Page 12 of Wings of Valor (Silver City University #4)

“Do you think something happened? We’d have noticed if Auriel took her from our arms.” Raphael might say the words with confidence, but the look on his face tells a different story.

“We’d have noticed,” Theo says, but his face pales. “My nightmare. It wasn’t Serah, it was Hayliel. Dammit! What was it she’d said about Auriel yesterday, when we were talking about the lack of details?”

“Matching dreams again, just like the night she escaped the cloaked figure. That’s not good.” Raphael’s brows dip low in thought. “She said something like, ‘He wants me on his team. He’ll find a way to provide details.’”

“You don’t think—”

The vibration of all three of our slates halts Theo’s words. Maybe it’s her.

We scramble to grab them, but it’s not Hayliel who’s messaged in the chat.

Mira : Come to the cave.

“Do you think she knows something?” Raphael asks.

Seeing her name brings back everything I witnessed this morning with her dad. If she fucking did something to Hayliel, I won’t hold back. I don’t care that she’s trained. I don’t care if the others like her. No one hurts my hummingbird.

“Maybe,” I say, unsure what to do. I consider telling them what I witnessed earlier, but that shit can wait until we hear what Mira has to say. We can focus on finding Hayliel and then deal with Atlas and the possibility that his daughter double-fucking crossed us.

“Let’s go find out.”

The campus is quiet as we leave Fallen house from my balcony and fly to the cave. It’s still too early for most angels to be awake—yet Mira is, and she doesn’t even go to school.

Honestly, I don’t even know what she does when she’s not with us. Does she even have a job? Or is her only job to spy on us and report back to her traitorous fucking father?

No. The focus is on Hayliel. I’ll deal with Mira’s betrayal later.

She’s already waiting for us in the cave when we arrive. It takes every ounce of restraint I have not to grab her by the throat and demand she explain everything. Somehow, I manage to ask a simple question instead. “What do you know of Hayliel’s whereabouts?”

She waves a hand toward the empty chairs. “You three might want to sit down.”

We don’t sit. How can we when the woman we love is missing? “Just spit it out, Mira. If she’s in trouble, then we deserve to know,” I say.

She sighs. “Fine. She agreed I could tell you after it was too late for you to do anything to stop her, so I’ll get to the point. Hayliel is meeting with Auriel. She’s going to agree to work with him as long as he lets her parents go unharmed.”

I don’t blink; I’m completely dumbfounded as her words sink in. There’s a split second of disbelief, but the more my brain processes, the more I realize how very true it might be.

“Why didn’t you fucking stop her?” Raphael growls. I’ve never seen the cheerful blond so angry. He looks like he’s half a second away from ripping into Mira with his bare hands.

Either she’s oblivious, or she just doesn’t care—because she rolls her eyes at Raphael.

“Stop her? Do you even hear yourself? There was no stopping her . Hayliel was determined to do this and would have gone through with it entirely alone. Besides, she’s only doing exactly what I would have done in her shoes. ”

Oh, gods. This was her doing. Mira’s. She put this idea in her head and helped it come to life.

“This is fucking bullshit! You’re supposed to be her friend. Instead, you’ve let her waltz right into harm without even trying to stop it,” Theo says, fists clenched like he’s trying really hard to keep his cool, but I can see the fear behind his eyes and the worry for our girl.

If only he knew how bad it really was … how deep this betrayal goes.

She scoffs. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve saying shit like that to me when I protected her a hell of a lot better than any of you.

You think telling her no was protecting her?

All you did was force her to keep secrets and try to do it alone.

Fuck off. At least I gave her weapons and helped devise a plan instead of just trying to control her fucking life.

The three of you need to pull your heads out of your asses and join reality.

Hayliel was always going to do this. It’s her fucking goddamn parents’ lives on the line here. ”

“We weren’t trying to control her,” Raphael says, defeat in his voice.

I see her point, even if it pisses me off. Our intention was never to fucking collar her by removing her choices. We only wanted to keep her safe—something this traitorous bitch wouldn’t understand.

Given everything I’ve learned today, I can’t help but wonder if what Mira says is even true. Did she let Hayliel walk into what’s surely a trap because her father asked her to? Does Mira truly care so little about the friendships she’s made here?

“Call it whatever you want. Hayliel is going to do what she thinks is best. Now that everything is out in the open, she was hoping we’d all head to her parents’ house and wait to make sure they arrive safely.”

“Wait,” Theo says. “How did she even know where to go?”

“Auriel got a message to her with coordinates and a time.”

Way to fucking go, Theo. Asking the right questions. “And did she happen to share those coordinates with you?”

Mira’s brows draw inward. “Maybe. But she knew you’d want it and asked me not to give it to you. She’d rather all of us wait for her parents at their house.”

“And we’d rather she not walk directly into a trap with no backup. Tough fucking luck. Give us the coordinates, Mira.” I’m so fucking done with this chick today. Her next actions will give me all the information I need about where her loyalty lies. With Hayliel, or with her snake of a father.

Casually, like she can’t sense how thin a line she’s walking, she checks her slate.

“Fine.” She taps around on the screen of her device, and I feel my own vibrate in response.

“You’re just handing it over after that speech about how Hayliel didn’t want us to know where she was going?” Theo asks, confused.

Mira shrugs. “For one, I can read the room. You guys won’t let me leave without telling you.

Second, I made my own promise to Hayliel, which I’ll be keeping, even if I give up the location.

Besides, the chances you’ll make it there in time are slim, so I don’t really count it as a betrayal of her trust. She’ll understand once she remembers what possessive alpha shits you guys are. ”

I share the coordinates with Raph and Theo. Let’s go. We don’t have much time, I say through our mental connection. And as I pass by Mira on the way out, I whisper, “Don’t think, for even a second, that this conversation is over. Once we get Hayliel back, there’s a lot we have to discuss.”

Mira and Atlas’s schemes will have to wait.

It’s time we bring our girlfriend back to safety.