“Something about his origins.”
I read the words three times. Try to make sense of them.
“Your origins.” Imara’s hand tightens on my thigh. “She’s never mentioned?—”
“No.” I fold the letter. Shove it into my belt. “Never. That I was bred. Designed. Created for a purpose. Nothing more.”
“And now she’s using it as bait.”
“Obviously.”
But the curiosity burns anyway. I’ve never thought about origins—never cared. The clan bred me from selected stock; that’s all I knew, all I needed to know.
Now the Matron dangles truth, and despite everything, I want to bite.
Imara shifts closer. Wraps her arm around my waist. Rests her head on my shoulder.
“It’s a trap.” She keeps her voice low. “She knows you’ll wonder.”
“Yes.”
“We can’t go back to the Sanctum because she wants us to.”
“That too.”
Her hand strokes slow circles on my hip—soothing, grounding. Keeping me here with her instead of lost in questions about a past that shouldn’t matter.
“What do you want to do?”
I turn into her. Wrap both arms around her. Hold her tight.
“I want to go back anyway.” The admission is easier than it should be—perhaps because I’m saying it to her. “Not becauseshe’s luring me. Because the only way to end this is to face her. And if I learn the truth in the process?—”
“Then at least you’ll know.”
“Yes.”
She tilts her head back. Looks at me with those eyes that see too much and accept everything they find.
“Whatever she tells you,” Imara says carefully, “it doesn’t change what you are now. It doesn’t change what you’ve become. What we’re building.”
What we’re building. A future. A life. Something I never imagined wanting until she showed me it was possible.
I press a kiss to her forehead. Her nose. Then I take her chin between my fingers, make sure she’s looking at me. “Nothing she says matters more than this. Than you.”
Her breath catches. Her hands slide up my back, pull me closer.
“Kharvek—”
“I mean it.” I hold her gaze. “Whatever I came from, wherever my blood originated—it led me here. To you. That makes it worth something. That makes everything worth something.”
Her eyes shine. She doesn’t cry. She rises on her toes and kisses me with everything she has.
“I love you.” The words come out against my lips. Barely a whisper. “I don’t know when it happened, but I do. I love you.”
My heart stops. Starts again. Beats harder than it ever has.
Love. She loves me.
