Page 3

Julian POV

It had been three days since I’d transferred my residency to study under my mother, but still, I was no closer to answers than before. At least I’d been able to see Bianca, but my frustrating lack of access to most of her medical records remained a hurdle I could not overcome.

My mother kept brushing me off no matter how much I argued. Then, when she found out that I’d contacted Do Yun Nam—Bianca’s therapist, and my Tongjun—she’d dared to threaten me.

Not that I’d learned anything anyway. Do Yun had refused to tell me.

The little that I had been able to access was disheartening but not surprising. Bianca had been diagnosed with PTSD, Avoidant Personality, and generalized anxiety disorder. However, the details regarding her diagnosis were murky, as it was noted that she refused to cooperate with therapists .

But there was still nothing that I could access that would tell me why she was this way. She had been abused, yes, and raped—as evidenced by her comments when taken by Daniel Cole. But I couldn’t help but feel we were missing something bigger.

Bianca’s condition had declined since being relocated—she was barely sleeping and refused to eat anything. If nothing changed, they would force that upon her too.

We had to do something before things got to that point. We needed to know what’d happened and how we could help her.

Thankfully, Damen finally agreed: it was time to talk to Finn. I was sure he had the answers we needed.

The rest of my quintet, myself, Bryce, Brayden, and Finn, were gathered in Titus’s conference room, and there was a somber mood present as we watched Damen pace near the head of the table.

My blood was roaring with a need for action, and my fingers flexed in my lap as I resisted the urge to grab Finn and find out everything he knew.

But, unfortunately, Damen would never allow me to hurt his brother.

“So—” Brayden braced his forearms on the table, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“Besides you two allowing her to be taken?” I asked. And no, I would never not hold that against them. “We need to talk, but we’re still someone short.”

I didn’t blame them for wondering, though. The only people who knew the purpose of this meeting were my quintet. Although, I was certain that Finn suspected. Since arriving, he hadn’t stopped tapping his fingers on the table and looking nervously toward his brother.

Brayden frowned. “What was I supposed to do, lie down in front of the ambulance?”

“You weren’t the only one there.” I shrugged, hoping to goad Bryce into a response before Damen lost his temper. “Bryce, do you have anything to add?”

Why hadn’t he said anything yet?

Damen grabbed his phone and threw it at a vase. “This is your fault!” he said, pointing at Bryce.

The fae, in return, simply looked at him.

I hoped Damen was being strategic. We needed him in order to keep Titus in check. Unfortunately, however, Damen wasn’t known for his ability to handle strong emotions.

Titus, in the meantime, wouldn’t talk to anyone. At the moment, he was unable to maintain his human form, and the white dragon remained curled in a corner behind us.

If set loose, Titus might destroy everything to get to Bianca. And he wouldn’t be subtle about it. Mass murder tended to attract attention, which was the last thing Bianca needed.

“Who else knows who she is?” Damen turned to his brother.

Finn had flinched when Damen pointed at him, but his jaw tensed before he answered. “I can’t—”

“How could you not tell me?” Damen asked.

“We didn’t have a choice.” Finn’s mouth pressed in a thin line, and the tension in his frame was tangible. “There are a lot of reasons it had to be this way—”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses!” Damen snarled. “You don’t follow orders from anyone other than me . Who is in on this? Is Norman?”

Finn grimaced. “No, not Norman. There’s Hanah, Kayla—”

My heart raced. Both Do Yun and Kayla? That meant my only loyal Officer was Anthony.

“—and Do Yun is her therapist, obviously, so he knows too,” Finn continued, glancing at me. “But she mostly ignores him. Besides them, Jiayi was pulled in because she’s Bianca’s roommate,” Finn added. “We needed another presence at the school. ”

“This has been going on for a long time,” I pointed out. “What Proxies are involved?”

Finn’s gaze traveled back to Damen, his tone wavering. “My mom and Lee…”

Damen stopped breathing—had he really not suspected? Lee Sao was a surprise, however.

“How did it start?” I pressed.

“Bianca was dying. Your mom tried to save her, but it wasn’t enough. So we had to call Kayla and Do Yun,” Finn said; the haughtiness was completely gone from his expression. “Don’t be mad at them. They saved her life.”

