“I find it hard to believe a woman like you would never wonder about these things. Would never try to find the answer to them,” he says.
I say nothing to that. He doesn’t deserve to know my reasons for things.
“Would you like to know why that is?”
“One of my sires must have been a Decarios,” I say curtly.
Reizei smirks. “Exactly. Have you ever tried to find your lineage?”
I don’t answer.
Truthfully, I never have. Once I was under Segara’s wing, I assumed a new identity, and forged my own future without looking back at the past.
Why would I look for my sires when they had paid no thought before they threw me into the streets and left me to die?
When Reizei doesn’t say anything, I ask, “Why does it matter? What do you gain from me being forced into being one of the Caligos? I’d rather die than serve you.”
For a heartbeat, Reizei remains silent. When he says the next words, my whole world tilts. “Everything. I gain an heir.”
I stare at him mutely.
No way.
I must?—
He must be playing me.
I shake my head. “I am not—I don’t understand. That can’t be.”
“It can be, and it is, Vera D’Argent. Or should I say, Vera Talbot,” he says.
Something inside me recoils.
No.
He doesn’t get to?—
He doesn’t get to take that, too.
My fingers curl against the table, useless, trembling.
Reizei continues calmly. “A bastard child was never supposed to become the heir, but because you ensured I lost my full-blooded heir, well…someone has to take his place.” His gaze sharpens on me. “That will be your role to play now.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
PHOENIX
Being back at the castle is…odd, to say the least. I’m still reeling from all those days wandering the forests and navigating the mountains. That whole experience has…left a mark. One I can’t describe with words. But it weights on my chest.
Jax and I meet Noire, Ezkai Xander, Ezkai Emil, and Ezkai Bjorn in the spy lair under the castle. Fern is also here, at Ezkai Xander’s side.
Very few are invited to this briefing because I can trust so very few even in my ranks. If we want to save Vera, we must be more careful than ever.
I waste no time. “Noire tells me you have new intel?”
“Yes, General,” Ezkai Xander says and circles the large stone table with the map of Ekios carved into it. “We have narrowed the approximate location of where Vera D’Argent was taken.”
I cock an eyebrow. “Approximate?”
