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My heart goes ice cold.
“The Dark Order?” I repeat, remembering my dream.
He eyes me curiously. “Yes. Bit of a dramatic name, but we vampires are known for our drama. After all, Dracula’s nickname was Dramacula.”
I ignore the mention of Dracula for now, because wow there’s a lot to unpack there. “The Dark Order. Do they wear cloaks, their faces obscured by like hanging beads or curtains of red thread?”
He stares at me, growing stiff. “Yes. How do you know that? Did you see it just now, in a memory?”
I shake my head. “No. In my dream. That’s what I was dreaming about when I woke up, my nightmare.” I explain to him all the details I remember, plus the dreams I’d had before.
When I finish, Solon looks haunted, skin paler than ever. “That was Skarde,” he says in astonishment. “Why on earth are you dreaming about him?”
I shake my head, swallowing. “I don’t know.”
He adjusts his arm around me, holding me closer to him. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.”
“Maybe I tapped into your subconscious somehow,” I tell him. “Saw what you saw.”
“Yes, but the Dark Order is new. They formed after I last saw them. I’ve only heard about what they look like now from Ezra and the others.”
“Ezra?” I repeat.
“He’s a spy,” he explains. “That’s why he’s not often here.”
“So, all this time you’ve been keeping tabs on your father.”
“Someone has to. It’s the reason why I’ve been accumulating magic all this time. Trying to create a stockpile.”
“Wow,” I say, mulling it all over. “I guess the both of us have daddy issues.”
He snorts at that. “I guess we do.”
“Tell me about Jeremias.”
He brushes his lips over the top of my head. “Of course.” He inhales, running his fingers through my hair. “Jeremias is a lot like Skarde, though I have less information about him. But what I do know is that Jeremias is a witch who has lived for hundreds of years.”
“Witches can do that?” I gasp.
“Not that I know of,” he informs me. “But Jeremias can. I don’t know if he made the same kind of bargain with the Devil as my father did, but sometimes I do wonder. Wouldn’t that be a thing for the Devil to do? To create two different sons in different creatures, and make them war against each other, eternal enemies?”
“So I’m guessing Jeremias is a bad witch,” I muse. “Atlas told me I had black magic running through my veins, just as he does.”
“I wouldn’t listen to a word Atlas Poe says,” he says stiffly.
“But I do have darkness in me,” I tell him, propping myself up on my elbows. “You know this as well as I do.”
“Everyone does, Lenore,” he says, eyes skimming over my face as he brushes my hair behind my ear. “It’s what you do with it that counts. Just because your father is Jeremias, doesn’t mean you will be like him. Just like I do what I can to not be like my own father.”
“Tell me what Jeremias does.”
“As far as I know, it’s all rumors and hearsay. Black magic is powerful, more powerful than I can handle. They say Jeremias wants to destroy all vampires once and for all, but I don’t think it’s true. After all, if he has that power, he would have done it already. Those are just rumors and fears that vampires spread, to make us hate all witches, to justify feeding on and killing them. I move in the space in between because I know neither side is truly right or just. That is why I do what I do.”
It’s all starting to make sense now. Handing over vampires to witches is a strike at his father. Handing over witches to vampires is a strike at Jeremias. This is Solon’s way of staying in the grey area.
“And me,” I say to him, finally putting out the question that has bugged me for far too long. “Why did you really take me? Did you really plan to sell me to the highest bidder from the start? Would it have mattered if it was a vampire or a witch?”
His expression softens, fingers trailing lightly along my cheek, holding his palm against the side of my face. “I told you the truth, my dear. I never planned on letting you go.” He bites his lip for a moment, gazing at me with a look of adoration. “I’d been watching over you your entire life. From the moment your parents first brought you into San Francisco, I was there.”