“Don’t tell me who to be mad at,” I told him, even as anger swelled in my chest. “Why did no one get me, or even Anthony? What about my grandfather or Mai? We’ve always been here—and we’re stronger than them. What happened—why was she dying?”

Finn grew pale and looked away.

“Was it your fault?” I was going to kill him.

He flinched.

“Does it have anything to do with why her medication affects you ?” I asked, and his shoulders tensed. He must not have known he was being recorded when he’d made that confession.

A knock at the door interrupted any response, and Hanah, the eldest daughter of Abigail and Jonathon Grier, walked into the room.

Her pixie-cut hair was in disarray, and a smudge of brown was across her cheek.

More dirt covered the knees of her 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 suspected the seriousness of the situation and had hurried over immediately when called.

Miles had been silent during our interrogation thus far and looked up when Hanah arrived. She met his eyes, and ignoring the rest of us, she moved to stand near him.

The witch watched her. He’d been deeply affected by Jonathon and Abigail’s betrayal and hadn’t had any luck getting any answers from them. Jonathon, after all, was a Paragon Er Bashou, and was more than a little intimidating when pressed.

Their daughter, however, was much easier to approach.

“Hanah,” he greeted her, voice deceptively calm.

“Hello, Miles.” Hanah tapped her fingers together. “How can I help you?”

“Why didn’t you tell us about Bianca?” he asked. “This is something you should have disclosed.”

“Why?” she squeaked. “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 Trinity had her moved to an asylum.” Miles’s delivery was factual and emotionless, his face carefully blank.

“Hospital?” she asked, glancing at Finn. “Is she okay?”

I narrowed my eyes at the exchange—why would she look at Finn?

How often did he hurt Bianca? I would rip him apart.

“No, she’s not okay!” Miles slammed his palm on the table, finally losing his temper.

“She was injured, and now they’ve taken her away.

We know she’s Mu and that you’ve been hiding her from us.

She told us what happened—how everyone said 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. Finn finally responded with a sigh. “Bianca is unable to be the Xing.”

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

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

“But she is Mu,” Damen said, his voice strained.

“Hold on!” Hanah held out her hands. “Don’t misunderstand. He doesn’t mean that she’s not Mu! That’s not our point.”

“Then what is?” My whole body quaked with a desire to destroy. My focus remained on Finn. “What was so terrible that you couldn’t tell us about her? Why keep her separated from us? We’ve all struggled because of the imbalance in our quintet. She’s struggled.”

Hanah glanced between us and bit her lip. “Did Bianca ever tell you how she came to be adopted?”

My breath caught. “No.”

“You know about my mother’s career.” Her face grew more determined as she spoke. Each word chipped away at my fury. My entire being was focused on this.

“ Where do you think they found her?” Hanah finished.

My heart stopped. I understood what she was saying, but my mind screamed in denial. There was no way that she was insinuating—

I fell back into my seat and couldn’t look away from Hanah’s eyes.

“She was only eight,” I heard myself saying.

“She’d just turned eight,” Hanah said. “But she was living there for a number of years before that. However, we don’t know much. It’s impossible to get her to talk about what happened.”

Of course she wouldn’t talk about it.

My heart thundered in my chest as the horrifying truth hit me. I’d sensed something was wrong from the beginning. While I knew she’d been hurt, I had desperately hoped her trauma wasn’t severe.

But now the reality was clear: Bianca’s adoptive mother, Abigail Grier, specialized in investigating child sex trafficking rings. This wasn’t just a case of abuse—Bianca had been systematically victimized and terrorized for years.

The realization made me physically ill.

“Where, exactly, was she?” Damen’s voice sounded odd, almost detached, and his shoulders were tight with strain.

“The address is available, but you won’t find much,” Hanah answered.

“There’s nothing left there. When the team returned, the ring had already relocated.

They wanted to investigate more, but then a junior detective went behind my mother’s back and interviewed Bianca himself. The whole thing ended in a disaster.”

“He had no right to do that!” Miles said, and his tone held a note of power rarely felt from the witch. “What in the world did he say?”