Page 107 of Break Out the Girl

“Drakeward,” the old man rumbles, focusing on the first piece of information. “The sister of Cosmo, right?”

“Yes. Shit,” Taliesin exclaims. “I forgot, you must know him. You sent him to Quo to get information on the rebels.”

Cosmo Drakeward is an associate of Gareth Bevan?

That I did not see coming.

I turn to Taliesin. “This is not important. It’s not safe here. Not safe for Aurora. We need to leave.” A thought occurs to me. “But if you know Cosmo, Mr. Bevan, then you have a way for us to contact him?”

We need all the outside help we can get, and I feel certain Cosmo would burn down the world for his sister.

Taliesin’s eyes darken with exhaustion and deep cynicism. He wipes a streak of mud from his forehead. “I don’t think so. How do we know we can trust him? I heard Tyrus Drakeward died, isn’t Cosmo his heir? You think he wouldn’t have gotten sucked into the politics and power of the Conclave?”

Before I can reply, Gareth speaks, shocking us all. “He’ll help. He’s honest.”

“What?” Taliesin blinks, completely caught off guard.

“I’ve got to know Cosmo quite well over the last few weeks,” Gareth says, his brown eyes fixed on his son. “He and his friends have stayed with us.”

Unexpected.

Taliesin’s mouth falls open. “What the fuck, Dad?”

“It’s a complicated story, but in essence, Cosmo is the boyfriend of your mother’s daughter,” Gareth says flatly. “A baby she had before I met her and had to give up.”

The look on Taliesin’s face is stunned. My mind is also racing.

Cosmo and Opal Bevan’s daughter?

“What’s her name?” I ask, but Taliesin talks over me. “Mom had another kid? I don’t understand.”

Gareth sighs softly, a hand reaching out to his son. “Opal was raped by a Conclave bastard when she was seventeen. She had the girl in secrecy, and the child was eventually adopted and won a scholarship to Validus Vale Academy, where Cosmo met her. She’s good friends with your cousin Willow.”

My mind stutters.

There is only one person who that can be. “Theodora Wilson.”

I turn to Taliesin. “Theodora Wilson is your sister?” Bordel de merde!

Gods, this is too much to unravel right now. Especially the fact that Theodora is so much more than the rest of us. That it’s because of her, the Conclave fell.

“I don’t know who the fuck that is,” he snaps at me. “Fuck, poor Mom. Who was the bastard who raped her?”

Gareth clutches Taliesin’s hand harder. “Breathe, son. Now is not the time for vengeance, it’s the time to mind your own safety, and those you love.”

For the first time in a while, London chimes in. “Much as I agree, Mr. Burts-dad, your tale is making my teeth grind like a stone in a mill. Can we at least have a name, so I can come up with some fun plans on how to dismember this rapist? I’m thinking eyeballs first.”

“I’d enjoy seeing that,” Gareth gives a dry half-chuckle. “The bastard was called Thomas Crankshawe.”

My father.

Of course.

Violence flares throughout my whole body.

“That man still lives, despite the Conclave's downfall,” Gareth goes on, not noticing the rigidity in mine or Taliesin’s frame, of how my mouth must be hanging open. “One day, I’d be happy to see him ruined, but for now, son, you are my priority.”

Tally and I meet eyes. By mutual agreement, his father is not informed that the rapist he hates is also the man who spawned me.