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“We’re not sure. He didn’t follow procedure, and it wasn’t recorded. He ended up being fired over it,” Hanah touched her head. “After that, Bianca completely shut down.”

“Is that how my mother got involved?” I asked. It made sense; she and Abigail were in the same quintet. “What about Do Yun? Has he made any progress?”

“She won’t acknowledge what happened.” Hanah sighed as she rubbed her elbow.

“She also won’t talk to Do Yun. She’ll only communicate with Trinity, and even then, it’s the bare minimum.

Outside of that, she refuses medical care, and there’s only so much that my parents can do without retraumatizing her.

Trinity is doing the best she can within the parameters that Bianca has set, but she is a danger to herself. ”

“What, exactly, was the plan here?” Damen interjected. “To keep her a secret? Let this continue until she dies? She didn’t even know we existed! She knew next to nothing about this world.”

“Well…” Hanah’s voice wavered, and her shoulders set. “Si nce the medication was supposed to suppress the bulk of her abilities, the plan was to optimize on that and help her learn to live normally; then they would reintroduce the paranormal and her role back into her life.”

“You didn’t agree?” Miles had also picked up on her sneer.

“No, I didn’t agree. A number of us did not,” she answered. “They are waiting for her to achieve a state that won’t happen. Bianca is never going to be normal. There is no way to fix what happened. Plus, it doesn’t help that Finn…” her words trailed off, and her anger died as she touched her mouth.

My eyes snapped to the blonde man. His head rested in his hands, his elbows braced on the table.

Damen began to shake—he was about to lose it, and Miles and Titus still hadn’t moved. This did not bode well.

“Finn, what?” I asked, almost not wanting the answer.

“He’s overprotective,” Hanah said, looking away. “Nobody knows how to approach her, but he’s too much—”

“ Someone needs to stop her!” Finn cut her off. “And since nobody else will do it, I have to. You never know what might trigger her. Sometimes, it’s fighting and shouting; other times, it’s her research . Especially when she uses the internet.”

“Are you still blocking her searches?” Hanah covered her mouth. “You told Kayla you would stop!”

“You have no idea what it’s like! She wouldn’t talk for an entire day because she came across some cheesy erotica!” Finn narrowed his eyes. “Thankfully, it was just some boy romance crap, so she wasn’t traumatized.”

“You’re underestimating her.” Hanah crossed her arms. “Are you sure she was upset? Jiayi says she’s quiet when she’s daydreaming.”

“She’s not daydreaming, she’s escaping into a fantasy world.” Finn waved his hand in the air. “She lives inside her head. It doesn’t help that she’s paranoid. She jumps to the worst possible conclusion and thinks everything is trying to kill her.”

“Shielding her from reality doesn’t solve anything.” Hanah frowned. “You’re only making it worse.”

“Surely you knew that she’d find out,” Miles interjected, and the two looked at him. “We’re in a supernatural school! We’re here!”

Finn crossed his arms and looked away. “It’s not like we could have sent her anywhere else. This was the safest place, considering.”

“I imagine that no one expected Bianca to stop her medication—or interact with any of you,” Hanah added, looking at Finn, who nodded.

“But it was Bryce who set her off.” Finn glared at the table. “No one planned for him to come back this semester.”

Bryce?

The fae had barely moved the entire conversation and remained stone-faced at the sound of his name.

He was looking down at the table—at his hands—but there was an air to him that indicated that he was paying very, very close attention.

Meanwhile, Brayden was staring between his older brother and the rest of the room, looking distraught.

“What did Bryce do?” I asked.

“He keeps challenging her!” Finn answered, turning his furious gaze at the older fae. “I’ve never seen her act like this—she’s obsessed with the stupid idea that he’s usurping her authority. She keeps going on about ‘defeating’ him. It’s absolutely insane.”

Well—I frowned, touching my chin—it didn’t surprise me. He probably was doing exactly that. Fae had strange ways of feeling each other out .

But this was promising. It meant that she still contained an essence of her original self.

“How?” Bryce ignored the accusation, but he did finally look up. There was a careful mask over his features, but his voice was strife with disbelief. “How did she end up in a place like that?”

