“We will continue to worry,” Delia explained gently, “but with confidence like that I suppose we can go on doing what we’re doing too.”

“What is it that you’re doing?” I asked, my curiosity in all the parts of the Resistance that I couldn’t see flaring to life. “Or maybe you don’t want to say in front of Kiran?” I asked at the last second, realizing that just because he knew my secrets and Sebastian’s secret didn’t mean he owed the Rebellion any loyalty. In fact, the realization that I trusted him far too much dawned on me and a pit of anxiety started to grow in the base of my stomach.

Justice broke into laughter at the idea though until he lifted his eyes behind me and immediately died down into a soft chuckle. I turned half around to see what Kiran had done to silence my father but he seemed very busy draining noodles over the sink with his back turned to us.

“We are helping Shape-shifter colonies hide from Lucan,” Delia hushed her tones hoping to keep our conversation private. “Lately, he has been on a rampage trying to collect as many exiles as possible, so when we can find a colony before he has been there, we move them to safer locations.”

“And try to recruit them,” Justice added with a twinkle in his eye.

“That is very good work,” I nearly burst into tears with gratitude. I was filled with appreciation, not just because my parents were working side by side with Avalon and me now, but because the lives they saved were less prisoners for me to worry about.

“We think what you’re doing is pretty amazing too,” Justice’s voice still carried the soft Romanian accent all Titans have and I smiled at the comforting sound of how his words ran together like cursive.

“Dinner is ready,” Kiran called from the kitchen.

We stood up and walked to the counter where a simple meal of goulash without meat waited for us. Suddenly impressed with Kiran’s ability to not only lead a kingdom, but serve when the time called for it, I found it hard to look him in the eyes. I let my parents go first, pretending not to be hungry as they dished up their plates and then took them back to the couch. Kiran, too, dished up his plate after I insisted I needed a drink of water first and when he joined my parents in the living room he fell into easy conversation with them. They laughed together like actual friends and ate in laid-back companionship.

I stood at the counter watching them, finding it hard to want to join them, to interrupt their conversation and add my strange baggage to the mix. Delia noticing that I was still, missing stood up and came for seconds. She looked at me for one second before setting her plate down and pulling me into a hug.

“Oh, darling,” she mumbled into my hair, sensing instinctively that something was wrong.

“It’s nothing, it’s…. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I admitted truthfully, feeling the tears press hotly against my closed eye lids.

She pulled away just an inch so that she could look into my eyes and speak to me. “Do you know that I loved Lucan once?”

I gasped, shocked by the news. I shook my head frantically, not even able to find the words to argue with her. It couldn’t be true.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she scolded good-humoredly. “When we were younger, he could be…. He was very charming. He showered me with affection and worshiped me. I couldn’t help myself. I fell for him. But, it wasn’t long before I realized a relationship wouldn’t work between us. I needed someone to challenge me, someone who knew me better than I knew myself. I needed someone to complete me. My soul mate,” she spoke quietly but with the deepest emotion I had ever heard anyone speak with. “Lucan wasn’t that person for me. But while I struggled to realize that, I fell in love with your father at the same time. I loved two men and had to choose between them. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She asked and I nodded out of habit, even though I didn’t understand what she was trying to say. “I loved two men and had to decide which one was my soul mate and which one was the easy choice, the…. safe choice. Eden, true love, whether you live your life on the run or spend it in the same house where you raise your children, is never easy and it’s certainly never safe. It’s a risk we take believing the reward is greater than what we give up. And darling, I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is.”

“Thank you for that,” I sighed, leaning into her again, “Jericho is worth all that. I really do believe you.” I felt better already. She was right, it was a risk to love anybody, to hand your heart over completely to anybody, but I could do it if it meant true love waited for me on the other side.

“Oh, Eden!” She laughed hysterically. “You’re much more like your father in this area than I want to believe!” I looked up at her, trying to decipher what made her laugh at me. “I had to convince him he was in love with me too!”

I laid my head down on her shoulder, not having a clue what she meant, but thankful for the comfort anyway. After the day I had, I just needed my mom. Despite everything in my life, I was still a teenage girl after all, and my mom was the only one who would ever really get me.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

We arrived back at the castle somewhere in the middle of the night, too exhausted to keep my eyes open for even a second, once I said goodbye to my parents, I fell, more than sat, into the passenger’s seat of the four door sedan. Falling asleep instantly, I didn’t stir until Kiran opened my door and attempted to lift me from my seat and carry me inside.

“I can walk,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes and shaking my head from the hold of sleep.

“Then take my arm,” Kiran instructed, not at all convinced I could.

I stood up from the car a little off balance, determined to walk on my own, but he held out his arm to catch me and I realized I needed it more than I wanted to admit. I leaned into him and we walked up the castle steps and through the front doors into a buzz of activity.

