Page 124 of Wings of Lies
He sighed, again running his hand through his hair. “My first move was to find you. There was a reason I was in those woods.”
“You were looking for me?” It was a suspicion I always suspected.
“No.He’slooking for you. I just happened to be in the area, and he sent me because of some intel he found.”
Oh…no… I didn’t like the direction of this conversation.
“He who? So, you knew about me?”
“No, yes!” Oliver slammed his fist into the ground. “I haven’t met the male. I made the deal months ago through his cronies. The messages I receive aren’t in person. He doesn’t give me much to go on except a when and a where. And I listen because the way he speaks, even if I didn’t have the rune, I feel like he could kill me with his voice.” Oliver shuddered. “He sent me to those woods without telling me what I was searching for, only if I found anything suspicious to intervene and help. And there you were, a tangled mess, seeing me despite my shadowing. It was suspicious. You shouldn’t have seen me, so I figured you were the target he wanted.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. I was in the woods because I escaped from Marcus. If he wanted to hand me over again, why not take me back to where I escaped from? Why take me to Elora?”
“He told me you needed to be tested, and he needed incriminating intel about Marcus.” His hands scrubbed at his head.
I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
“The male contacted me when I went into the cafe without you. Originally, I told the male no to his instructions, and instantly, it felt like icicles were stabbing into my body. It was the rune, he said. It’d force me to whether I wanted to or not. But for some reason, he took pity and told me that doing this could help them bring down Marcus. I called Marcus to tell him I had his escapee and said I’d hand you over, but only in Elora. The male said you had to cross the portal into The Divide to alert the Mother of Demons.” His emerald irises flashed with hate and disgust.
I closed my eyes, wanting to laugh at all this absurdity. “He set it all up.”
That derailed Oliver. “What?”
“You said you’ve never seen this male, so how is he speaking to you?”
No answer. I opened my eyes. Oliver stared at me, but I couldn’t tell what his expression said.
“My head.”
I nodded. “He wanted you to take me through the portal so it’d alert the Mother of Demons, so she’d send Aspen to intercept us. He wanted Aspen to take me over Marcus. Marcus must’ve not known about the portal.”
“You know who the freezing asshole is?”
“Yeah, he’s a king, I guess.”
Oliver raised his brows at that. “Huh. But why did he want Aspen to intercept you?”
“To prove that Marcus was betraying his queen. Right before I was knocked out, Marcus was surprised that Aspen had shown up. You were already out for that part.”
Oliver grunted. “Okay, but why the prince?”
I thought about that for a second. Why would he want Aspen to take me and not Marcus when he may be the one who had my mom?
I’ll tell you everything I know, but only if you survive this. Prove to me that you aren’t some weak-willed, naive wimp.
“The river was my test.”
“The Corruptible River? He told me you were headed that way, but not why.”
Of course it was called that.
“He told me that ninety-nine percent of people die in it.”
“Yeah,” Oliver scoffed. “I’m pretty sure everyone is taught not to go near it while in their mother’s womb or incubating up in heaven in their little creation pods.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Well, he told me to jump into it.”
Silence.