Damen POV

“How did she end up in a place like that?” Bryce asked, the sound of his voice grating across my nerves. “I don’t understand.”

How… How could he not understand?

How dare he look so surprised.

“This is all your fault!” I was even more certain now than before. I’d moved to him before I could stop to think, allowing the promise of death and destruction to rise through me.

I would kill him.

I recognized that look on Bryce’s face—that guilt—and I was more certain than ever: there was only one family to blame.

“Why did you hide her from me?” I asked, not expecting an answer.

Bryce didn’t try to block me as I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him from his seat.

Now that I knew, I couldn’t unsee the signs. The way she flinched when she was touched unexpectedly, her nervous behavior and anxiety, the way she was afraid of the dark—of being hurt.

All I could see were her panicked expressions—and the way she tried to hide. She had been crying out for help from the beginning.

I couldn’t hold myself back, the force of my anger led me. We crashed to the floor, and my vision filled with red as I allowed my fury to be unleashed.

Bone gave way under my fist, and blood coated my face, but I didn’t care. Shouting and chaos exploded around me, and hands pulled at my clothing. Distantly, there was the sound of exploding glass, but none of it mattered.

How dare anyone touch her? How dare they still be free? This never should have happened.

The comforting heat of flames burned through me, giving me strength. I needed to kill him.

“Damen, no!” Brayden grabbed my arm, but I threw him back. He crashed into the table, and I returned my fury to Bryce. If the younger fae continued to intervene, I would kill him too.

Bryce wasn’t fighting back, but it didn’t matter. There was no way that anything he might feel came close to the level of pain that Bianca had suffered.

Someone wrapped an arm around my neck, and before I could defend myself from them, I was thrown back onto the ground.

“That’s enough,” Julian said. His knee was pressed over my chest, and he closed his hand around my throat as his bright blue eyes stared at me.

The fire in my blood cooled as the ancient magic began to fill my senses, and even though I tried to throw him off, to grasp the rapidly fading power, Julian’s hold remained firm.

“This is not the time,” he told me. “We’re all upset, but you cannot kill Bryce. We have to plan for next steps.”

No!

“Leave me alone!” My chest rumbled as the flames lingered. I grabbed the hand at my throat. Why was he stopping me? There was no way that he wasn’t just as furious—as bloodthirsty—as I was!

“Bryce is not our enemy,” Julian said. “He did not hurt her, and she needs him. So snap out of it so we can find those who are.”

I glared at him. How could he say that?

“It’ll be okay,” he told me, but I knew he was lying.

It would never be okay again.

Mu was an optimist. He always encouraged me to see the best in others, had an uncanny intuition, and maintained an unshakable faith that everything would work out.

He was confident in his knowledge and certain in his actions.

And no matter what happened—even though it always annoyed the rest of us—he’d had the utmost faith in humanity.

But Bianca… She was different.

There was a darkness in her thinking that had never existed before. She, the one who befriended the masses, was afraid of people. And she, who thrived on affection, was terrified of intimacy.

And now I knew why.

I… What was I supposed to do? How could I make this better?

I needed her.

She… she deserved more than we could give.

My ears buzzed as I fell back, and my gaze lingered on my bloodied fists. Dimly, I was aware that Brayden had helped Bryce up, but I could barely stand to look at him.

Julian moved to help Bryce as his medical training took over, but Bryce held out his hand to stop him.

“No,” Bryce said, and my anger was not appeased even though he was wheezing. “Forget about it.”

“Bryce—” Julian stood as he did, but the fae stepped back, rejecting further help, while Brayden came to his side. The necromancer stayed in silence as the two fae left the room .

“Julian?” Miles looked between us, and the devastation was clear on his face. “What do we do now?”

Julian looked back at me, and I could see the unspoken question in his gaze. My chest was still heaving as I struggled to catch my breath, but I finally noticed the aftermath of the destroyed room and the broken window.

Titus was missing—he must have escaped while I was distracted. I only needed one more moment, just a second longer, to gather my control.