Page 77 of Knotted By the Triad

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guard left the office and stepped into the corridor.

Daemin rose and closed the door once the guard was outside. The lock clicked into place. Zuri shifted slightly in my lap. I tightened my arm around her waist, sensing that she was growing nervous about what Kai had to say.

I, too, had an unsettling feeling in my gut. Kai waited until Daemin was seated before his gaze drifted around the room, looking at each of us. His eyes lingered on Zuri. Then he placed his hand on the first folder.

For Zuri’s sake, he took a moment to explain our mission from last night and described the room we’d found. She listened without a word, not even seeming shocked to hear about the golems.

“These are folders from the hidden room in the smugglers' warehouse,” he said. “I've spent most of the night and these wee hours of the morning going through them.”

Zuri lifted her head from my chest to stare at the folder.

“Some of what I found concerns the Triad,” he continued. “Some concerns Mei Lin and her father.” His fingers moved to another folder. “But there's something else in these records.” He looked directly at Zuri. “Something I believe you have a right to know about, Zuri Bane.”

She tensed, and my dragon began purring, wanting to comfort her. What the hell was in that folder?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

ZIAN

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Kai remained standing behind his desk instead of sitting in his chair. He opened the first folder, but his attention stayed on Zuri.

“If you need me to stop at any point, tell me. Some of what I found concerns things that were done to you when you were an infant. You don't have to hear all of it today.”

“No. If it's about me, I want to know,” Zuri told him.

“Then I'll tell you everything I know.” Kai turned the folder around and slid it across the desk so she could see the documents for herself. “The hidden room we found in the smugglers' warehouse contained more than records of their current operation. There were documents stored there that are almost thirty years old. Most concerning experiments involving children.”

Zuri tensed in my arms.

I lowered my mouth near her ear and whispered, “It's okay. We're here with you.”

She released a slow breath and nodded. Beside us, Daemin dragged his chair closer and held out his hand. Zuri slipped hers into it, and his fingers closed around hers as Kai continued.

“The researchers were experimenting with golems, but not the kind we encountered at the warehouse. These were considerably more sophisticated. They learned how to create golem bodies physically identical to living people. The bodies ate, slept, grew, felt pain. Anyone looking at one would believe they were looking at an ordinary person.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Zuri asked.

“Creating the bodies wasn't the real experiment. They wanted to determine whether a living person's essence could be divided between two bodies.” Kai removed another document from the folder. “They called the process splicing. The original child remained alive while portions of the child's essence were transferred into the golem counterpart.”

I frowned. “Why children?”

“Children were easier because their emotions weren’t as evolved as adults'. The researchers got the idea from another realm where fallen angels possessed shadows that housed emotions they were unable to endure after their fall from Paradise. In that realm, the Fallen angels had multiple shadows that looked exactly like them and contained the emotions the fallen angels’ bodies couldn’t hold now that they were cast aside from the heavens. They wanted to reproduce the phenomenon artificially.”

“So they experimented on children,” Daemin said.

There was no emotion in his voice, which meant he was furious.

Kai nodded. “They tried for years, but the children and the golems never survived for long. The first successful trials involved six children. However, those children’s golems didn’t survive longer than a few months. And if their golems died first, the traits and abilities returned to the original child. The researchers changed the process and eventually recorded four infant subjects who survived along with their golems. They successfully transferred some of the children’s emotions and abilities into their golems. And the golems were hard to tell apart from the original hosts.”

Zuri shifted slightly against me. Kai looked at her before pulling another sheet from the folder.

“The first surviving infant was a dragon shifter.” His voice softened. “Her name was Zuri Bane.”

Her entire body went rigid in my arms. For a moment, she didn't speak, but she trembled slightly against me.

“Breathe,” I whispered. “I've got you.”