Chapter 9: Secrets and Destinies

After leaving the car, I was drenched in cold sweat. Livingston was right—Sam Mason could be used, but never trusted. If I hadn’t been careful, I’d have been tricked.

I replayed the conversation in my head, cursing myself for almost letting something slip. When he used the 'blood curse,' it was just a sleight of hand. Marcus Holt, who had never left the South, would have been fooled. But I’d watched enough magic shows to see through his trick—at the end, the 'blood curse' actually entered my own body.

Luckily, he was in a hurry and only asked 'what did he tell me,' forgetting to demand everything. Otherwise, all my secrets would have been lost to those nine words.

I swore quietly, determined to be twice as cautious from now on. In this world, one careless word could be the end of you.

As it turned out, my suspicions were right. Sam Mason definitely hid something about the bell.

Because as soon as we arrived in Toledo, Peter Caldwell hurried out to greet us:

"Sam, thanks to your backup plan, the council and I weren’t affected by the bell."

At this, Sam Mason glanced at me, but I pretended not to hear, chatting with Tanya. Peter Caldwell wanted to say more, but a scout rushed in—despite desperate fighting, Lou Boone was now less than a hundred miles from Toledo.

The city was in chaos—sirens, crowds pushing through the streets, leaders shouting orders. Panicked, Peter Caldwell abandoned everything and fled with us.