Page 209 of My Unhinged Alphas
The figure does not react to the tone at all.
“You were sent to the mansion by someone using my name,” he says. “I did not summon you there.”
Every bit of air in the room seems to leave at once.
Vale is the one who says it first. “What?”
The Apostle continues as if the interruption changes nothing.
“I did not send an initiate to the fire scene. I did not authorize contact through that channel. Whatever message reached you was false.”
All of it fake. Fuck.
Havoc lets out a breath that sounds almost like a laugh, except there’s no humor in it. “That’s very bad.”
“Yes,” the Apostle says. “It is.”
My hands are still gripping the back of Marek’s chair. I force them to loosen. “Someone knows enough about the Brotherhood to forge an Apostle’s message.”
“Yes.”
Vale’s face has gone flat in a way I only see when he’s close to real anger. “How?”
“That is one of several questions you do not currently have time to pursue.”
I hate the truth of that. I hate even more that he says it like he has every right to decide what matters most in our lives.
Still, I ask the only thing that matters now.
“Lena.”
The figure inclines his head once. “She is alive.”
I close my eyes for half a second and open them again.
Beside me, I hear Vale’s breath leave him. Havoc says nothing at all.
The Apostle goes on. “She was taken to a holding site used in the past for temporary storage. It’s not an official Brotherhood location now, but it was once known to a very small circle. I’m giving you an address.”
As if on cue, my phone pings with GPS coordinates from an unmarked number.
I read it once. Then again. Then commit it so hard to memory it feels carved in.
Vale says, “Why tell us directly?”
The Apostle is quiet for a moment.
Then: “Because if the false message reached you, your movements are already being studied. Because if someone can imitate an Apostle well enough to manipulate you like this, internal channels are compromised beyond what I’m willing to test. And because if you report what you are about to do through the usual lines, she will be moved before you arrive.”
Havoc is the first to recover. “So, we trust no one.”
“For now,” the Apostle says, “you trust no one you do not see with your own eyes.”
Havoc steps closer to the desk. “Why should we trust you? We haven’t seen you either.”
It’s a dangerous question. It’s also the right one.
The figure on the screen does not bristle. Does not punish him for it. “I wouldn’t be here helping you out if I was involved.” Then he says the obvious part out loud. “Whether or not this is a trap is for you to decide.”
