The True One

Chapter 28

Alek

Verity gave me the cold shoulder all the way to Vegas. Following the catastrophe with Norvin, in which he insinuated I might still murder her, I was used to being shunned. But now she had a new reason to pretend I didn't exist: I'd insisted the show must go on.

The show, in this case, was her tour. This change of heart was a role reversal of sorts; normally Verity was the one pushing to as though she wasn't some sort of supernatural phenomenon towering over a mountain of Aurum Venari secrets and I was the one trying to impart the severity of her situation.

Things had turned upside-down fast.

For one, Norvin and Chip had escaped—a fact I reminded her of, to my immediate regret.

"I don't need you to reiterate my failings," she'd told me.

"You didn't fail," I replied, and meant it too. Verity remained unconvinced, however, both of her lack of culpability for what happened and for believing I truly held nothing against her. Honestly, I did hold nothing against her, whereas she could have written my faults on slips of paper, placed them in a large glass bowl, and picked a new one to read out loud daily for the next year. That would have been better than the reality: a short, heated argument, followed by my obliteration from her mind.

Still, my reason for resuming the tour was sound. Aurum Venari were out to get us—Verity in particular. If we left town and traveled from show to show, Verity would be both away from LA and constantly surrounded by people. She was safer this way. I'd convinced myself of that and managed to convince her father as well, much to her chagrin. In fact, she was beside herself.

"My dad just found out I've got serious wolf powers and now you want me to abandon him with that knowledge. It's cruel!"

"It's not cruel," Martin, the father in question, had replied. He'd been standing three feet away cleaning up the remnants of raw eggs as we argued in the middle of his living room. "Besides, you won't be abandoning me. I'm joining you on your tour."

"Ugh," she said, throwing herself down on the couch.

"Isn't this what you wanted more than anything?" I asked her. "To go back out on the road?"

"It was," she replied. "But now I just want to stay alive long enough to find Flora's mom, get all the answers we've been searching for, and then take down a powerful secret society that holds the secret to werewolfism. Is that too much to ask?"

"Possibly."

"Well, it will be absolutely if we leave town. How can I focus on performing my numerous hit singles when Aurum Venari will be using the time to regroup and figure out how to kill me?"

"Look," I inched my way over to the couch, ready to sit next to her, only to be met with her foot pressed against my thigh warning me off.

I backed away again. "It may seem counterintuitive, Verity, but it's us more than Norvin that needs to regroup. We can do that more safely if we're on tour. In the meantime, Janene, your fans, the social media world—no one has to know what's happening. Your... status can remain a secret."

She shifted to a more upright position. "Is my status what's really so important?"

"Of course, it is."

"Alek is right," Martin chimed in.

I gave him a look of relief. Verity puckered her lips and mumbled something incomprehensible.

"I'm sorry, honey," he continued, "but it's true. You have what—four shows to get through."

"Five."