Twin Mages Book 2: Deception

Chapter 9: All Secrets Revealed

Zephyr walks down the hall with Leo at his side, silently striding along. They make their way down the stairs to the dungeon. "Are you ready, Captain?" Zephyr looks down at Leo, in front of Dez's door. Leo simply nods, as Zephyr opens the door, making his way inside.

Leo leans his head against the wall as he listens to the conversation.

"Dez, I'm here to talk."
"Fox."
"What about Fox?"
"Fox!"
"Dez, you aren't making any sense. You need to tell me what you know."
"FOX!"

Zephyr exits, shutting the door and locking it. "He's been that way for months now. No coherent sentences. Just repeating that one word. Writing it on the walls. It's like he's gone certifiably insane." Leo shakes his head. "Maybe he's not crazy. He thought he saw Fox. What if Fox managed to make his way into Dez's psyche, like a trance or something?"

Zephyr runs his hand through his hair as he ponders this. "Well, assuming this is true, how would Fox manage something like this?" Leo closes his eyes, focusing as he tries to connect dots. Then it hits him! "The scar! The mark that only Dez and Lily have." Zephyr nods. "Alright, so we find information about Lily and Dez's scar, and how it could somehow manipulate them, if it could." Zephyr says, walking up to Lily's cell door, Leo nodding as he opens and enters.

Kei marches through the Cafeteria full of students, making small talk with Delilah. It's only been a week or two since school started back up, so things should be much more lively. But Kei notices the quiet in the room. Delilah looks up to Kei, nervous. "It sounds like people are mad, Kei." The Apprentice listens to the voices around her.

"How was your brother's burial service?"

"My dad almost didn't let me come back to Sanctuary after everything."

"I wish there was more security around here."

Kei sighs, looking down at the pupil. "You know that things have been hard this year, right?" Delilah nods, thinking of Marcus as Kei continues, "Well, people deal with situations like loss and grief differently. Some people get really sad, while others get really angry. There are a lot of sad, angry, confused people in Sanctuary right now."

Delilah looks down at her necklace, distracted by the deep blue glow. "Huh, that's weird. My stone is acting like something's wrong." Kei glances around, placing her arm in front of Delilah as she notices a portal opening in front of the exit, blocking it off. "Delilah, whatever happens, do not leave my side. Do you understand?" The girl nods. "Uh huh."

Lily sees Zephyr enter her room, and rolls her eyes. "I'm assuming you aren't here to let me go, are you?" Zephyr chuckles, shaking his head. "Still as fiery as always, Lily. As far as getting let go, that depends on how honest you are with me." Lily gets to her feet, confused. "What more do you have to ask me? I've told you everything about everything." Zephyr paces the room, hands held behind his back. "Well, we have developed a new hypothesis, and we would like your help in possibly validating it."

"What's this 'hypothesis' of yours?" Lily crosses her arms, still extremely angry and frustrated with the group. Zephyr points to Lily's shoulder. "We believe that there may be a connection between Dez's incident and the mark that Fox gave you two." Lily throws her arms up in the air in annoyance. "What would a couple of scars have to do with any of this?!" Zephyr shrugs. "That's what we aren't sure of. One of you two is hiding something. And Dez isn't really talking to us much these days. So if you know something, you need to tell us."

Lily laughs loudly in disbelief. "You still don't trust me? After I've been locked up for months?! I've told you everything I know, Zephyr!" Zephyr takes a step forward, invading what's left of Lily's private space. "You have secrets, Lily. I'm here to find them." Lily slaps Zephyr in the face, thinking back to the letters in anger. "You've been keeping secrets from me since I've met you, Zephyr!" The man rubs his cheek, looking at the blonde girl with a mild annoyance. "Ahem. So what leads you to think I've hid anything from you?" Leo listens intently. "What are you talking about, Lil."