Chapter 27
Igrabbed at Fable, and her wide eyes met mine.
This was not how I wanted my friends to find out. I didn’t want to tell them, but also I didn’t want them to think I was trying to hide secrets. Which I was, but also not.
What a fucking mess.
Horror flickered over Fable’s face, and she clapped her hands to her mouth. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”
No time for that. Nope, time to face the music.
“Harlow?” Marina’s harsh voice turned me back around to face her. “Is that true?”
I closed my eyes and bent at the waist, the world spinning. This was not the time to lose it, not here, and yet my feet felt like they were sinking into mud and it took all I had to keep my knees locked and my body upright.
When I opened my eyes, they were all back in the basement, a slice of bread in Ross’s hand, a pickle jar clutched in Ellie’s arms.
“I just heard Fable say that Nocta is Harlow’s father.” Marina spoke to the others, but her dark, accusing gaze never wavered from mine. “Is. It. True.”
My stomach pitched and I pursed my lips, trying to calm my rioting thoughts.
“Yes. It’s true. I just . . . I haven’t known what to say. How to say it. I’m not . . . he didn’t raise me, I never knew him –” My words sounded as desperate as I felt, hoping that they would believe me.
Marina reeled back as if I’d slapped her. “You . . . you’re that monster’s daughter?”
I didn’t look away from her to the others. “I didn’t exactly get a say, Marina.”
No different than Typhon being a Draw.
She huffed a sharp laugh. “But you chose not to tell us. He killed my cousin, Harlow! He killed someone from every one of our families! You know that!”
My jaw ticked, her anger sparking my own. “My mother raised me, Marina. I never even knew him! I was wrong to keep it from you, but–”
“Is that why he didn’t hurt you at the games?” Cat’s question snaked out like a slap.
I shook my head. “I can’t answer that. All I know is that he saved Opie. And Krishna.”
“Didn’t you trust us enough to tell us?” Ellie whispered, tears glittering in her eyes.
Much as I wanted to run away, to close my eyes, or just bury myself, I had known this moment would come eventually and I had to face it head on.
“I didn’t know how to say it, okay? How the fuck do you tell the people you love the most in the world that your father is a damned monster!”
I was yelling now.
I ran my hands over my face and covered my mouth. “I’m sorry. You guys are the wronged party here, not me. I really was going to tell you . . .”
“Guys.” Fable stepped up beside me and linked her elbow with mine. “Listen, I get it. When I found out, I was taken aback too. I just came to the realization that it doesn’t change who she is –”
Cat held up a hand. “Wait. When did you find out, Fable?”
“Oh, a month or two before the Solstice Games maybe?” She looked at me for confirmation. “I think?”
The tension ratcheted back up. “You’ve known for months.” Cat shook her head. “Both of you kept secrets from the rest of us! Anything else you’ve been keeping from the,” she made air quotes with her hands, “people you love the most?”
“Nothing!”
I tried not to flinch because of course there was that little thing about Typhon being a Draw, but that wasn’t my secret to share.
As it was, she must have seen something on my face.
With a shake of her head, she spun and stomped up the stairs.
Ellie waited a moment and then slipped after her with a quiet sigh.
“Harlow . . . I wish you’d trusted us. I’m not angry. I’m just . . . I’m hurt.”
Fuck me. That was worse than Cat’s anger.
“Well, I am not hurt,” Marina clarified, slicing her hand through the air in disgust. “I’m pissed that I was so stupid to believe anything you’ve ever said. You’re a fucking liar, Harlow.”
I didn’t argue with her, and she was gone a moment later, running up the stairs with what sounded like a barely caught sob at the top.
I don’t know when I’d started crying, but the tears streaked down my cheeks, rolling to my chin and dripping off as I waited on the judgment of the others. This was what I’d been afraid of all along.
Losing them.
And now it was happening. The worst possible outcome was happening and I couldn’t stop it.
“I’ll try to talk to them,” Fable said. “Tell them that it’s not like what they think.”
Before I could beg her not to, she ran after the other girls. Leaving me with Ross, Gary, Zeed, and Liam.
What I wouldn’t have given to have Bandit there to lean into, but all I had was Calypso.
“You fucking twats! As if you’ve all been totally honest,” she yelled from my pocket. “Please, what a crock of shit. So, you would bury her with the sins of her father? She’s nearly died for you, how many times now?”
Gary shuffled his feet. “Lots.”
“Yeah, lots. Idiots.”
She fell silent when I put my hand over her.
“Calypso, they have every right to be angry, or hate me or . . .”
“I don’t hate you,” Gary cut in. “Like not even a little bit. But I think I need to, I don’t know, process this.”
I nodded. He turned and left. Ross stuffed the last of his bread into his mouth and spoke around it.
“Calypso is right. You’ve saved our bacon lots, nearly died.
Saved me and Gary from the vampires. But the girls,” he paused to swallow the last of his bite.
“They are going to take some time to come around.”
He gave me a smile and his trademark wink, and then he was gone, up the stairs.
Zeed was the next to move. He stepped in and drew me into a careful embrace, his sleeves brushing my arms but his bare skin never touching mine.
“I already knew,” he murmured against my hair. “I saw it in your memories back at Neverthorn, the night my Quirk showed up.”
My knees nearly gave out. All this time he’d known and said nothing—not that there had really been time. “You don’t . . . hate me?”
His arms tightened, steadying me. “I’ve seen the truth of you, Harlow. How fiercely you love, how hard you fight for every one of us. I’d trust you with my life. Nocta being your father doesn’t change that – nothing could.”
Like an older brother, he kissed the crown of my head before letting me go. “They’ll come around. It’s just a family spat, right? Give them a bit of time.”
I wished I could believe him. Maybe Gary would be okay with it after a bit of time to take it in, but Marina and Caterina were beyond angry, and I couldn’t even blame them.
“Anything to add, doyen?” my voice cracked as I spoke. Liam closed the gap between us without hesitation. His answer was wordless.
He pulled me into his arms. Warmth and that subtle scent of vanilla wrapped around me as surely as his embrace. “You’re still one of my favorite people in this world, Harlow. Who you are doesn’t change – ever. There is no darkness in you. None.”
His lips brushed my cheek, gentle as a promise. I was too busy dripping snot and tears to manage more than a half-laugh, half-sob. Because I wasn’t so sure.
What if the darkness was just waiting to come out? To take me over in some sort of mad sickness? Because I still had no idea why Nocta had done what he’d done – killing all his friends. His housemates.
Beneath the warmth and comfort, beneath the hurt I’d caused and the anger that had erupted . . . one thought slipped in like a shadow over my heart –
Typhon.
He wouldn’t care that I was Nocta’s daughter. Even before I knew he was a Draw, somehow, I’d always known that it wouldn’t matter.
But would he see me the way Liam did? The opposite of my father?
Or would he see the darkness in me and welcome it to match his own?