Still, Tarver didn’t seem to mind. He walked along happily enough, taking in all the sights and sounds of the coven. He seemed nice, though a little quiet. I’d tried to make small talk throughout our tour, but he hadn’t bitten. Instead, he’d grown more and more fidgety, to the point where I was starting to wonder if he was the mole and I was about to get attacked.
As we reached one of the empty training halls, Tarver looked around surreptitiously.
Is this it? Is this the moment when you’re going to strike?
I prepped my palms for any eventuality, tensing my muscles in readiness. After my fight with Katherine, I was exhausted and completely spent in the magical sense, but no mole was going to take me down today. No chance. I had to have reserves somewhere.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said, turning back to me.
I frowned. “Oh, yeah?” This guy and Alton were acting really strange, and I didn’t like it one bit. With Shapeshifters and curses like Krieger’s being bandied about the place, nobody could be trusted.
Tarver reached up to the underside of his jaw and pulled away his skin in one horrifying movement. I nearly screamed, clamping my hand over my mouth as I saw the face underneath. I couldn’t quite believe it.
“Jacob?” I whispered, before leaping forward to hug him, gripping him tight. “You’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe. Isadora said you were, but I didn’t know what to believe. You’re here—you’re here and you’re safe!”
He chuckled. “Yep. Thanks for the warm welcome.”
“What’s with the Scooby-Doo mask trick? You’ve got to warn a girl before you go tearing your face off in front of her. And why didn’t you just tell me who you were in Alton’s office, you dope?”
“Alton said I should try and see if the mask fooled you,” he replied, grinning. “Looks like you’re the benchmark for this working.”
“Yeah, it worked!”
“Well, that makes me feel a little calmer about all of this,” he said. “I was really worried back there, sure you’d realize it was me. See, I’ll be staying incognito at the coven and helping Alton out with a bit of spy work, so this disguise has to be flawless.” He took the mask and put it back on, the fleshy material melding perfectly to his face. Creepy didn’t even begin to cover it.
A sad thought then crossed my mind. “Did Alton tell you about Isadora?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he filled me in on everything.”
“I tried to rescue her, but she wouldn’t come with me,” I said, my voice catching in my throat. The image of her on the ground at Katherine’s feet, being forced to do things beyond her control, was a vision I couldn’t shake.
“That sounds like her.”
“There’s a spell on Isadora,” I explained. “That’s why she refused. She said Katherine would kill her if she came with me.”
“I know,” he said. “But we’re going to get her back, one way or another.”
I smiled proudly. “You read my mind.”
“I knew you wouldn’t abandon her. That’s why she worries about you—she knows you’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, which is why she’s been protecting you all this time. Keeping her distance to stop you from becoming a target.”
I chuckled wryly. “It didn’t do much good, in the end. I think I’ve had a target on my back since birth.” Shaking off my gloomy state, I patted Jacob on the back. “In the meantime, before we can go after her, we’ll need to find out as much as possible about Katherine’s plans and locate the rest of the missing kids. We got pretty lucky with Micah, and I know we can do better.”
Jacob gasped, startling me. “I almost forgot something!” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a letter, handing it to me with a shy smile. “It’s from Isadora.”
I glanced down at the envelope with wide eyes. On the front, written in elegant cursive, were the words “As promised.” I realized the letter must contain everything Isadora knew about Hiram, Hester, and Katherine—the trifecta that had brought us all to this point. The full truth about them, finally.
But Isadora had also mentioned something else. A secret I might not want to hear. Something dark, that might even have to do with me, instead. Her vague statement had been lurking at the back of my mind ever since she’d given it. Now, she was delivering the choice she’d promised—to discover the matter for myself, whether I liked the outcome or not.
Given how anxious she had been about telling me, a part of me wondered whether I was better off not knowing. I didn’t have to open the envelope. I could bury it under my mattress and forget it existed. But then I’d never know my family’s story. Or mine.
Clutching the letter closer to my chest, I nodded stiffly. “Thank you, Jacob.”
Sometimes the truth could be more painful than living a lie, and maybe this truth was something I would regret discovering. But in the end, reality had to be the wiser and saner path.
At least, I hoped so...