I wished I didn’t think it possible that my twin could ever hate me. But she’d become so obsessed with Ethan that it was like she loved him more than me.
I didn’t have much time to continue spiraling in my downward thoughts, because Ethan entered the room a few seconds after me.
Mira’s eyes lit up, and she ran into his arms.
He hugged her back, but his eyes were blank, as if he felt nothing.
Finally, after a few painful seconds of watching the two of them together, Mira pulled away and looked up at Ethan. “Harper?” she asked, and she glanced to me, waiting for one of us to answer.
I shook my head no, unable to say it out loud.
Harper’s dead.
I couldn’t save her.
We left her behind.
But Harper had already stopped breathing when we’d left her. And she’d chosen to fight those demons, even though we had a clear path to the door.
Still, I should have reacted faster to help her. If I had, maybe she’d be here.
“Let’s sit down.” Ethan led Mira to the table, and they sat side by side.
I sat across from Ethan and stared down at my hands, unable to look at him. If I did, I was sure my sister would see my love for him splattered across my face.
Makena cleared her throat. “Explain what happened,” she said.
Ethan took the lead, telling them everything that had happened from the moment we’d been dropped off in Lilith’s lair.
“I’m sorry to hear about your father,” Makena said once he was finished. “From what I’ve heard, he was an excellent king.”
Ethan nodded. “His footsteps will be impossible to fill.”
“It will be difficult,” Makena said. “But every leader brings his or her people in a new direction. I have confidence that you’ll make your father proud.”
“I’ll have to, eventually,” he said. “But the Elders lead our people—my people—whenever my father’s gone. And he was gone more than he was there, so he could be here on Earth looking after me and my sister. We were always his priority.” He looked to Mira, and then to me. “Because my job is to look after the two of you. And the two of you are my people’s priority.”
“They believe we’re destined to save them,” I said, remembering what he’d told us after we’d received our magic. Then I remembered what Isobel—the dark witch being held captive in the Ward—had told us before we’d left. “The dragons in Ember are slaves. And they think we can free them.”
“Which is why the two of you are a priority,” Ethan said. “By keeping you alive, I’m ensuring the freedom of my people.”
My first instinct was to say that Mira and I weren’t strong enough to save a realm of enslaved dragons. But I pressed my lips together, keeping the thought to myself.
Because right now, Ethan needed something to believe in. He needed a purpose.
That purpose was me and Mira.
I stole a glance at him, surprised to find he was looking straight at me.
I looked away as quickly as possible.
Luckily, Mira was focused on the door we’d both came in through.
“Why did Harper do it?” she asked. “The two of you were holding off the demons with your magic. You gave her a straight path out of there. She knew you could hold them back long enough to follow after her. So why’d she fight them?”
“Harper was angry.” Makena’s voice was hard and firm. “Lilith’s dark army destroyed her home and killed nearly everyone she knew. Harper was also an extremely strong witch—not just for someone her age, but for any witch. It made her arrogant. Anger and arrogance don’t mesh together well.”
“Don’t talk about her that way,” I snapped.
Makena barely reacted. “I’m simply answering your sister’s question.”
I glared at her in response.
Everyone in the Ward was so cold and unfeeling. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
“Harper was right to be angry,” Ethan said, and from the steady way he spoke, I could tell it was taking him every effort to contain his anger, too. “But Makena’s right. Harper was impulsive, and it got her killed. I won’t let either of you make that same mistake.”
“We won’t,” Mira said quickly. “Especially because we have no reason to go back there.”
“I don’t just mean there,” Ethan said. “I mean anywhere. Lilith might not be able to track you through your magic anymore, but she’s still after you. You won’t be safe until she’s dead.”
“But only a Nephilim can kill a greater demon,” Mira said. “We literally can’t kill her. And neither can you.”
“We might not be able to make the killing blow,” Ethan said. “But there are other ways we can help.”
“Such as what?”
“Firstly, by freeing the dragons in Ember,” he said. “But more immediately, by going to the Eternal Library and asking Hecate.”
Makena looked unsurprised by Ethan’s statement.
It was like she hadn’t heard him at all.
“Now that no one can track you when you use your dragon magic, your time is best spent practicing in the Haven,” she said. “The three of you are too powerful to spend your time with your noses stuck in books. There are plenty of other supernaturals who have that task covered.”
So, she didn’t have a key.
The keys were spelled so that whenever someone with a key mentioned the secrets of the Library to someone without a key, the person without a key forgot immediately—or, in Makena’s case, thought they’d heard something else.
She seemed to think that Ethan wanted us to search for information in various supernatural libraries, instead of getting information from Hecate in her Eternal Library.
“Don’t worry,” Ethan said. “We’ll be practicing.”
She nodded in approval.
“Thank you for letting us stay here these past few days,” I added, in an attempt to change the subject.
“It was the least I could do to thank you for bringing us a witch from Lilith’s army,” Makena said.
I looked down at my hands.
Because Harper had been the one to bring Isobel to the Ward. Makena should have been thanking Harper—not us.
Ethan stood up. “It’s best we be on our way,” he said, and then he turned to me and Mira. “There’s someone in the Haven who’s going to be very happy to see you.”
“Mom.” I smiled, although it vanished a second later.
Because Mom would ask why Harper wasn’t with us.
Telling her about what had happened would be like re-living it all over again.
“Is there anything I can get you before you teleport out?” Makena asked.
“No,” I said, not bothering to say that we weren’t strong enough witches to teleport—that we’d be using our keys. She’d simply forget a second later and return to her belief that we’d be teleporting away. “We’re good.”
And then, one by one, the three of us used our keys to step through the common room door and into the Eternal Library.
3
Gemma