meals, more trainin’, and nights where we relax, tell stories, and just spend time enjoyin’ one another’s company.
It’s nice, but I can also tell that Flint and Alder are anxious to get back home. I can’t lie, as much fun as I have with Delta and gettin’ to know each other better, I miss my mama and daddy, and I miss Alder and Flint’s house. Not that Perdition Estate isn’t nice in a very luxurious sort of way, but I’m a simple person, and I miss the homey feel of Alder and Flint’s place. Well, that, and my mama’s cookin’.
Out of nowhere, Strut comes rushin’ into the sittin’ room with a black armored demon right on his heels. Delta immediately sits up on the laps of her guys, and the demon stops to salute her and then me as I quickly put my glass down. “I beg your pardon for the interruption, Progenies of Pride, but I have news from your father.” The soldier pauses, like he’s waitin’ for us to actually pardon him or give him permission to continue.
“Yes, what is it?” Delta encourages worriedly, and the soldier slightly relaxes, hands clasped in front of him.
“After much searching and interrogation, we’ve discovered that your sister Sable was sent to a facility for the insane when she was a child.”
I blink through my sudden stupor as the soldier’s words hit me in the chest like a sledgehammer.
Our sister was sent to an insane asylum at three years old?
Outrage and shock bubble up my throat, and I can see that Delta is strugglin’ with the same feelings.
“Does that mean you found her?” I ask, not sure what that would even look like. How does someone grow up in a facility their whole life and come away from it anywhere close to okay?
“Do you know why she was sent there?” Delta inquires, her voice small and her gray eyes equally as troubled as my own.
The demon shakes his head. “We have not been able to locate her. The facility she grew up in was closed recently, and many of the permanent residents were moved to other places around the country. Your sire is working on it, so rest assured that it’s only a matter of time before he finds her,” the soldier answers, his voice filled with pride and unwaverin’ devotion.
Disappointment floods me. So close. It feels like we’re so close to findin’ her, but she just keeps evadin’ everyone, slippin’ through our fingers like sand.
“After some persuasion,” the soldier goes on, a glint in his eyes sparkin’ at that word, “the adoptive parents said that she was hallucinating and had become a danger to herself and those around her,” he states simply, and my stomach drops even more.
I lean forward, placin’ my elbows on my knees and my hands over my mouth. I feel Flint rub a comfortin’ hand over my back as I take all of this in. Sable was seein’ things. How is a three-year-old a danger to anythin’?
I look up at Delta, and our eyes meet. “Her blocks must have not worked,” I say quietly, and she nods solemnly.
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
For a little girl to be seein’ demons and angels from the get-go and not havin’ anyone believe her...my eyes burn with the emotion that wells up inside of me at that thought.
“Is there anything else we need to know?” Rafferty asks, takin’ the lead when he sees Delta and I are too overwhelmed.
“No, sir, and I must get back.”
Rafferty nods. “Thank you for the report.”
The soldier bows to us and then does this fancy lookin’ pivot thing before he quickly strides out of the room, Strut now on his tail so he can show him out.
I feel like the messenger took all the air in the room with him when he left. I don’t even know what to think or where to begin, but I can’t help worryin’ that we might be too late for Sable. I hate the thought, but I can’t help feelin’ as though even if she wasn’t insane goin’ into a mental hospital, she could very well be when she comes out.
“What are we going to do?” Delta asks no one in particular as Crux rubs calmin’ circles over the back of her wing.
“We wait and see,” Alder tells us. “We won’t know what we’re dealing with until we can meet her and see for ourselves.”
I nod, and my thoughts drift to a million possibilities of what life must have