Page 31 of Twisted Truths

My hands shake as I listen to the sounds in Guardian Solomon’s house, mapping out in my mind where Gianna, Brielle, Samantha, and Ascendant Sierra are. I know what I’m about to do is risky, especially after I almost got caught by Gabriel last week, but I also know I have no choice. Now, more than ever, I have to make sure he’s safe. I have to see with my own eyes that nothing has happened to him since Sunday.

All week, I have done everything within my power to avoid Gabriel. Apparently, I was concerned for nothing. This morning, Gianna told me she heard he’d gone to meet his parents in Sydney for a few days. I’m hoping it’s true, because I can’t risk him showing up again like he did last week. Now he knows I knew Zara, doing what I’m about to do is even more dangerous.

Swallowing down my fear, I hurry down the hall and slip through the door at the end. Tiptoeing across the room, I peer down at his sleeping form, a silent tear slipping down my cheek. He will never know his mother.

“I don’t know how,” I whisper. “But I will honour her last wish. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

A warm body presses up against my back, and before I can scream, a hand clamps over my mouth. “Are you going to tell me how you knew Zara now?” Gabriel murmurs in my ear.

Tension vibrates through my body, and my mind races as fast as my heart. How am I going to talk my way out of this?

“If I release you, will you stay quiet?”

With no other choice, I nod, and while his hand disappears from my mouth, he doesn’t move away from me. Instead, he leans over my shoulder and looks down at the sleeping baby.

“His name is Franklin,” he says, running a gentle caress over the child’s dark hair. He stirs, and I hold my breath, but he doesn’t wake. Gabriel smiles tenderly. “Zara was adamant we name him that.”

A wave of emotion washes over me as I recall Zara telling me how she chose the name for its meaning. Freedom. All she wanted was for the two of them to be free. Now, she’s dead and her ten-week-old son will never know his maternal family.

My throat tightens at the thought of Nash—his intense brown eyes, his strong hands that steadied me, and the way my body tingled from his touch. Nash doesn’t even know his nephew exists.

As if reading my mind, he asks, “Did you tell Nash about him?”

Unable to speak, I simply shake my head.

“Why?”

“W-what?” I whisper, my breath hitching. Being this close to Gabriel is unnerving me.

“Why didn’t you tell him about Zara’s child?”

“It’s against the rules.”

“You are very well-versed on what is proper within theCircle,” he muses, his steel gaze drifting from Franklin’s sleeping form to meet mine. “Yet I find you in here.”

My pulse quickens as I realise how much trouble I’m in. Somehow, it hasn’t gotten back to Seraphina that Gabriel switched my role last Sunday, or that he came to check on me after my fainting spell, but being found in the guardian nursery is so much worse than being caught talking to him. I’m terrified I’ll be cast out with nowhere to go, that I will have let Zara down.

“What will happen to me?” I somehow manage to ask.

“Nothing.” Gabriel’s face remains impassive, which doesn’t reassure me in the slightest.

“N-nothing?”

“Nothing,” he repeats, stepping back slightly so I have room to turn and face him.

Despite the fear coursing through my veins, I force myself to meet his heavy gaze. “Why are you sparing me?”

“Who said I was sparing you?” He tilts his head to the side studying me. I shiver as his eyes travel over the length of my body before returning to my face.

“What do you want?”

Ignoring my question, he asks another of his own. “Why did you come here, Hadley?”

I glance down at Franklin, but Gabriel shakes his head.

“Not this room. Why did you come to the Circle? How did you even find us?”

Pain squeezes around my chest. “I was looking for Madeline.”