Page 60 of White Little Lies

The other man slowly sat up, rubbing his throat and looking up at Lucas with a mixture of malice and undisguised awe. “I don’t know where he is,” he rasped. “He was supposed to stop this from happening. We had a contract!”

Lucas loomed over him. “Notthatdevil. The female.”

Fiorus’ brow creased, his eyes shifting to Aaliyah still clutching my arm. We hadn’t been allowed to see her—to tell her what really happened.

“Never mind,” Lucas growled. He looked at the well, and I had a feeling he was speaking more to himself than to any of us when he said, “She’ll come for it. All we have to do is wait.”

Fiorus got to his feet, giving Lucas a wide berth as he edged toward me. At least he didn’t seem angry at me anymore. “I must return the well to our realm. It’s not safe here.”

I observed the giant cauldron skeptically. “How didanyone move it to begin with? It has to weigh a thousand pounds.”

“It was shifted from our realm to this one, just like walking through a portal,” Fiorus explained.

More nymphs had gathered around, muttering amongst themselves and watching us, but especially watching Lucas glaring at the well like it had personally affronted him. I had a feeling those who had shifted the well were yet to reveal themselves. They were all just acting confused.

“Can’t you just shift it back?” I asked.

Fiorus swiped a palm across his face, shaking his head as he did so. “I don’t know how it was moved to begin with. It should have taken a great gathering…” He waved a hand in the air. “Ritual!” He whirled on me. “And you were supposed to stop this from happening!”

I took a step away, bumping into Aaliyah. “Hey, your contract was with Sebastian. I was just going to bring him back to your realm, but now I can’t find him anywhere.”

Fiorus’ eyes darkened. “Then he betrayed us.”

I wasn’t sure whichushe was talking about. Surely not him and me. “I think this has something to do with the female devil you originally had the contract with.”

He didn’t seem to know what to do with my calm response. “I gave him the name, but I never saw her after she finished her task.”

I was dying to know what he had given her in exchange, but he had already sworn up and down thatthe contract would not allow him to divulge that information. So I asked another question instead. “Did she ever see the well?”

His spine straightened abruptly. “Of course not.”

Lucas had gotten closer to the magical cauldron. A few brave nymphs stood in his way, but it was clear they were already wavering. Fiorus turned and marched toward them, though what he would do when he reached them was anyone’s guess.

I turned toward Aaliyah. “Where is your sister? I came because she called.”

Aaliyah’s eyes shone with unshed tears. She hardly looked any better than the last time I’d seen her. “Father threw her out of the park. It was terrible. She gave me this and told me to call you again if you didn’t show up.” She held up Seraphina’s phone.

“Can you tell me what happened with a little more detail than your father was willing to provide?”

She lowered the phone and hunched her bony shoulders, huddled in her long white dress. “I don’t even know. I was in bed, and the next thing I knew I was here. When the well got shifted out of our realm, it was like it pulled us all with it.”

I didn’t want to break it to her that their realm might not even exist any longer without the well to sustain it. I had a feeling Fiorus knew it too, and that was why he hadn’t already set to fixing things.

The cauldron suddenly pulsed with a bright flare of light, drawing all of our attention.Fiorus took a step toward it as the light flared again brighter than ever, then abruptly went out.

Several of the nymphs screamed. Aaliyah clutched my arm again. “What just happened?”

I shut my gaping jaw. The cauldron was now just inert metal. “I have absolutely no idea.”

“Penelope,” Lucas fumed. He stalked around the cauldron like he might kick it.

I dared a step toward him. “Who?”

“The devil.” Before I could react, he had grabbed me again, tearing me away from Aaliyah. “Take me to Sebastian, now. If he is missing, she probably has him.” He gripped my arms hard enough to bruise.

“I can’t.” I tried to pull away from him. “I’m only half celestial, what do you want from me?”

Magic surged through me, and I realized it was coming from him…intentionally. “Take me to him,” he said through gritted teeth.