Page 52 of Forge the Blade

Sevastyan glanced up at her, eyes dark, and shook his head, going back to his food. “Don’t all sons want fathers? I was young. I wanted . . .” He paused, choosing his words. “The fantasy.”

“What fantasy?”

“You, him, me. Russia. Everything they told me I was waiting for at the creche. They made us draw happy pictures of our families, you know.”

“And now?” She cocked her head, still slightly smiling.

Sevastyan shook his head. “I never lied, Raska. Russia is mother and Mother is Russia. Fathers invade, but they never last. Like Germany.” He forced himself not to whisper an apology in his head. Even internal inconsistency would be noticed.

She gave a short laugh and then gazed up at him, lips half parted as if he’d given her the world. “So smooth, Sevvy.”

He dropped his eyes and shook his head, taking refuge in coffee and cobbler. She drew back her hand but didn’t go back to eating. Instead, she folded her arms in front of her chest and leaned on the table.

“They’re going to be watching you now,” she said finally.

“I’m aware.”

“You’re still not worried?”

“They were already watching, at least some of them. Let them watch.”

“Some will do more than watch.”

“Like Dirk?” Sevastyan glanced up, quirking an eyebrow.

She snorted, delicately. “Like Dirk.”

“They can join him in the rank of imbeciles.”

“You’re not small enough to ignore, perhaps not large enough to survive. You’re not an idiot, Sevvy.”

“The Yadro pushed my hand.”

“How so?”

“They want the K-Pop incident cleaned up, but it’s a pissing contest between players with more diamonds in their eyes than sense in their heads.” Sevastyan let disgust cross his face and washed his mouth with coffee. “Now the job is stretching out, claiming larger and larger names. Some of them want me dead, and some think I have the right course of action. The Yadro is letting it play out. They aren’t taking sides.”

“So you’re becoming a bigger fish.”

He met her eyes. “I’m tired of swimming with rotten fish.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And how are you going to clean them out?”

“Dirk was the first. Now we find who comes next. Then we’ll know who pushed Dirk in the first place.”

“You’re going to trigger a war.”

“The war is already triggered.”

She watched him for a long moment, tapping her fingers against her arm. “You need resources.”

He studied her face, letting her watch him assessing her. “I’ll find a way.”

“I have resources.”

“You’ve given me too much already, Mother. I won’t drag you down.”

“You’re not the only one who thinks there are rotten fish in the Yadro. It needs fresh blood, Russian blood, like it was always meant to be.”