia. And as charming as your newly developed intuition might be, I prefer to rely on logic in this particular case.”

Could it be that Mikhail had always been this obnoxious, and she hadn’t noticed because of her infatuation?

“I can tell when a woman’s been broken and betrayed,” she said.

“You two…” Presiyan stepped between them. “We’re wasting valuable time while you’re biting each other’s heads off.”

With a stony expression, Mikhail crossed his arms. “We’re not biting. We’re discussing.”

She pressed her lips together to refrain from replying.

Presiyan continued, “I’m expecting a few cars in an hour. It’s risky because the reptilians might ambush us on the road, but if we go on foot, we’ll be much slower. And let’s not forget, this mountain is reptilian territory.”

“That’s why I chose it as a hideout.” Callan half-smiled. “They’d never suspect we were hiding right under their noses.”

“Someone has suspected, and I’m very curious who whispered the idea in their ear,” Mikhail said.

The firstborn didn’t flinch. “You’re not implying that I’ve revealed our location, are you, Korovin?”

Jasmina burst through the door, nearly tearing it off its hinges. Her cheeks were flushed as if she’d been running. “Something’s coming this way! We’ve only got a minute.”