Page 74 of Birthright

“Keena, not funny. Karackos is ruthless, and he plays games. You should not have summoned a Greater Demon.” He started to say something else but stopped himself.

Doran put her hand on my shoulder. “Keena, what was the deal?”

I stood and felt the anger rushing into me. “First of all, I didn’t summon him, he came to me. Second, it was a really good deal.” I hesitated. “At the time.”

I was going to have to spill the beans. I told the story, all of it. About the deal to trade Feldema or kill her, about Nessum disappearing when I confronted him with Trevina’s blade. Doran’s eyes grew large as she stared at the blade she hadn’t noticed hanging at my side. I touched the hilt of it when I told them about finding it in my mother’s skull. I’d spent many nights dreaming of it since. In the dreams, it wasn’t just a skull. It was her face, strained in pain. I left out the part about the dreams and told them how I had lost the skull to the sea on the way back from Thule. Bevin almost swooned.

“You poor dear, poor dear,” she crooned, over and over.

Jordan was positively oozing anger. His fists balled so tightly I thought his knuckles would break. “But you can’t offer Feldema the choice anymore, can you? And you didn’t think it necessary to tell me this?”

I stood as tall as I could and faced him. “I told Manus. He’s my guardian. I had no obligation to tell you anything at the time. Hell…” I swung around to face Doran, “…I didn’t even know we had a security force at the time! No one seems to think I need to know anything until something bites me on the ass. I need to be better informed. Then, and only then, can I make the smart decisions. If I learned nothing else from my human parents, it was how to assess a situation and make good choices. But I can’t make good choices without all the information.”

I stepped even closer to Doran, tired of all the guessing games, tired of them thinking I couldn’t handle the truth. “If I’m to be this great leader, Doran, I think it’s time that you stop treating me like a child and fill me in on exactly what’s going on. I can only make decisions based on the information I have. So far, that’s been shit.”

Doran looked like she was going to take a step back from me, but didn’t. “Until now, I didn’t think you could or would truly accept this life. I didn’t want to drown you in all the sudden changes.” Her voice sounded a bit defeated, realizing she’d been wrong. Being wrong was something Doran was not accustomed to.

“Can you understand that? There is so much for you to learn about our world. We tried to give you the basics so it could slowly sink in. I see now you have accepted who you are, and I apologize if my trying to make the adjustment easier was interpreted as a lack of trust. I assure you, it was not. Your coming to us so late is new for us. I didn’t know how to…”

She did take a step back then, her tone becoming more serious. “If I pushed too much on you all at once, I would have chosen what I thought was important for you to know. Imposed some of my own prejudices, swaying your opinions of the things and species of our world. You have to form your own opinions based on the events that unfold before you. You have to decide what you feel is important and make your own decisions, one way or another. I wanted you to find your way to us through your own heart, Keena, your own strength.”

She sat down in a small chair, which made her look bigger than she really was, and made a small huffing sound. “I will tell you anything you wish to know, from this day forward.”

“No more trying to shield me? No more games?”

“There were no games. But you’re correct, my niece. You have every right to be a part of your own destiny. I should not have taken that choice from you.”

Jordan stepped in between us, his face still taut, fists still bunched. “That still doesn’t change the fact that she made a bargain with Karackos that she can’t fulfill.” He turned to me. “You do understand that if you can’t offer him Feldema, you will be obligated to take her place, be bound to him, to serve him in any way he sees fit?”

I reached up to touch his face. He calmed a bit, but I could see he was truly worried about me, not just because he was the head of security. His silver eyes were swirling. I felt his love and began to understand that my heart knew his already. My powers chose the Demon for more than just his physical presence and his ability to protect. His heart was part of the package, and my magic was drawn to him for love as well as lust.

“Yes, I know what that means. I’ll have to deal with that when the time comes. First, we have to deal with the Slaugh. If they decide to declare war, then the deal with Karackos won’t matter, will it?”

“I was right,” Doran said. “You have come to understand your destiny. I am pleased.”

“So glad you approve,” I said. “What’s the plan for the meet?”

CHAPTER 32

“This is getting us nowhere.” Jordan dropped the pile of papers to the table. I’d made him bring me everything the security force had on the Slaugh, and we’d spent the afternoon making sure I understood all of it. There were four different stacks, and while I had made it through three of them myself, he and Abbey were trying to give me bits of information from the last. “I’ve been through all this intel before.” He strode across the room to the open door to look out again. He had grumbled when I insisted I needed at least one of them open.

“They seem to run much like the military. I mean, they have a very strict hierarchy.” Jordan gave me a “duh” look. He was so arrogant and so handsome at the same time. “So this Trammel guy, who’s taken over, was way down on the list of flunkies. Maybe fifth or six in command.”

“And?”

“And…you were in the military, right?” I asked, standing to pace as I spoke. It seemed to help me think.

“A couple times. Army. Navy.”

“So…when you were a grunt, did you understand the politics?”

“Not really. The lower-ranking officers follow orders. The politics wouldn’t matter to them.”

“So Trammel would have to be a badass to take on the upper members of Bran’s command, but he probably isn’t the most politically attuned member of the ranks.”

“That should help some, but—” He looked pleased with me, but his face hardened, and he stopped speaking abruptly as Cliona came through the door. I had felt her presence as she came close but didn’t think to mention it.

“My lady.” She fell to one knee. Jordan turned his back to her.