At that moment, she totally recognized the seriousness of the situation. And she wanted to run, and run very fast, but she wasn’t a coward. Besides, a girl streaking across the midday sky would raise a lot of questions.
Damn it.
Adrian inclined his head at Luke before turning his frosty gaze upon Lily. “It has been a long time since we’ve talked. How have you been?”
She squinted up at him. “I doubt you are really interested in how I’ve been.”
Somewhere behind her, she heard Nathaniel sigh, but her response brought a genuine smile to Adrian’s well-formed lips. “I see you haven’t changed a bit. Still the incorrigible little girl attached to Luke’s hip with Nate wrapped around her little finger.”
Nathaniel stiffened behind her. Danyal shifted uncomfortably. Adrian was painfully blunt, and he always seemed to need to be reminded Nathaniel was actually his boss and not the other way around.
Folding her arms over her chest, she refused to be intimated by him—by any of them, for that matter. “I see you’re still an ass.”
“Lily.” Nathaniel sighed exasperatedly.
Adrian waved a dismissive hand. “Let’s get to the point, shall we? We have a traitor among us. Someone has been working with the Fallen to expose the names and locations of the vulnerable Nephilim. That person has to have access to the Book and a strong enough connection to a Fallen to be able to move among them and not be harmed.”
She didn’t think the traitor—who she truly believed was Micah—needed to trust the Fallen at all. As long as he was giving them something they were interested in, then he would be safe. That is what she told them, and she was met with four cynical pairs of pale blue eyes. Whatever…
“The Fallen operate by no code,” Danyal interjected. “It doesn’t matter what is being done for them. They’re as likely to kill you as they are to say hello. There has to be some level of a relationship there.”
She glanced at Danyal. He must have been working when he was summoned to the Sanctuary since he was dressed in a suit minus the jacket. “I don’t think all the Fallen operate the same.”
Luke let out a long-suffering breath. “What she means is she doesn’t think a relationship with the Fallen is necessary since the information being shared is literally priceless.”
Danyal’s gaze flickered over to Luke. “That’s not what I’m getting at.”
Unconsciously, she shifted closer to Luke. Damn, she was stuck. No one was in her corner except Luke, and they were outnumbered. She turned back to Nathaniel and Adrian. “You all suspect me because of Julian.” There; she’d said it. Now they could get on with their tribune and decide if they were going to kick her off the island or not.
Adrian’s brows lifted, but he didn’t show any other reaction. “You attacked a fellow Nephilim to protect a Fallen.”
She figured at this point she needed to answer as quickly as possible, without much detail, or ask for a lawyer. Sadly, the Nephilim didn’t get lawyers in their Contracts. That was something someone needed to suggest and pronto. “Yes.”
“Why would you do something like that?” Adrian asked.
She had already explained it to Nathaniel, but it didn’t appear he was going to speak up for her. His lack of communication, and the fact he wouldn’t look at her, stung. She knew she had upset him, but she hadn’t betrayed any of them.
And Nate knew her, right? She wanted to believe he did, but the conversation with Julian days before about no one really knowing who she was seemed painfully true. “Julian had walked away from him, and he tried to stab him in the back.”
“So?”
“So?” she repeated dumbly, as if they should see what was wrong with that without having to spell it out. “Micah intentionally provoked him. Julian left it alone, but Micah went after him. He was unarmed and not attacking Micah.”
“The Fallen are never unarmed,” Nathaniel said, staring off into the sky with narrowed eyes. “Whether it is their strength, their intellect, or their manipulation. They are always armed.”
“How far has your relationship with him progressed?” Adrian asked.
Her entire body went rigid. She did not blink, nor did she hesitate. “We are friends.”
“Friends?” he repeated. “Lily, you know that’s impossible.”
“Obviously, it’s not. I consider him a friend, like any normal person would.”
Danyal stepped forward. The look on his face said he was trying to understand her, trying to figure out how she went from super-Nephilim Lily to the Lily who stood in front of him. “How can you get past what he is?”
“He’s saved my life, multiple times, and he’s never done anything to put me in jeopardy—or any of you, either. I trust him,” she explained earnestly.
Danyal shook his head slowly. “And it’s no more than that? Like with Anna? She had been manipulated into a serious relationship.”
She didn’t know if Anna had been manipulated or not. Luke knew more about those circumstances than anyone else did, and he wasn’t talking about that. Ever. “I don’t see how this has anything to do with Anna.”
“And if we demanded you stop seeing him as a friend today, would you be able to do so?” Danyal asked.
She gaped. Hell, at this point she didn’t care if their concern was even valid. It was pure principal. How could any of them tell her who she could be friends with, who she could care about, or who she…?
“Lily?”
She raised her chin. “No one has the right to tell any of us who we can befriend.”
“He’s a Fallen, Lily!” Danyal snapped, losing his customary cool facade. “There shouldn’t be any question. There shouldn’t be anything you have to think about.”
Adrian tilted his head to the side, his gaze finding Nathaniel’s. “Nate and I believe there is much more to this than a mere friendship. It would explain many things. Has the relationship become one of a sexual nature? Answer the question, Lily.”
She looked at Nathaniel, feeling horribly exposed. He had asked her that question just yesterday, and she had told him exactly how she felt about answering. To hear that he had discussed her sexual activities with Adrian mortified her. Not as much as knowing she was going to have to answer them. She shuffled uncomfortably, near panicked. She was a grown woman, but this was her personal, intimate business, and these were her coworkers. Her friends. And Nathaniel was like her father. It was just…gross.
“Adrian, I don’t think this is necessary.” Luke stepped forward. His gaze found Nathaniel’s. “Don’t,” he asked, pleading. He seemed to be the only one who understood how this was affecting her, and the only one who cared.
Nathaniel’s lips formed a tight, hard line. “Lily, answer the question.”
This was horrifying. She felt sick to her stomach, and it wasn’t from the sun. She felt her face flush, and she was near tears. So angry she thought her skin would boil off her bones.
“Lily!” Nathaniel ordered, his patience snapping.
“Yes! Yes! Okay? Does that make you all happy?” she nearly shrieked.
Nathaniel’s jaw clenched, but there wasn’t a flicker of emotion on Adrian’s face. He had already assumed their relationship had progressed to a sexual one. For whatever reason, he only waited to hear Lily admit to it.
She wanted to vomit, right there, on his leather boots. God, she would have happily done so if she had actually had more than a bite of her lunch. Instead, she swallowed down the taste of bile. “So while you guys bother yourselves over whether I’m having sex and with whom, the person out there who is actually betraying us is doing so without an ounce of attention on him!”
Danyal raised his head. “And who would that be?”
“Micah,” she responded. “He was snooping around Nate’s office, and he is a complete arrogant jerk!” The last part wasn’t really a valid reason for suspicion, but she couldn’t help but throw it out there.