Dax makes a noise from the kitchen.
“The girl who’s missing?” Tobin asks.
I nod.
He sinks into Jonathan’s easy chair with the photo on top of his knees.
“What is it?”
“That’s my sister,” Tobin says, holding his fingers splayed over his mouth. “That’s Abecie.”
“What?” Dax says, dropping the taco onto his plate.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “I mean, you’re Japanese and CeCe … um, isn’t.”
“Half sister,” Tobin says. “But I never thought of her that way. My mom had her before she married my dad.”
I nod. The reason Tobin reminds me so much of CeCe in both tone and personality finally makes sense. Almost all that time she’d been missing from his life, she’s been in mine.
“She’s alive,” he says.
Dax grabs the photo from Tobin. “Abbie,” he says. “I’ve been looking everywhere.… And she was here. That’s why I couldn’t find her.”
“You said she was dead,” Tobin says, standing. “Daphne said that you told her that she died!”
“Not exactly,” Dax says. “I just didn’t deny the idea.”
“Why would you do that?”
“It was better for people to think she was dead—for her protection—and I had vowed not to speak of her. Or of what happened. I … I don’t know why I can speak about her now.… The Oracle must have released me from my oath when she died.…”
“Then you’d better start explaining.” Tobin looks like he wants to punch Dax in the face.
“What do you know about Abbie’s biological father?”
“Not much,” he says. “I know my mom hates his guts. She never treated Abbie the same as me and Sage. It was like Abbie was some burden she had to bear.”
“Abbie’s father was a Skylord.”
“Whoa, you mean Abbie is like those people who were chasing us? She’s part Skylord?”
Dax nods. “Though her powers were mostly dormant when I met her. Your sister wasn’t just any Boon I was sent to fetch. The Court was desperate to have her, so they made a deal …”
“With my mother,” Tobin says, and I can hear a string of discordant notes rattle through him. “I started putting the pieces together after Joe admitted to the deal he made—why my mom was covering up those attacks in Olympus Hills. My mom was always all about her work when I was little. She was obsessed with this new wind turbine that she and my dad engineered. She said it had the power to change the world, but they couldn’t get the backers they needed to finish it. That is until some mysterious benefactor came along. He made my parents’ company take off the way it did.… And then they sold the company to him and brought us to Olympus, and she took over as mayor. That benefactor must have been Simon. My mother is working for the Underrealm, isn’t she? And she didn’t just know that Abbie had been chosen to be taken—she traded my sister and her allegiance for the money she needed to finish her life’s work, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” Dax says.
Tobin nods, anger ringing off of him, as he accepts the terrible truth. His mother had not only traded Abbie like Joe had traded me—but she had done it knowingly.
“If Abbie chose to run away rather than fulfill my mother’s end of the bargain,” he says, “I can see why my parents act like she’s dishonored our family. My mom must be in pretty deep with the Underrealm because of it. But what I don’t get is how she even got involved in all of this in the first place. I mean, this is all just so insane. I’ve been searching for the psychopaths responsible for what’s been going on in Olympus Hills, and it turns out I’ve been living with one of them all along? How does that even happen? How did she get hooked up with Simon in the first place?”
“You see,” Dax says, “centuries ago, all humans worshipped the gods of the five realms. But as those selfish gods kept warring against each other and decimating the earth in the process, humans started to turn away from them in favor of softer, friendlier versions of deities. Instead of a vengeful Sky God, they wanted more of a divine father figure. Most humans lost faith in the realm gods, but there are still select groups who worship and serve them. Secret societies who keep their dealings very private. They’re rewarded with fame, fortune, power, or whatever they desire in return. Your mother was sought out by Simon, the leader of one of these groups—of Hades, the god of wealth, worshippers, because she had something the Underrealm wanted. Your sister.”
“You mean there are more people who’ve made deals like Joe and Mayor Winters?” I ask.
“Yes,” Dax says. “Olympus Hills is home to many of their members.”
“Wait!” Lexie calls from where she stands on the stairs. I didn’t realize she’d been listening in on this conversation. “You mean, like more of my neighbors could be involved in this sort of stuff … maybe even my parents …?”
“You’re Lexie Simmons?” Joe asks from the table. “Your father is one of the owners of the Crossroads Hotel, right?”
She nods.
“There are all sorts of stories about people making deals with the devil down by the crossroads,” he says. “That’s why I played at the Crossroads Club all those years ago. I had some silly notion something might happen, but never thought it really would. Only it wasn’t the devil who came knocking.…”
Lexie sits heavily on one of the steps, as if the weight of realizing she may not be immune to all of this is too much for her at the moment.
“So the Court wanted Abbie,” Tobin says, bringing the topic back to his sister.
“Abbie was chosen by the Court because they thought they could use her to reinvigorate the bloodlines of the Underlords,” Dax says. “They wanted to use her for prime breeding stock for the Court.”
“That’s disgusting.” Tobin balls his fists like he wants to take his rage out on Dax.
“I agree,” Dax says. “I fell in love with your sister, and she fell in love with me, and the thought of her being used by the Court in that way … I knew I couldn’t bring her back there. We found the Oracle and she gave us instructions. Sarah told Abbie to find a place to hide until I could come back for her.…”