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I frown, feeling real remorse as I probe her for more information. “Is that why he wears the shield?”
Marina nods. “And it’s not the only way he’s untouchable,” she says. “My son is a…complex man. Has he told you about his father?”
I chew on my lip. This feels like a lot of information to share with a stranger. Maybe she’s drunk. Or maybe it’s all calculated. “He hasn’t, but Keon mentioned something. He said he was cruel.”
“He was an asshole,” Marina says with clear distaste. “And a brute. The Ganivet Family has been in much better hands since my son took over, and I don’t just say that because I love him.”
Another hit, and it hurts.
Is Atlas the monster, or am I?
“And who would be next in line if something happened to Atlas?” I say.
What the fuck, Penn? What the actual fuck? Even if Marina didn’t suspect something before, she certainly does now. Her left brow arches in a regal expression, her eyes turning a deep shade of scarlet.
“Odd question,” she says.
“I have to admit the assassination stuff scared me a little,” I mumble, searching for an explanation. “And I…well, now that I’m here, I’m stuck, and Atlas is the only one who would protect me. If someone else gains control of the Ganivet Family…”
Her expression softens, and I hate myself for leveraging her pity against her.
“Of course,” she says. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
The rest of her sentence goes unspoken, because we both know the implication. With the fertility problems on Aelydon, women become the prized possessions of ruling Families, and if the ruler dies, we’re passed on to the next.
Like commodities.
Not like people.
And Marina has been through the exact same thing, I’m sure.
“Keon would protect you,” she says. “He’s next in line, and a good man—even if we sometimes disagree on his taste in leisure activities.”
“You don’t like his music?” I say.
She laughs. “I love his music; I just wish he would be more careful.”
I frown. “He’s not your son, is he?”
“Not by blood,” she says. “But his mother was killed several years ago in a Family dispute. I’ve stood in for her ever since.”
“For the man that tried to kill your son?”
It’s another faux pas, I know, but Marina fascinates me. She smiles at me with a sharp-toothed smile, cocking her head to the side.
“Atlas told me you were bold,” she says.
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” I reply.
She laughs under her breath and sips her drink, then looks out at where her son is standing straight and tall and talking to another man.
“Keon thought Atlas and Titian were woven from the same cloth,” she says. “When he tried to kill Atlas, it was because he wanted both of them dead. Atlas was in the line of fire.”
“And you didn’t like Titian.”
“Nobody did,” she says. “The war put bad people in power, and nearly damned our species to extinction…until we found humanity, of course.”
“But he was your husband,” I say.
