Page 92 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

"None of them were mine," he said, not sure whether he said it to Kian or to himself.

"They believed they were."

"Belief is not blood." Navuh picked up his teacup. "They were no more or less dear to me than any other warriors in my army."

"Here is your coffee," Areana said, setting a cup in front of Kian. "Would you like cream and sugar with it?"

She was doing it again, pretending none of this had touched her, but Navuh knew her too well to fall for it. She was upset.

"Thank you," Kian said. "I take my coffee black unless it's a cappuccino."

Areana sat back down and lifted her teacup to her lips.

"If we are laying it all out, there is more you should know. Khiann is awake."

Navuh forced a smile. "Congratulations. I'm sure your mother is thrilled."

"She is. The four guards are also doing well. All five have emerged from stasis largely intact."

Navuh arched a brow. "Largely?"

"Memory is an issue, but it's slowly coming back."

Navuh had held those five for five thousand years as his insurance, his last get-out-of-jail card, and in the end the clan had retrieved them without his help.

"You kept them buried to break my mother's heart, and you almost succeeded. Now she has her truelove mate back despite your best efforts."

That blow Navuh felt, but not where Kian was aiming.

His father had spent the last of his madness trying to destroy Annani, and he had failed. An earthquake had achieved what Mortdh could not. A chance, a natural disaster, and yet Navuh had found a way to benefit from it. He'd gathered up the pieces and kept them. Now even that was undone, and the little heiress who should have been erased from history five thousand years ago had won.

It should have enraged him, but the truth was that he no longer cared. He had never truly hated Annani. She had been a convenient enemy to dangle before his army, uniting them behind the banner of destroying her and her clan. His fight was with what she was doing for humanity, not necessarily with her and her people.

That being said, she'd always been a thorn in his side because she supplied humans with technology and ideas about personal freedoms that stood in direct opposition to what he needed them to believe. Humans were slaves, created to serve gods and immortals, and their only path was submission, so he had no problem using her as the despised catalyst for his army.

Navuh looked at Kian and smiled. "You delivered all of this without gloating. I'm impressed."

Kian grimaced. "My mother asked me to be merciful. She thought you would mourn your adopted sons and didn't want me to be cruel to a grieving father. But you don't give a shit about anyone, do you?"

Navuh sipped his tea. "Is there anything else, or have you finished emptying your bucket over my head?"

"We control Losham. He has to do what we tell him."

"How?"

"Compulsion, of course."

"Annani?"

"My mother is not our only compeller."

"I see." Navuh took another small sip of his tea and pieced together the puzzle Kian had dropped in his lap.

Losham had been handed a collapsing island and a leash held by the clan, and he'd used it. He'd manipulated his masters into doing his killing for him and had come out the other side with every rival dead and a myth of his own power spreading across the island. An outside force that answered when he called. It was a lie, but a magnificent one, and it could hold for hundreds of years.

No one had taught Losham that. He'd simply been born brilliant and figured out how to make a knife he did not own cut on his behalf.

What a shame Losham wasn't his blood.