Page 153 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts

Amelia stiffened, and the air between them became heavy. “Tell me what?”

“Mor and I returned to the cabin to see if anyone had cleaned up after the battle.”

Her concerns rolled off her shoulders like invisible pebbles. Betrayal. Secrets. ‘Catching up on lost time.’ None of that was true. No cryptic alliances being formed behind her back.

She had told herself she didn’t trust Callan. Still, the idea of him hiding something had cut deeper than it should have. At some point, she must have lowered her guard. And Mikhail had seen that sliver of uncertainty, just wide enough to let doubt slip in. He hadn’t lied, but he had wanted her to question Callan. And she had.

“And what did you find?” she asked.

Callan shielded himself from the rays of sunlight reaching the veranda. “Not a trace of the harpies. Someone cleaned up the bodies after us. The cabin was also turned upside down.”

It wasn’t unexpected. They had left the place as swiftly as possible, expecting a second attack. Her heart skipped a beat – she’d nearly forgotten Gea’s letter under the mattress.

She planted her feet on the edge of the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Her voice was steady, although inside, the turmoil was unsettling.

“What is it?”

She glanced into the restaurant, where in the distance, she could make out Mikhail’s profile. He’d kept her in the dark about Callan, only to kiss her afterwards. Why? To strengthen his influence over her?

She said, “Shall we go to my room?”

***

Amelia

“The truth is, the Queen never trusted me enough to tell me about the Sacreds. Everything I know about them comes from a letter left for me by Gea, the previous Oracle. She wrote it while imprisoned in Antambazi. Over sixty years ago.”

Amelia was starting to recognise Callan’s tells. The faint darkening of his gaze, the tightening of his jaw, the subtleinterest in the way his head tilted towards her.

“But she didn’t just write about the Sacreds,” Amelia continued. “She sensed a dark energy and warned me to be cautious of it.”

A slight crease appeared between his eyebrows. “Do you have any idea what she’s talking about?”

Amelia crossed her arms. How far should she go with what she’d started? “Until recently, I considered it was you.”

He smiled in a boyish manner. “But not any longer?”

“Now… I’m not sure what to believe.”

Amelia studied the features that had once taken her breath away in the portrait. She could understand why the Queen had been so obsessed with this man.

The silence stretched. A flicker of unease ran down her spine. She stepped back, cleared her throat, then lifted the mattress. Before she could change her mind, she pulled out the papers, handed them to him, and sat on the bed while he read.

When he reached the part they were discussing, Callan shook his head. “There’s nothing specific.”

Amelia looked at him with suspicion, unsure why. Was she expecting him to beat his chest and shout, ‘It’s me!’ and thus resolve one of her riddles?

He frowned. “These must be the activated Sacreds. The exact words of Galia explaining why we should never allow their activation: because they’ll release that dark energy they’ve been building up with their appearance. The previous Oracle warned you to prevent the gathering of the objects, but she didn’t realise that the dark energy she spoke ofisthe Sacreds.”

Amelia jumped off the bed. “Wait a minute! You said you’d never heard of activating the Sacreds.”

“Hmmm. Don’t you remember, Amelia?” His voice caressed her like velvet.

“Huh?”

He tilted his head. “You give, I give. That’s what we agreed during our first conversation.”

She snatched the letter from his hands. “So all this time, you’ve been hiding information because you knewIwas hiding something from you?”