86. Revelations Part I
Seff stared at that last line on the last page as if it would answer all the new questions she had.
She felt Hawthorn rub her arm in concern and whisper her name in a question.
She looked up and glared at Wisteria. “Have you read this?” she demanded.
The older Omega shook her head. “No. But I know what it says nonetheless.”
Hawthorn had set the key on the cushion next to her. She pictured an infernal flame flickering off its metal. “I don’t want that.” Jerking to her feet and clutching her mother’s letters to her chest, she snapped at him, “Get rid of it.”
He exchanged a worried look with Wisteria, both of them glancing at the key before watching Seff carefully. *I’m not a wild animal,* she wanted to snarl at them. “Why? What do I do with it? Seff…I think you should find the box—”
“I have* past lives*?!” she burst out, and then thought, *Maybe I am*. “That’s why Selene and Kiran are so obsessed with me! They think I’m their *dead mates*! They kept asking me to *remember* and I had no idea what the fuck that meant! They thought I could remember *them*—Zinnia and Calla, *their* memories. They were trying to get me to fall in love with them because—”
Hawthorn looked absolutely horrified, but Wisteria, who already knew about all this shit, stood abruptly. “Seff, I know you are upset right now. It’s a lot to take in. But I believe Selene and Kiran figured it out—”
“Figured what out?”
“About the existence of the records. We need to find the box before one of them do.”
“You *don’t know where it is*?!”
Wisteria narrowed her eyes at Seff’s tone. But she didn’t care about respecting someone who helped keep secrets like this. “I have a strong guess.”
Seff’s blood felt like it was on fire—burning her insides with anger, regret, betrayal, constantly stoked by adrenaline. Her mind was running a million miles a second. *A lot to take in is fucking right*, she thought bitterly. “What am I supposed to do?” she whispered, not realizing she’d spoken aloud.
*Do not let them read anything.*
She had to follow her mother’s instructions no matter what.
So she thought: *They can’t get one without the other*.
“We throw away the key.” Her voice sounded lost in a void, as if speaking only to herself.
* It’s just the two of us and we have nothing left…You can burn it all*.
But she wasn’t just speaking to herself.
“Seff,” Hawthorn said quietly, jerking her out of a daze. “If we go find the box…you—we—could go back home and we could *stay* home. We unlock it, take whatever’s inside, and then throw away the key before those Alpha bastards can get in. Leave them and leave their harems forever.”
Seff tried to shake herself into sense. First they all had to be on the same page. She didn’t want to let them go, but she thrust the letters at Hawthorn. “Read and you’ll understand.” He hesitated, but obeyed. “No matter where I go, they’ll follow me. Wisteria…if they know about these—my family’s—records, then they must’ve already gone to the Manor…”
Her words trailed off at Wisteria’s knitted brow. “Wait. My house was emptied completely after…after the accident. My brothers threw everything away. I never saw the white box… Wisteria. Where is it.”
The Omega sighed. After a moment of shame, she said, “I think Hyacinth stole it.”
*“It’d be a shame to lose you, Seff.”*
Her heart was sinking into her stomach, anchored down by dread and horror. Her gaze drifted slowly to Hawthorn, who looked up as he finished reading, frozen with shock. *“He’s your last true link to the Magnolia, isn’t he?”* Hyacinth had purred.
Why had he said that? It was a lie. Her last link was her very roots: these ancient records.
It was a *threat*.
Wisteria didn’t miss the look. “I am the only one who knows about the records besides him. Linden told Alarik, me, and Hyacinth, our trusted pack leader. He knows we protect you, Seff. The more people who know, the bigger the threat. And if Hawthorn was to ever find out…Hyacinth would kill him too.”
Seff’s heart sank to the bottom of her gut. “Too?”
“The accident that killed your parents and almost you…” Wisteria’s voice grew quiet. “It wasn’t an accident. Hyacinth set it up.”
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