Chapter 27
MORRIGAN
Ryuk is Kaiden’s father. And Tristan… He’s Kaiden’s brother.
I was still saying it in my mind minutes later.
“Half-brother,” Tristan corrected me. I had almost forgotten that he was in the room.
But if Tristan is Kaiden’s half-brother, that means Kaiden is half?—
“God. Yes,” Tristan finished.
I glared up at him. “Can you stop interrupting my thoughts?”
“Look,” he turned toward me, “there’s no need to dwell on that part. I’m not sure that he evenknowswho his real father is.”
“He’s half god, Tristan!” I yelled. Dropping my head into my hands, I did my best to rub the tension that was eagerly building in my forehead. “Gods… he’s your brother, Tristan. You’rehisbrother. I just…”
“You’re worried because you hadsexwith me?!” he scoffed. When I dared to peek up at him, he stood from the bed and began pacing the room again. “How about the fact that yourlordsleft me here to begin with?!”
Lords. Plural.“Dez,” I whispered. “How does Dez know about you?”
I might have understood Kaiden knowing. He was always Ryuk’s favorite—which made a lot of sense now. But, Dez… Out of all of the lords, Dez was so much different than the rest.Why would Ryuk even trust Dez with something like this? He isn’t the kind of person to?—
“Right,” Tristan laughed bitterly. “Your perfect little Dez can’t do anything wrong, can he? He can fondle another girl on his lap in front of you, and you forgive him the moment he shows you asecondof attention!”
Outraged, I wrapped the sheet around me and stood, now feeling overly exposed. “Watch it,” I warned him. “You donotget to talk to me like that. You can’t spring something this huge on me and expect me to fall in line like some mindless sheep!”
He turned to face me, his shadows like a blanket of deathly fog at his feet as they spilled from his markings—his expression a mixture of fury and frustration. “They left me here!”
“It wasyourmother who built the fucking walls!” My voice bellowed against the walls and high ceiling of the room.
Tristan fell completely silent, arms falling at his sides as he slumped slightly in defeat. “You don’t understand what it’s been like for me, knowing my father tried to kill me while flaunting his bastard son around like a shiny new toy. He hadeverything, Morrigan.”
“Tristan,” I whispered, empathy eating away at my anger. He was right in a way. He had been trapped here. Forgotten. He was allowedto be angry.
“He hadyou.” His voice cracked a little, revealing the emotions he so obviously tried to stifle. This wasn’t anger, not really. It ran far deeper than that.
Ignoring my irritation, I stepped toward him, into his shadows, and wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’m here now, Tristan. Malakai is here. Mara is here. You’re not alone.”
He returned my embrace, leaning his head on top of mine. “I should have told you. I honestly thought you had put it together when you saw me. My markings. My shadows.”
“Is that why you used to hide yourself?” I asked him, referring to the mask of bones I had first seen him in.
“Partially. I also didn’t want you to see what my father had done to me.”
Every sentence that came out of his mouth just pained my heart more. When I pulled back, I kept my arms around him but peered up at his face. “Tell me what you know.”
We sat down together at the edge of my bed, and I pulled Tristan’s hand into mine as he spoke.
“According to the journals that my mother left behind for me, she found out that my father had taken my body back to his castle, not knowing what to do with me. Eventually, he realized that his plan didn’t work. When my light broke, it created a kind of mortal element in my body. Unfortunately for him, the gods bound themselves with a blood oath preventing them from harming any mortal life. The oath only applied totruegods, which is why Cain could kill so freely.”
Just the sound of his name made my entire body bristle with an uncomfortable chill.
“He told the gods that I hadn’t made it. He told them the power I had inherited from him consumed me, and that my mother had gone insane from my death. That seemed to be enough to answer any questions they had, but he still needed to get rid of me before they found out that he had lied.”
“What about Minerva?” I asked. “Wouldn’t she have seen this? Seen that you were alive?”
