Chapter 10 #5
Rin narrowed her eyes and brought the paper closer to her face.
"They’re all Aetherborn," she said brokenly.
"Each one of them." She pointed at the word in bold at the top: STELLA.
And underneath for each subject, AETHERBORN.
Rin flipped over the sheet, finding nothing on the back. "I n-need another."
She searched in the drawer, blindly grasping for the next sheet of paper in the stack. It was the same, a list of subjects, but most on this page had a line crossed through them.
"Dead?" Cyrus whispered.
"I guess," Rin replied. "So Lucien has been… experimenting"—it hurt to say the words—"on Aetherborns?"
It was Cyrus who went for the next paper, eyes scanning over it. "This one is different." He shone the light on it. "It looks like—fuck," he seethed.
"What? What is it?"
"Proof of ownership." Cyrus threw the stack down on his lap.
"It looks like the Aetherborns were purchased illegally from Lunar City.
Look at this stamp, here." She looked where he was pointing, in the top right corner, where a small image of a moon slashed through with a jagged line was pressed into the pages with blood-red ink.
"A trafficking ring?" Rin questioned, heartbroken.
"It looks like it. I’ve never been to Lunar City. The criminals there would kill a prince in a heartbeat for the bragging rights. Not exactly safe…"
The proof was right before her eyes, so why did a part of her still want to believe the best of her doctor?
"No, no." Rin shook her head, leaning up to grab more papers. "There has to be something in here. I can’t believe it. Not Lucien. Not him. He wouldn’t do this to me," she sobbed quietly.
A tiny piece of paper fluttered to the floor as she lifted the stack. She grabbed it, hoping, wishing, it would prove his innocence.
Scrawled in Lucien’s familiar handwriting:
Every day, remember who you are lying for.
"This is proof, right?" Rin held the note in the dull beam from the flashlight. A pale pink note, the sticky edges dulled from time.
Cyrus gave a strange smile.
She hated it.
Rin flipped through the stack and tucked between more papers—documentation of illegally purchased Aetherborns and sheets of damning evidence—another note fell.
For the memory of your diamond tears…
Another…
She is my light in the darkness.
Keep me sane.
And another note, this one scrawled messily, as if an afterthought, but some of the words were marked through, like Lucien hadn’t wanted to write them, wanted to erase their very existence:
To my V girl, if something happens to me, don’t trust them.
"V girl," Cyrus echoed. "That’s you, Vesperin."
Rin bundled the notes close to her chest. "But don’t trust who?"
Cyrus opened his mouth to respond, but a soft beep made them both stiffen.
It was coming from the hidden compartment.
They shared a look.
And slowly, Rin looked inside. It beeped again.
"That sounds like a phone." She found Cyrus’s eyes, and just as she did so, her fingers bumped against something in the back of the desk.
She shifted the stack of papers to the side, finding a little latch tucked in the furthest piece of wood.
She lifted it, and hidden within the small, carved-out space, a silver flip-phone.
Cyrus leaned over her shoulder as she flipped it open, trembling with fear.
One unread message flashed across the pixelated screen. She pressed the button to open it, seeing unknown across the top—no number.
No history, no other recorded calls or messages, just the one…
You’re testing me, Quenlan. Don’t forget I own you. I can make you disappear with one call. Stop fighting this. Do your job. Or I will find someone else to do it for you. I promise they won’t be as forgiving to the subjects.
Just as Rin read the last line, another message came through:
Or Vesperin. You can’t protect her forever.
The phone dropped from her hands, landing in her lap with the notes. "Someone is threatening him. You see it, too, Cy?" She beseeched the incubus with her eyes, desperate for him to agree, to voice that this was real, and not make-believe.
Cyrus’s hand tightened on her shoulder. "It sounds like it, Ves. Whoever this is, they’re threatening to kill him if he doesn’t… experiment on these Aetherborns?"
"Or me. He’s protecting me. Somehow." Rin wasn’t sure. She had no idea what any of this meant, but at least Lucien didn’t seem to be doing this—whatever this was—willingly.
The rustling of papers made her look to Cyrus, where he was flipping through the stacks furiously. He paused with a soft noise of triumph, red hair falling into his eyes as he glanced up at her. "LunCo."
"What?" Rin squinted at the papers, tiny dots in her eyes from the sudden flash of light as Cyrus shifted and the beam hit her square in the face.
"Sorry." Cyrus moved the beam, shoving the papers in her face.
"Look. LunCo. That’s the owner of the stamp.
A purchase for medical supplies. See here.
" He pointed at a receipt for ordinary things needed at a hospital: sheets and rubber-soled socks.
Except that the stamp at the top of the receipt was the same as on the Aetherborn papers, and this one had a name.
LunCo.
Not just a hospital supplier, but a front for trafficking.
Rin yanked the paper from Cyrus, fury building in her corrupted heart. Whoever dared to threaten Lucien—whoever thought they could use Aetherborns as nameless lab rats—was going to choke on the force of her vengeance. Finally, she had a reason to keep going, and she was nothing if not relentless.
"Looks like we’re going to Lunar City," Rin announced.