Page 7 of Reflections of Peonies
“Does it have anything to do with why her medication affectsyou?” I asked, and his shoulders tensed. He must not have known he was being recorded when he’d made that confession.
A knock at the door interrupted any response, and Hanah, the eldest daughter of Abigail and Jonathon Grier, walked into the room.
Her pixie-cut hair was in disarray, and a smudge of brown was across her cheek. More dirt covered the knees of her jeans, and the edge of her patchwork shirt was caked with mud. Most people would have tried to clean up first. But from her grave expression, Hanah suspected the seriousness of the situation and had hurried over immediately when called.
Miles had been silent during our interrogation thus far andlooked up when Hanah arrived. She met his eyes, and ignoring the rest of us, she moved to stand near him.
The witch watched her. He’d been deeply affected by Jonathon and Abigail’s betrayal and hadn’t had any luck getting any answers from them. Jonathon, after all, was a Paragon Er Bashou, and was more than a little intimidating when pressed.
Their daughter, however, was much easier to approach.
“Hanah,” he greeted her, voice deceptively calm.
“Hello, Miles.” Hanah tapped her fingers together. “How can I help you?”
“Why didn’t you tell us about Bianca?” he asked. “This is something you should have disclosed.”
“Why?” she squeaked. “Did something happen to her?” She sounded genuinely concerned.
“Bianca was in the hospital. And while we were dealing with the Council, your parents and Trinity had her moved to an asylum.” Miles’s delivery was factual and emotionless, his face carefully blank.
“Hospital?” she asked, glancing at Finn. “Is she okay?”
I narrowed my eyes at the exchange—why would she look at Finn?
How often did he hurt Bianca? I would rip him apart.
“No, she’s not okay!” Miles slammed his palm on the table, finally losing his temper. “She was injured, and now they’ve taken her away. We know she’s Mu and that you’ve been hiding her from us. She told us what happened—how everyone said she was crazy. We know about that medication. I want to know what the fuck is going on!”
Finn and Hanah were still looking at each other. Finn finally responded with a sigh. “Bianca is unable to be the Xing.”
I moved to stand, wanting nothing more than to break his neck. “What are you—”
Damen placed his hand on my arm. Even now, he didn’t want me to hurt his brother.
“But sheisMu,” Damen said, his voice strained.
“Hold on!” Hanah held out her hands. “Don’t misunderstand. He doesn’t mean that she’s not Mu! That’s not our point.”
“Then what is?” My whole body quaked with a desire to destroy. My focus remained on Finn. “What was so terrible that you couldn’t tell us about her? Why keep her separated from us? We’ve all struggled because of the imbalance in our quintet.She’sstruggled.”
Hanah glanced between us and bit her lip. “Did Bianca ever tell you how she came to be adopted?”
My breath caught. “No.”
“You know about my mother’s career.” Her face grew more determined as she spoke. Each word chipped away at my fury. My entire being was focused on this.
“Wheredo you think they found her?” Hanah finished.
My heart stopped. I understood what she was saying, but my mind screamed in denial. There was no way that she was insinuating—
I fell back into my seat and couldn’t look away from Hanah’s eyes.
“She was only eight,” I heard myself saying.
“She’d just turned eight,” Hanah said. “But she was living there for a number of years before that. However, we don’t know much. It’s impossible to get her to talk about what happened.”
Of course she wouldn’t talk about it.
