Lying Liars Who Don't Tell The Truth

Chapter Seven

First, there was denial.

I spent the first few hours after the attack convincing myself that it couldn't have been true. Amar was not Zorion. That was someone who looked like Amar. Amar had a twin. A doppleganger. A clone. None of this could be out of the realm of possibility for Demons, could it? Amongst the furious shouting and degrading from Gallem and Squid about how gravely I had endangered their daughter, I kept my mind forced on the Amar/Zorion issue. It was a welcome distraction from being told that I was the sole reason Naja was nearly killed and the entire protection operation was nearly foiled. Even if it were true, it became hard to hear after the fiftieth time.

I was promptly grounded, before we even had Naja home, and told that the next time I'd be leaving the Abara house would be to walk at high school graduation. Again, the yelling didn't really bother me. Perhaps it was all the practice I'd had in Utah taking beratings with a tight lip and steady face, or perhaps it was because I was far too preoccupied with the fact that I had just learned my favorite man was the leader of an organization trying to murder my favorite woman. He must have known when we spoke in the field — probably before that — and considered telling me the truth. How did he know not to? Had he been spying on me over the summer and watched my affection for Naja grow? That would explain why he never answered my letter.

The fact that I had kept my relation to Amar a secret proved wise. I couldn't imagine the distain Gallem and her family would be feeling toward me if they knew I had a secret relationship with their daughter's hunter. I wanted to hate Amar; that seemed the logical course of action after finding out that he was both murderer and a liar. I wanted to spill everything I knew about him to Gallem and Peter and perhaps gain some sort of advantage over him. That would be the best way to get revenge, wouldn't it? The best way to protect Naja? For some reason, I didn't. I couldn't. My lips simply wouldn't open to form the words.

Neither Naja nor Ansel were mad at me. I couldn't tell if it was because they actually didn't blame me for the events of Friday night or because they felt badly that I was taking all of the heat for it. Because I was, certainly, taking all of the heat. Naja and Ansel both tried to cool their mother's anger toward me by stating that they had willingly agreed to go along with me to this party, and therefore should be held accountable as well, but Gallem shut them down, painting me as a coy trickster who had forced them to go to the party and drink alcohol with me. I got where she was coming from. Before I showed up, neither of them were particularly social. Regardless of the truth, I shut down Ansel and Naja's pleas and stuck to Gallem's story. It was easier for everyone if I took the full blame. For one, I didn't care as much about Gallem or Peter or whether they approved of me, and I knew Naja and Ansel would be devastated if they were getting yelled at the way I was. For another, it worked so that Naja and Ansel felt so bad about me taking all the blame that neither of them were ever angry with me. In fact, they sacrificed most of their days hanging out with me, locked in our room.

Naja was fine — Azhar was able to break the sanguvero spell which, as was explained to me later, was attempting to extract her blood in such a way that information could be spelled out of it later. Information like where and what the animas needed to bring back Revelis were. The Revels were misguided anyway, as Naja knew nothing about the animas, but it was still made very clear to me a number of times by a number of different people that the spell still could have seriously harmed Naja.

Along with the unfortunate revelation about Amar/Zorion, there was also the lingering question in my mind about what the hell was wrong with Elrik. Amar might not have proven himself to be the most honest of gentlemen, but he did warn me about Elrik. On the night of the attack I remember seeing the two of them exchange words in such a manner that made me think they knew each other. Also, quite curiously, the notebook I picked up from Elrik's desk the night before Friday mentioned a spell by the name of sanguvero. I hadn't mentioned it to anyone yet. Again, something inside of me told me to hold onto the information. I knew in my gut that there was more to Elrik than anyone was letting on, but I wasn't in the greatest position to be questioning the loyalties of anyone. I considered telling Naja and Ansel only, but I knew they couldn't last a day without letting something like that slip. I really needed to talk to Ignius, but I hadn't found a good time to talk to him alone. Plus, he'd been avoiding me since Friday. He was the only one of the Abara's not to scream at me at all, which I appreciated. But he also wasn't exactly making his compassion known. He mostly avoided being in the same room as me and, when I tried to get him alone, he made excuses to leave.