82. Loveleena
LOVELEENA
“Are you working with Ash Veloria?” Loveleena asked Ren point blank, her dagger pressed to his sternum. There was no way she was letting Ren lead this conversation. She would leave no opening for him to spin a story.
She wanted the truth.
Ren was freeing traitors, defending the creatures—with Park, which he had conveniently avoided telling her about. It was starting to look a lot like Park’s disappearance was his fault.
“Answer me!” she yelled as they stood in the dimly lit living room of the abandoned house. Ren looked at her for a long moment before he sat down in that same armchair.
The same armchair they…
She wanted to erase their night together from her memory and never think of it again.
She stepped forward, keeping her dagger directed at him.
“No,” Ren said, looking in her eyes.
She searched his face, looking for any hint of deception. But all that she could see was exasperation. Ren looked exhausted. Dark circles shadowed his undereyes, and his normally clean-shaven jaw was covered in stubble.
“You need to come clean about everything. All of it. If you don’t tell me what happened to Park right now, and why the fuck he’s catatonic, working with Barrow, and why Barrow tried to steal Ahmina’s blood, I swear to the Goddess I will murder you.” She seethed.
“To explain it all I need to start at the beginning.” He sighed. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“I’m good where I am.” She pushed the tip of her dagger slightly forward.
“I could steal that dagger from you before you even know what happened. So, if you don’t mind, lower your fucking weapon,” Ren growled, and she grudgingly obliged, if only because deep down she knew it was true.
“Magic from the Veloria line is strong because it was the first human family to be granted magic. Magic after that was powerful, but the creatures were cautious, slowly providing weaker gifts of magic to other families. That is, until the war between creatures and humans broke out, and they stopped gifting magic all together.”
“We’ve got a puker,” Lennox interrupted, hauling in a sickly Ahmina through the door with Zeina following.
“There’s a bucket over there,” Ren instructed, a look of indifference on his face.
“Twin and triplet magic seems to be the strongest. It’s almost as if the magic is amplified. Maybe because magic was first gifted to a set of twins. To be honest, no one really knows why.
“Keep in mind, this all happened over several years. Enough time passed for word to spread, and families in other cities were also given magic. It wasn’t only Jarrians.
Magic was spread to Celestia, Astoria, Edina, and beyond.
When the Great War broke out, Jarrians built the wall and created the Academy, while Ash ran off, syphoning magic from everywhere he could. Creatures. Humans.”
“Yeah, you told us that already. That still doesn’t explain the blood.”
“Let me finish,” Ren snapped. “Over the years, he’s attacked almost every city on the continent,” Ren continued.
“Many fled to Astoria and Celestia during the war. Although some refused and remained here in Jarrah. Over the years, Ash has tried to tear apart every city. Celestia has been in ruins for years. And when we found out he intended to return to Jarrah and take it down too, we came here to stop it.”
“Came here? From where?”
“Astoria,” Lennox interjected. “That’s where we are from, where our families are from.”
The lost cities.
Loveleena swallowed. Park had been right all along. There was more out there.
“We’ve been working to take down Ash and his followers,” Ren said.
“Wait, let’s just back up for a moment. All the magic that was gifted by the creatures has been passed down?” a sickly Ahmina choked out. “That’s how we have magic?”
“Yes, and we all have it.”
“Wait, what?” Ahmina sat straight up and got to her feet, wobbling as she did. She grabbed Zeina’s arm for support, who looked mortified at the touch. “You have magic too?”
Lennox cleared his throat. “Yes.”
“What can wha-what!?” Ahmina stuttered. “What’s your magic?”
“Mina-baby, sit down.” Lennox placed both hands on her shoulders and tried to guide her back into her seat, but Ahmina resisted.
“Tell me,” she insisted, and Lennox sighed, his brow furrowed.
“I’m a reader, like Zeina.”
“Read what, exactly?”
“Energy, intention, thoughts.”
Ahmina stumbled back into Zeina, almost knocking her over, horrified.
“You can read minds!?”
Lennox reached out to Ahmina. “No! Yes. Kind of. It’s complicated.”
“Explain it then.”
“It’s more like energy, intentions, desires. And the more bonded I am to someone, the more I can read their thoughts. It’s really hard to describe.”
She turned to Zeina “Can YOU read minds too?”
“No,” Zeina said, expressionless.
“Her magic isn’t strong enough yet,” Lennox clarified. “But she will, one day.”
Ahmina’s mouth hung open.
“Sit down, girl, you look like you’ve risen from the dead,” Loveleena ordered.
