"Aika..." Archer said gently, "who poisoned you? Your baba?"
A bitter taste flooded my mouth, as real as it had been fourteen years ago, and I shook my head violently, trying to smear those memories from my head forever.
But I had to say it. I had to find out the truth.
"My ama. My mom," I finally admitted, my voice cut from shards of stone. I'd never told anyone that. Ever. Not even Jade. With the truth out there in the open, I felt horribly naked, and Archer and Grady's gazes dug deep into my flesh like fresh bruises. I wanted to snatch it back, claim it was someone else, not my own mother, but a stranger who wasn't supposed to love me. But I didn't.
"Our eyes..." Grady cleared his throat of some of its roughness. "Our eyes didn't used to go red when we shifted before we were poison
