AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tamp down my anger. “Did you know my mother?”
“Everyone knew your mother. She was beautiful, smart, and kind. There wasn’t a merman who didn’t want to be in her pod. Kind, even to someone like me.”
I shake my head. He’s trying to get me off the subject, and it’s working. “Did you?”
“She wouldn’t even have ever glanced at my sorry ass.” Teneric never mated. Unlike his brother, he still carries his birth name. The Course family isn’t the same sort of dynasty in the Braeden dome that the Drakoses are to Glyden.
“You liked her, though?”
“I did. She was a good mermaid. My brother liked her more, though.”
My eyes narrow. I have to blink at a spot on the wall above him. “Did he?”
“But then he’d never leave Braesen. Haden loves being governor more than he ever loved any female. That’s why it took him so long to mate . . . he had to find the right pod to make him a Braesen governor. And your mother was too smart for him. He knew he’d never be able to bend her to his will.”
I wait for him to say more, to say he silenced her brilliance with death, but he doesn’t. “And you know more, don’t you?”
Teneric turns his head to the side, then back to me. “I’m old.”
“And that’s an excuse for what?”
“Change is hard.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“That I know.” I let the silence surround him.
“Fuck,” he growls. His eyes dart everywhere but to mine. He’s thinking, and I wait. He shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest. “There are labs. Where generations of Braesen have tried to change the course of the mermaid birth rate. Just like those of the government, but unlike the government labs, they aren’t bound by any moral code. I don’t know much. I’ve never been down there. I was a military male my whole life. They test things how they want to.” His chest deflates, and his hands drop. “You want change, but so does Haden. He wants... more power for Braesen. The last few times I’ve seen him, he’s mumbled nonsense about there being one true king.”
I arch my eyebrow at him.
“My brother was only looking for four blocks. The blocks of the governors of Stele, Glyden, Zaffiro, and the mate of the Koralli governor. Can I ask that when you kill me, you make it slow. I should feel the pain of my family’s sins.”
“I’m not killing you, Teneric.” The thought turns my stomach—that’s new.
32
CASTOR
Forrest sits across from me and Annabelle on the slashed-up sofa. I flick my eyes to Eros who’s eating cold fish stew from a can.
“We’ll wait for Michio to get done with his shower,” Eros says.
“I’m here.” Michio’s wearing some of Eros’s old clothes. The tunic is tight and too short, but not as tight as the one around Forrest’s stomach. Michio runs his fingers through his wet hair. “What have you told them?”
Eros tries to hand his brother the can, but he shakes his head. “How we found you, brought you to my shack, and scanned the blocks.”
“So that’s it, then.” Michio nods, his face blank.
“What did you find on the blocks?” Annabelle asks.
“I’m sorry, Sunshine. That’s Michio’s way of saying it’s classified.”
“Oh.” Annabelle looks at me. I’m a proxy governor. I could push them for more, but not with Holter and Annabelle in the room.
A firm knock on the door vibrates through the room. Everyone freezes, but Annabelle jumps up. “Nico?”
“No.” Eros turns his tablet around, showing the rest of the room who it is. The king. Eros lifts his chin to his brother, who pulls Forrest to the other side of the room, letting them into the hidden library. When the sliding library door clicks into place, Eros nods to me and I open the front.
“About time,” Atlas barks.
