I headed for the door, eager to get away, fearful they might realize what I had done.
“I hope to see you around, Thalia,” Lucia said as I took hold of the doorknob.
I looked back at her, her silver eyes near glowing as she smiled at me, and I didn’t miss the smug, knowing look in them.
She knew.
I sat at the dinner table later that night, rolling a small potato along my plate with my fork, my mind reeling with what I had overheard only a few hours earlier.
If what Lucia said was true, did that mean Barrett had been wrongfully tried? Wrongfully imprisoned? Was he framed?
Atticus Stratos. He was the Kyrios of House Stoicheion. I didn’t know how he came to be Kyrios, hadn’t been involved in the matters of The Council for as long as I’d been part of The Order. To think he had testified against Barrett... Had he truly lied? Why would he do such a thing? Lucia was no fool; she saw through more than any of us did, and I trusted her judgment. She even seemed to know I had been listening.
How long had she known? Had she continued to speak, knowing I was eavesdropping? If so, why?
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
Micah was equally quiet across the table—unusually quiet.
“I saw you training a new recruit the other day,” I said absentmindedly as I speared some green beans and took a bite.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Lucia sort of dropped him in my lap.”
“I saw his file when I was working with Damien.”
“What did it say?” he asked, scooping some food onto his fork.
“That’s what’s strange. There was no history on him. No family, nothing,” I said, watching him. “When Zephyr asked about him, Lucia basically said it was classified.”
He blinked, seemingly surprised by that statement, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Did she tell you anything?”
He hesitated, his lips parting then closing.
I lowered my fork. “You know something, don’t you?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “Only that he was imprisoned. When she told me about him, it was in typical Lucia fashion. Vague as shit.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. She definitely worked in mysterious ways, always behind the scenes, guiding us like chess pieces. It wasn’t in the way of pawns; no, it was more of nudging us into a place that fit us perfectly, or as fate would have us.
“Um…speaking of Lucia,” Micah said, and my brows rose.
He swallowed, and I frowned. Something was wrong.
“I’m leaving next week for a few days on a mission.”
I blinked, resting my fork on the plate. “Where are you going?”
He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s classified.”
I frowned, and Damien’s words flew across my thoughts. He was also leaving for a few days…for business in the Godsrealm.
I rose. “Are you going with Damien to the Godsrealm?”
He blinked. “He told you?”
“Told me what?” I asked, laying my hands on the table. “Why are you going to the Godsrealm?”
