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.His eyes had even glazed and his shoulders slumped, drawn into his chest.His wings twitched under his coat and he kept shaking his knee until the nervous activity made the table tremble.Avery mulled on her answer for a moment.“She told me about the night Jericho died.That it wasn’t an accident.”“It was an accident.” He interrupted.Glowering, Avery set the ice cream cone flat on the table.Wrapping her arms around herself, she scrutinized him harder.“It was.” He seconded his own comment when she refused to answer.He explained further.“Okay, how about this.I’ll tell you my version and then you compare.”When she nodded, he launched into the story.“I fell in love with Adalyn.But she was betrothed from a young age and as long as she was, we couldn’t marry.And then Eva came along.she told me if I called our father out into the open, she’d steal that stupid amulet.Then she would break up Adalyn’s engagement with her connections.”Avery stuck a finger up to stop him and said something about the next part.“You hired the Band to kill him?”“No.You’re wrong again.You can’t listen to Eva! Eva lies!” He growled.The allegation sounding so familiar, the déjà vu threatened to make Avery nauseous.Eva said Mason lied.Mason said Eva lied.It felt like she was dealing with children but lacked the parenting skills to get the real scoop.“Breaking up someone’s engagement doesn’t mean killing them.It’s easy in the harpie world.They’re all about banishment.All she’d needed to do was give any reason for the authorities to believe Adalyn’s fiancé was less than.honorable.Like if he’d associated with the Band of Thieves.That rumor alone could have done it and that did.The fact that he showed up dead almost a week later had nothing to do with me.” Mason protested vehemently.“And what about Jericho?”Mason leaned back in his chair and cast his eyes towards the cracked concrete patio.“I didn’t call Jericho out to get murdered, Avery.I would never have thought, no matter how insane my sister would turn out to be, she would have let that happen.They were only supposed to take the amulet.He fought them over it and then they killed him.It happened so quickly.I didn’t think he was ever in any mortal danger.He should have just given it up.”Mason’s voice sounded particularly raw and his eyes had glazed over with thought.She almost didn’t want to interrupt whatever was going through his mind but she still needed to figure things out.“And that’s when you decided to get it back.Was it to save your father’s legacy after all or did you just want to salvage your relationship with Adalyn?”He glanced at her wearily.“Does it matter now?”“Yes.Because if it was Adalyn then I’m not entirely sure I can trust you anymore.I am the amulet.Are you going to give me to the harpie court if that means you could get Adalyn back and your banishment removed?”His eyes shot up and he glared at her, clearly offended.“I said I’d protect you!”“Yea but you also went out of your way to tell me a whole romanticized story about what happened with Jericho.You’re leaving things out all the time.”Mason stood up so suddenly, he knocked his seat back and made Avery flinch.Pressing his palms flat on the table, he leaned forward.“Don’t judge me for leaving things out Avery.I watched you lie to Leela’s face every day about Nate.You’re the same way.”Avery didn’t know how to react to that so she didn’t.Letting out a deep breath, she looked away from him.“Fine.” She finally admitted and Mason corrected his chair and sat back in his seat.“But you have to make a deal with me.”He cocked his head at her proposal and she met his eyes again.“We have to stop this secrets stuff.This amulet thing is dragging out a lot longer than we’d expected, so we need to trust each other.”Mason nodded firmly.Before Avery could say more, the seat between them abruptly moved.A girl sat down to join the conversation and it took Avery a minute to recognize her.Adalyn had let down her curly blonde hair and adorned heavier makeup.Wings tucked away under a clenched black coat, she looked small and lean.She frowned at Avery with hot red lips and blinked at her through heavy eye mascara.Mason didn’t even so much as look up indicating he’d known the blonde had been nearby all along.“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Adalyn said stiffly and her eyes flickered over Avery and Mason.“We’re just figuring some things out.” He said.“Well then I don’t want to rain on your parade but I don’t think you need to figure anything else out with this girl.We’ll have to find another way to remove your banishment.”“What do you mean?” Avery snapped out, quickly upset by the comment.Adalyn didn’t even look at her but kept talking to Mason.“So guess what I found out.Apparently this girl here attacked a marshal.He put two and two together.She has magic in her body and she knows you.The police now know that Prince Jericho’s Willow amulet runs in the form of a human girl.Do you know what that means?” She didn’t wait for them to ask.“That means they’re going to think the problem is out of your hands and take it into theirs.Do you know what they would do with a human girl that attacks police? Especially considering she might be working for the Band of Thieves? Whatever they decide, it won’t be good.”“What?” Mason and Avery must have gasped in unison, but she jumped up out of her seat first.“I didn’t attack anyone!” She hollered.Hurt and helpless, she was having trouble processing the news.“Avery, wait! What happened?” Mason spoke above her hysteria.“It was on the.” She slowed, knowing she had to start from the beginning.“Your sister picked me up and brought me to this place called Hatcher Pass.Her boss-- or some higher up, I’m not sure-- wanted to see if he could use the magic.It’s hard to explain but he almost showed me how to manifest it.I could actually use it.”She thought it was amazing but Mason’s scowl indicated he did not.He let her keep talking.“Anyways, then a bunch of police showed up to get the Band.I used the opportunity to run and then one of the police grabbed me.I didn’t want to hurt him, I just wanted to leave.So I kind of.well I guess I did attack him with the magic.But just so he could let me go.I didn’t know that he was hurt.”Mason took awhile to answer, clearly thinking it over.“I know you didn’t try to hurt him Avery.” He said at first, at least making her feel better.“But the more you use the magic, the more danger you put yourself in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]