Page 164 of Their Lethal Pet

Alina is quiet for a long moment, her eyes having fallen closed. But she’s not sleeping. She’s searching in her mind, swimming through the memories of the last few days and trying to find herself.

This is going to pull her out of her heat, but that’s okay. This is clearly important.

Why didn’t she mention her sister before?I wonder.Did she not trust us?

She must hear the question because it triggers a memory in her mind—a memory of her deciding to ask for our help in finding her.

As soon as Reaper returns, I’m telling them,she thought then.

This was after feeling a hint of guilt at not having told us about her sister yet, followed by a realization that she was holding herself back.

But she decided to no longer keep the secret and to share it.

Right before the first wave of her heat began.

“Chicago,” she breathes now.

There’s an Elite City,she recalls in her mind, the voice not hers but presumably her sisters. Because she appears to be recalling what the note said.Find an old map, Lina. Look for Chicago. I’ll be waiting.

“Sera,” Alina breathes, her eyelashes fluttering open as she looks at me. “My sister’s in the Elite City.”

“That’s how you know about Chicago.” It’s not a question but a statement.

However, she nods anyway.

“Where did you find this note?” I ask, suspicious. Because from what Helia said, even humans in the Elite City are unaware of the former name.

So how does her sister know about Chicago?

And where would she have expected Alina to find an old map?

New York City no longer exists. The buildings of Monster City are new to this dimension, the technology and architecture inhuman. I highly doubt old maps exist.

And yet, the note told Alina to find one.

“In my room after last year’s Day of the Choosing. Someone slid it under my door.” She swallows. “I don’t know how, but I know my sister’s handwriting, and that note was written by my sister.”

I nod. “I believe you, Alina.”

Her eyes widen a fraction. “You do?”

“Of course I do.” If she knows her sister wrote it, then her sister wrote it. The questions that remain are how shemanaged to slip the note into Alina’s room and how Serapina knows about Chicago.

“You said she slipped you the note, and you’re not sure how, so I’m guessing that means your sister no longer lives in your village,” Flame says, his focus on our mate.

“She was an Offering two years ago,” Alina replies, her expression turning distant as her mind pulls up the memory of the ceremony.

Her pain becomes my pain as she watches her sister walk down the aisle to her fate, knowing she’ll never see her again.

“So maybe her mate or mates helped get that note to Alina,” Reaper suggests, his focus on Flame and then me. “That would explain the mention of Chicago.”

“As well as the comment about finding a map,” I say, thinking it through. “Maybe her mate or mates know there are some in Monster City?”

“Possibly,” Flame replies. “I didn’t see any while we were there, though.”

“Neither did I,” Reaper admits. “But if Serapina and her mate or mates are living in the Elite City, then I imagine that Cain guy would know. He was very in charge during that massacre.”

Alina stills. “Massacre?”