Silence covered the floor.

  Aelin looked between the two women. “Fray, that’s your mom?”

  Gesai looked over at Fray. Horror etched on her face as confusion battled with anger on the younger woman.

  “She’s…” Gesai took a breath. “She’s…” She shook her head, as she couldn’t find the words to finish the sentence.

  “Your sister.” Yorn nodded and reached out his hand towards Gesai, only for it to be slapped away.

  “She’s my WHAT!” Fray glared at Gesai, then turned that fury towards her mother. “I’m an ALARD?”

  Terry nodded slowly. “I’m sorry, baby.” She wiped a tear off her cheek, then held up her hand. A broken glyph marred the back of it. “Yorn had the seal removed this morning that prevented me from telling anyone…”

  “No! I don’t want to hear your excuses!” Fray glared at the older man. “You left me with HIM!” She jabbed her hand in her mother’s direction. “For my whole life, you knew where I was and you left me out there! I would’ve died…” She swallowed and shook her head and then ran towards the elevator.

  “I’ll…” Justia looked at me.

  “Take Aelin.” I glanced over at Gesai, who was fuming in her father’s direction. “And take the RV back to the clinic. I’m sure Yorn has a car we can borrow.”

  “Okay.” Justia pulled on Aelin’s arm. “Aelin! Come on!” She looked over at the woman getting on the elevator. “Fray! Wait up!”

  “But, what about—?”

  “AELIN!” Justia yanked the shorter woman’s arm, then ran for the elevator.

  Fray didn’t stop the elevator, but the pair was able to make it before the door closed. Once they were gone, Terry started to speak, but Gesai silenced her with a look.

  “I don’t want to hear your excuses.” She turned from the other woman to face her father. “What were you thinking, ambushing us like that?” Gesai glanced over at me and shook her head, then turned back to her father. “How long have you known she was with us?”

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  “From the beginning.” Yorn sighed. “I reached out to Trent when Atlas first took her on his team and asked him to make her a permanent member.” He flicked his hand in the direction of the Temple. “I took care of all the paperwork for him.”

  “So he’s known…” Gesai swallowed. “Typical.”

  “When you took the job as his assistant, I wanted to tell you, but Trent said that the two of you had things to work out and you both needed time to adjust to each other before we told either of you.” Yorn looked over at me. “Sorry.”

  Trent keeping secrets from me was nothing new. I had a feeling that Trent had suspected Ether’s heritage long before we figured out she was something special and that was why she’d ended up on our team. I knew he knew things about where Rix came from that she probably didn’t even know. That was the thing about the Mundane born. Sometimes they were classified as Mundane born to hide them. I thought about Aelin and wondered what was special about her. I knew she wasn’t godborn, but that didn’t mean that she might not have ties to some prominent family like Fray had.

  “You don’t get to say sorry and have everything forgiven.” Gesai fumed. “This woman almost wrecked our family once before and you’re bringing her back into our lives again!”

  “I didn’t—”

  “I don’t want to hear from you!” Gesai silenced the other woman.

  “Gesai.” Ether kept her voice calm despite the rising tension.

  Gesai glared at Ether, but the staring contest only lasted a few moments before Gesai looked away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then turned to her father.

  “Well, you got what you wanted.” Gesai gestured at Terry.

  “You’re still the heir.” Yorn’s voice strained.

  “Whatever that means.” Gesai shook her head. “Was this why you wanted me to come by? So you could soothe your conscience about abandoning both your daughters?”

  “I didn’t abandon—”

  “You left me with SIPHER!” Gesai screamed at her father. “Maybe I can believe that you didn’t know what Uncle Farsch was going to do to me, but once I was taken, what stopped you from paying the ransom to get me back?”

  “I…” Yorn’s shoulders sagged. “I should have done something.”

  “UGH!” Gesai slammed her foot on the floor, sending a spiderweb of cracks out in every direction.

  She was breathing hard as she glared at her father. “Do whatever you want.” Then she turned and stormed off.

  “Atlas?” Ether started to walk after her but paused when I didn’t move.

  “Just…” I squeezed her hand. “I’ll be right down.”

  The ivory woman looked between me and Yorn.

  “He’s not going to hurt me.” I nodded in Gesai’s direction. “He knows she’d come right back and no one here could stop her.”

  “Just hurry.” Ether glared at Yorn, then hurried off.

  “Well…” The older man shook his head. “That didn’t go like I pictured it in my head.”

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