Page 170 of Their Lethal Pet

Angry? A little. Or maybe… maybea lot.

My parents faked their deaths?I wasn’t even ten years old when they died. Serapina was only eight.

“As I told you, we don’t govern the villages. The Elite families do,” Queen Helia murmurs. “Whether we agree with the practice or not is irrelevant. But I will say it has worked well, as evidenced by your mating Alina Everheart.”

Orcus says nothing. However, I can hear him conceding the point in his mind. But he hates that he agrees. Because nothing about this feels right to him.

And not just because I’m starting to scream in my own mind about the injustice of this insanity.

I was created in a compound.

My parents are alive… and they’re not my real parents.

Sera is in the same compound now.

Being bred.

And creating…

More ideal mates.

Fae, I’m going to be sick. This is all too much. Too overwhelming.

“If she’s in the compound, how did she send Alina a note?” Reaper asks, his question making me freeze. “I assumed she had mates who managed to magically place it in Alina’s rooms. But it sounds like that’s not the case at all.”

“What note?” Queen Helia asks, causing my stomach to churn even more.

Flame squeezes me close.It’s all right, little panther. We need this information to find your sister. Something isn’t right.

While I agree with him, I… I still don’t feel well. The world is starting to spin around me. Everything is upside down.I?—

Reaper’s voice interrupts my thoughts as he repeats the note aloud. But all I hear is my sister’s words in my head, uttered in her voice.

There’s an Elite City. Find an old map, Lina. Look for Chicago. I’ll be waiting.

“That’s how your mate knew about Chicago,” Queen Helia says.

“Yes.” Orcus’s reply is flat.

“But it doesn’t make any sense.” Queen Helia’sstatement is one I’ve been repeating in my mind for what feels like hours but has really only been minutes.

It’s also not the same.

Because she’s talking about the letter and I’m thinking about this situation.

“It’s not only impossible for Serapina to have sent that letter, but it also doesn’t serve a logical purpose,” Queen Helia goes on. “Alina wouldn’t have been able to get to the Elite City, even if she found a map mentioning the old Chicago name.”

“If such a map even exists,” King Cain mutters. “I haven’t heard that name in over three centuries.”

“Exactly,” Queen Helia says. “So what purpose did this note serve?”

“We originally assumed it was to prompt Alina to rebel, to gain more entries into the Offering selection pool,” Orcus says. “But I’m starting to realize that can’t be the reason because it sounds like all the humans are selected based on genetics, not a random luck of the draw.”

“Correct. Duke Nightingale always picks the Offerings ahead of the ceremony,” Queen Helia replies, her words a punch to the gut.

Because that means I wasn’t chosen randomly. I was chosen purposely.

And so was my sister.