All of the lights were on, despite the late hour, Titans rushed from one hallway to another and Sebastian, Seraphina and Amelia stood against one wall watching it all happen with looks of horror on their faces.

Kiran pulled away from me, tensing immediately. I straightened too, made alert by the panic thick in the air. We walked over to Sebastian who barely registered our arrival.

“Oh, thank God,” Amelia breathed and then hugged me tightly to her. “You’re here.”

“What’s going on?” Kiran demanded of Sebastian. “Where’s Talbott?”

“Your father sent Talbott away yesterday,” Sebastian mumbled in return. “He had a job for him.”

“My father is not in charge of Talbott, I am,” Kiran growled. “Where did he send him?”

“We don’t know,” Seraphina jumped in. She seemed to be able to put more words together than Sebastian. “But as soon as Talbott left, your father had his Guards start bringing them in and they haven’t stopped all day! There are hundreds of them…. We don’t even know where he found them all! But they just keep coming.”

“Who keeps coming?” I whispered, afraid of the answer.

Seraphina looked at me, her cobalt eyes meeting mine in strangled terror. “Prisoners,” she replied softly.

Next to me I felt Kiran’s skin go hot with rage. He ripped his arm from around me and clasped trembling hands behind his back. He looked down at me with an expression I had never seen before, pure rage, unadulterated hate. He turned on his heel and headed for the throne room. The rest of us scrambled to keep up behind him.

Kiran stalked through the castle, his shoulders tense with purpose. I couldn’t see his face, but even I felt afraid of the anger that shook his body. I tried to make sense of it all, the prisoners, the hundreds of captured people that were caged beneath us. The castle seemed to buzz with the frenetic energy of the collective magic. Only this magic pulsed in a unified rhythm that screamed out in tortured agony and confusion. I looked back at Sebastian to see if he knew Kiran’s plan, but his eyes were clouded with deep concern and I couldn’t read why.

We all stopped just before the throne room doors. They were half open from the constant activity of Titans entering and leaving with updates and reports. Kiran turned toward us, not seeing us at first, but slowly registering that we followed him. His eyes fell on me, and a frown etched deeply across his mouth.

“Sebastian, take Amelia and Sera to their rooms please,” Kiran commanded and Sebastian and the girls obeyed immediately. I fidgeted nervously, afraid to be alone with him. “Eden, I am going to speak to my father, I would like it if you joined me,” his voice had turned soft with his request, but the rage still emanated from him in waves of aggressive magic.

“Yes, of course I will,” I agreed, my voice still hoarse with fear.

“I’m going to ask you to stand beside me quietly, Eden. I need to speak with my father and it will do no good if you’re constantly interrupting or if you start a fight with him. Can you be silent?” he asked carefully. I bristled at his authoritative tone and then settled. I could feel his intent, his drive and he didn’t mean to demean me, just to control the situation as best as he could.

“Ok, I’ll be quiet,” I promised.

“Thank you,” he replied genuinely.

He stepped away from me to open the door politely. I walked into the throne room feeling

overwhelmed with emotion. Staying silent might be the hardest thing Kiran ever asked me to do. Kiran entered the room quickly behind me and then stood by my side.

Lucan glanced up at us, his face registered satisfaction. Then he turned his attention back to a Titan and an official-looking document. He held up a hand to Kiran asking him to wait a minute and I thought for a second Kiran would leap forward and attack his father like a rabid dog.

He stayed deathly still next to me, waiting on his father. His electricity raged in the air, making itself known by everybody. In that moment, he reminded me of his father, the way Lucan’s magic seemed to suffocate rooms and choke the breathable air out of my lungs. But something about his anger, his determined set of the jaw, the resolve in his eyes was different. As much as I wanted to hate Kiran for his betrayal, I looked at him now and trusted him instead. This was righteous anger. This was goodness. He was the opposite of his father.

Lucan finished with the Titan and turned his attention to Kiran. He nodded at him benevolently. “Kiran, welcome back. I’m glad your mission turned out successfully for you,” Lucan purred.

“Father, what is the meaning of all this? Where did all of these prisoners come from?” Kiran demanded negating the pleasantries.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lucan asked rhetorically. “This is called insurance, Son,” he finished bitingly.

“I told you, Eden was kidnapped. I told you that! She didn’t plan on running off anywhere, and she would never have left the castle if it weren’t for your man’s betrayal!” Kiran argued, his voice growing louder and harder to control the emotion behind it.

“You trust her too much, son,” Lucan growled. “How can you be certain this isn’t all part of her master plan? How can you be certain it wasn’t her idea to be kidnapped in the first place? And at the first sign of trouble, she abandoned her partnership and betrayed those whom she collaborated with in the first place? You cannot be sure! You cannot trust her!” Lucan shouted at Kiran, leaning forward on his golden throne.