Ahmina fell back into the chair, shooting daggers with her eyes.
Quite frankly, Loveleena didn’t care if Lennox could read minds or not.
Actually, she wished he would read her mind and shut the hell up so she could get what she needed from Ren. She wanted to know what Ren was hiding.
“Tell them yours,” she said to Ren while Lennox and Ahmina argue-whispered behind her. She already knew what Ren was, but she wanted him to say it out loud so everyone could hear.
Ren’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“If you want any of us to trust you. To believe you. Tell them the truth.”
He took a deep breath in, considering, but eventually, he conceded. “Shapeshifter.”
“What!?” Ahmina’s attention zapped to Ren. “Just creatures? Or humans too?”
“Technically both, but people are much more difficult and most of the time it’s not worth it—too taxing. Creatures are much more enjoyable.”
“So how do we know this is really you?” Ahmina said frowning.
“You don’t, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.” He stared at them blankly. “And like Lennox said, it’s complicated.”
“Great, now everyone knows, right? Let’s move along.” She had pulled back her dagger, but she was getting impatient, and she lifted it up to Ren’s chest again. “As you were saying… families fled to Astoria?”
“Some of them,” Ren clarified.
“Ren’s family, my family, and many others have been fighting for decades to return the magic to a balanced state. Astoria is one of the only cities that wasn’t destroyed during the Great War. Most of us are there. However, we have allies in Jarrah too. They’re working in secret,” Lennox explained.
“The less you know about them, the better.” Ren eyed Lennox, a silent urge not to say too much.
Loveleena flipped through people she knew, contemplating their possible association. Her mind traced back to Lady Shadows and how she had shown up in the woods to help Ahmina. She combed through their last several interactions, including the day she stole the tully.
The day she ran into something large on her way home.
Something that promptly vanished.
“I ran into a creature the day before the Initiation. What was that?”
“Ren playing a Soul Snatcher for the day,” Lennox said, laughing.
“It was an accident. I didn’t mean to run into you.”
Loveleena turned back to Ren. “You were in the library garden that day. Ahmina saw you!”
Ahmina’s face fell, the realization hitting her.
“Well, that was not an accident,” Ren said. “I had to back up Lennox.”
Ahmina turned back to Lennox. “Are you serious, Lennox!? What did you even need back up for? Did you think I was going to throw a book at your head? It was the library!”
Lennox’s charm was unmistakable. “What?” He shrugged, smiling like it was all a joke. “You’re an infamous Veloria with arguably the most potent magic in the world. Can’t be too careful with a terrifying woman like you.”
“I’ll show you terrifying.” Ahmina swung for him half-heartedly, losing her balance as she did, and Lennox dodged it, egging her on.
“See what I mean, stress-mina? So unpredictable.”
Ahmina laughed then, still trying to pretend she was angry. “You’re so—UGH.” She pushed him back, and he held onto her wrists in response, pulling her against his body.
“Come here.” He secured her pretzeled arms into a full-fledged hug.
“We didn’t know if your magic had awakened yet or how in control of it you were,” Ren clarified.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Ahmina asked Lennox, her eyes glassy.
“We couldn’t interfere and risk your magic not awakening, remember?”
“That’s true for all three of you,” Ren added.
“The creature sympathizers…” Loveleena said slowly, her mind flashing back to Ren helping them escape beyond the wall. “Is that where you were sending them? Astoria?”
Ren nodded. “The sympathizers see past the facade that Jarrah has created. To this day, many creatures live in harmony with humans. It’s incredibly normal in Astoria.
But that’s not to say there aren’t dangerous ones.
The creatures are divided. They are as complex and mentally advanced as we are, arguably, even more so.
Of course, some despise us and wish we were dead.
Can you really blame them after all that has happened?
Because of Ash, we’ve betrayed them. Hunted them. Stolen their children—”
“—On that note,” Lennox cut in. “We found where they are hiding them.”
Ren perked up.
“There’s a farm of them hidden under the Academy.”
“The creatures were right there all along.” Ren shook his head in disbelief, taking in Lennox’s words, before continuing his explanation.
“There’s a whole army of creatures working with us to restore magic to its former state.
The creature sympathizers, although incredibly stupid, don’t deserve to suffer and die.
In Astoria, we can work with them. Their valiant efforts won’t be wasted. ”
“Why?” Zeina’s words cut through their conversation. Loveleena had almost forgotten she was there. “Why did our parents abandon us?”
“Like we said, to protect you.” Ren frowned.