“I sense evil…something sinister. It’s brewing in the air.”
The words felt familiar enough that her back stiffened.
“Angelo?”
“Sorry, I’m talking to myself. The path’s safe, as I said, so don’t be afraid. I’m headed to the city to lead an event. It’s a pretty important one that will push our clan to even more success, so I needed to walk by myself for a while and clear my head.”
Lead. Powerful.
He will lead you all to success and destruction.
Anne felt her heart rise to her throat as she stared at Angelo and understood that the Fae might be talking about him.
Chapter 17
“It’s Angelo. It’s your clan leader. He’s evil.”
The words were barely out of Anne’s mouth before she was dragging Nico to a private corner, her face pale and her body shaking. He took the boxes in her hands, but she didn’t notice as she was too preoccupied with trying to get his attention. Automatically, he set the boxes to the side and took her face in his hands, wordlessly assuring him that she did have his attention.
“Anne? What’s going on?”
“The fog. It showed up. A figure showed up. A Fae, I’m sure of it. It came up to me and talked to me?”
“What?”
The last part was said louder than necessary, and he tried to shove down the trepidation at knowing that she had been in that situation again. Guilt came next that he should have been with her, but logic soon rose and had him checking her from head to toe. Impatiently, she swatted his hands away.
“I’m fine. It didn’t hurt me. It gave me a warning. Then I bumped into Angelo, and he said pretty much the same words.”
Her anxious face waited for a reaction.
“Anne, I think you need to start from the beginning.”
The impatience flared again, but she visibly tried to hold it down as she took a deep breath. In one exhale, the words flowed out of her, detailing how she found herself surrounded by fog before the figure appeared and answered her questions. Then she detailed her meeting with Angelo in North Bear, where he didn’t miss her emphasis on specific, repeated words. By the time she was done, she was shaking all over again, her eyes darting back and forth as if expecting to be jumped.
“We need to unravel the truth. We need to get it out there before it’s too late. We need to reveal what the Fae felt and how evil your leader is—”
“Whoa, hold up there.” The words hadn’t registered earlier, but now they did. An ice-cold sensation entered his chest. “You think Angelo’s evil?”
“Yes. He might be.”
“He’s not.”
“What part of what I said didn’t you hear?”
He looked on in disbelief, faced with her stubborn expression. “So, you would believe what a shadow says over my clan? The same shadow whose fog mercilessly killed all those animals?”
“It appeared just recently. It didn’t hurt me. It makes sense. There are still pieces of the puzzle missing, but all the information on hand makes sense. You helped me find out the truth of Hannah’s words. We can do this, too.”
Nico felt dazed from her conviction, but more so from her willingness to just throw everything away that Angelo had shown her since she had arrived here: a warm welcome, an openness to her long stay, the comfort of partaking in everything that the clan had. The trust that she would never betray them. Hurt trickled down his bones, but something snapped him from snapping out and matching her agitation with his. Instead, he calmed himself down and leaned forward to meet her gaze.
“Nico?” she voiced out, noting how he didn’t respond yet.
He exhaled deeply, then spoke gently.
“Anne, just because your clan leader was evil doesn’t mean that mine is. You are mistaken.”
He knew the moment he broke her when her head jerked back as if she was slapped—as if he had slapped her. He reached out, but she was already backing away further as her eyes widened. For the first time, the crazed expression disappeared, replaced by the level-headed woman he recognized as she studied him and finally understood where he stood.