Page 9 of Hidden

Titus was lucky to have escaped unscathed. But shifters always had a different sort of loyalty.

“This has been going on for ten years,” I pointed out, noticing that Finn hadn’t named anyone older than thirty. “Besides my mother, who was involved? Who gave you these orders?”

Finn’s gaze traveled back to Damen, his tone wavering. “Mr. Sao, my mom…”

Damen stopped breathing, making me wonder if he seriously hadn’t suspected. Or if he had, did he try to convince himself otherwise? The evidence had been present the whole time.

“How did it happen?” I pressed.

“Bianca was dying. She needed Kayla and Do Yun’s help. Your mom tried, but it wasn’t enough,” Finn said, the haughtiness completely gone from his expression. “Don’t be mad at them. They saved her life.”

“Don’t tell me who to be mad at.” Anger swelled in my chest. “Why was Bianca dying? What happened? Why did no one get me, or even Anthony instead? We were always here. What about Jiayi?”

Finn grew paler with my every question, and by the end, he wouldn’t even look at me. Anthony had noticed his avoidance and watched Finn in suspicion.

“What did you do?”

He flinched. “I didn’t—”

A knock at the door interrupted him, and Hanah Geier walked into the room.

She must have been working. Her pixie-cut hair was in disarray, and there was a smudge of dirt across her cheek. More dirt covered the knees of her threadbare jeans, and the edge of her patchwork shirt was caked with mud. Most people would have tried to clean up first. But from her grave expression, Hanah was aware of the seriousness of the situation.

She sought out Miles at once. She didn’t even greet Brayden as she crossed the room to stand beside him.

Miles’s tone was deceptively calm. “Hello, Hanah.”

“Miles.” Hanah tapped her fingers together. “What’s—”

Miles sliced his hand through the air. “Why didn’t you ever mention you have a sister?”

Hanah’s eyes widened. “Bianca?” Her voice squeaked. “You know that I haven’t seen my parents in eight years. Did something happen to her?” She sounded genuinely concerned.

“Bianca was in the hospital. And while we were dealing with the council, your parents and Dr. Kohler committed her to an institution. We only know of your parents’ involvement because Bryce was there. Otherwise we never would have found her. Finn wasn’t being so forthcoming.” Miles’s delivery was factual and emotionless, his face carefully blank.

“She was in the hospital?” She looked at Finn. “Is she okay?”

I narrowed my eyes at the exchange—why would she look at Finn? He had done something before, I was certain of it. He’d almost killed people simply by failing to control his power.

Had he hurt Bianca? I would rip him apart.

“No, she’s not okay!” Miles punched the table, finally losing his temper. “She was injured, and now they’ve taken her away. She told us what happened—you all told her she was crazy. We know about that medication. I want to know what the fuck is going on!”

Finn and Hanah were still looking at each other. It was Finn who finally responded. “Bianca cannot be the Xing.”

I moved to stand up, wanting nothing more than to break his neck. “What are you—”

Damen held me back with his hand on my arm. Even now, he didn’t want me to hurt his brother.

“She is,” he said, his voice strained. “We’ve already seen her use her abilities. She has the mark.”

“Hold on!” Hanah moved in between the two of us. “You’re misunderstanding. Finn doesn’t mean that she can’t be Mu!”

“Then what is the problem?” My whole body quaked with the desire to hurt him. Finn had done something, I knew it. I only needed to figure out what. “What was so terrible that you couldn’t tell the four of us that you’d found the missing link in our quintet?”

“Julian!” Hanah waved her hand in my face. “Bianca is adopted!”

My eyes snapped to her determined ones. “So what.”