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Pietr gave him a mildly cautionary glance as Zeke didn’t back down from pushing for a more forthcoming explanation.
“It would give them the upper hand,” Pietr repeated, a tartness there that made another push seem like an undesirous misstep.
“So, the rebels get their hands on this weapon, and they’ll be able to enslave humankind?” Zeke asked, skepticism like a thick note in his voice, Anna’s heart picking up its pace.
Every time she’d even thought of confronting her father in this manner, she’d always back out of even fantasizing about it, knowing that she’d incur the look he was now leveling at Zeke. All her life she’d striven to avoid that scenario. Her pride be damned. Her wants and needs as well. She had rather shrunk back, taken his milder reprimands, tried to adjust to his wishes. Zeke’s calmness was almost shocking her, like he was shaking her awake. He stood before both of their fathers, not rigidly straight-backed, but rather with poise. There was a grace to his defiance.
“Yes,” Pietr replied to Zeke’s question. “The weapon will level the playing field. The human race outnumbers us five hundred to one. The odds of winning a war, even with magic on our side, are slim to none. Because even the lowest level conjurer knows there’s a price, and if we were to take lives using magic, the price would be significant. If the Incendiary ends up in the wrong hands, the rebels might use it to even the numbers.”
“What?” Anna asked, her heart in her throat. “What does that mean? They’ll kill humans indiscriminately?”
“Yes,” Semyon said. “At least that’s been the word on the street for the past few months.”
“So, you acquired the weapon?” Zeke asked.
“We did,” Pietr affirmed. “We had to join forces to do it. It was expensive.”
“And neither of us wanted to be the one with sole responsibility,” Semyon added. “We’re entering dark times. Two hearths burn brighter than one.”
“You have to destroy it,” Anna said, the conviction of it like teeth clamping around her gut.
“We can’t,” Semyon said.
“You have to.”
“There is no destroying it without causing chaos,” her father stated, eyes on hers. “Destroying it might even kill thousands of innocent people.”
“You’re both very noble,” Zeke said. “There’s nothing in this for either of you, I take it.”
Semyon looked like he wanted to rise to his feet, reach over his desk, grab Zeke by the lapels of his coat and pull him across to him. Presumably to physically harm him. He did no such thing, but the glare he gave Zeke could have scorched the Earth.
“There is control,” Pietr said.
Semyon glanced at him, and Anna figured he hadn’t expected Pietr to be upfront about it. The fact that her father had offered such a plain answer told Anna that Zeke was winning his respect. It was no small feat and made her chest swell with sudden pride. Even though Pietr had known Zeke since Zeke was a kid she knew how little he was predisposed to cut anyone any slack, so the respect he bestowed had to be earned. It could be lost too easily.
“Control of the city?” Zeke asked.
“Yes, but only if we can outsmart the Kuznetsovs, make them show their true colors, oust them and have the people who work with the three families finally see them for who they truly are.”
Zeke didn’t scoff at the irony of one of the ruling heads speaking so ill of one of their peers, though Anna got the strong sense that he had to restrain himself.
“And who are they truly?” Zeke asked, the sarcasm not quite out of his tone.
Semyon turned a sharp look on his son. Anna’s hand was still holding onto Zeke, grateful for the show of unity that it portrayed to their parental figures, and now she gave a soft squeeze. She wasn’t entirely sure whether the impulse had come in support of his continued questioning, or to urge him to be mindful of what room he was in. Zeke merely squeezed back. It calmed her.
“They’ve been selling shifter children to human laboratories,” Semyon said. “That’s who they are. Truly.”
Anna stared at him, unable to take her eyes off his, even when he met her stare with that level expression that seemed to be perpetual. Did he ever lose his cool?
“The human community doesn’t know we exist,” Zeke said, by way of dismantling his father’s revelation.
It was too horrific.
Anna’s heart was thudding dully in her chest, knowing that it was also the truth. Semyon, though he was many things, was not a liar.
“The human community knows we exist when it benefits them. Covertly, of course. Keeping it secret from their masses,” Semyon stated. “There are factions of every government open-minded enough to recognize a possible cash cow when they see it. They’ve been experimenting for years, trying to figure out a way to break our DNA code, transfer it to humans, make them heal as quickly as we do. Adult trials failed. For twenty years. Countless bodies poked and prodded, none of them able to sustain our DNA for long. Our DNA ate through the human DNA like it was an enemy. Or a snack.”
Pietr huffed a soft laugh at that. Anna felt a shiver run down her spine. They might not support the rebels, but they still held that shifters were superior in every way to humans. Most shifters did.
