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The wall of pain in my head melted away, leaving behind a swirling sensation. I sat there for what felt like hours, staring into space, my mind filling with dozens of blurred memories—the birth of my twins, the sorrow I felt from losing one, and the anguish I suffered when I realized why. I remembered holding Draco, so tiny and innocent, and feeling like my heart was about to stop. I recalled Dad coming home with me from the hospital to help, and how I found him unconscious next to Draco’s crib. I remembered fighting with Ansin because I wanted him to make me forget about all my pain.
When I was finally done reabsorbing everything I’d forgotten, my stomach knotted, and my heart blistered. He broke his fucking promise! He was never supposed to tell me the truth! And yet, I felt relieved. I finally knew the truth.
Draco isn’t dead. But he was dangerous.
I looked at Ansin, who’d been sitting beside me the entire time. His eyes were hard with worry. It was a look I now knew well. All my memories were back, and he had been there through it all. Christ, what I’d done to this man.
“I’m sorry for being such a horrible bitch, Ansin. I shouldn’t have put so much on your shoulders.” He’d lied about the initial kidnapping, about me hiding Draco, and then he’d lied about my babies’ deaths. But he’d done it all for me.
He didn’t say anything. I could tell he had his guard up. But why? What was he expecting me to do to him?
“So where’s Draco now?” I asked.
“He is with the Spiroses.”
“What? But you said they would kill—”
“A lie. Niko agreed to that beating and to fake an unsuccessful attempt to resurrect King.”
“Why would he agree to that?”
“Because he knew, like you and I did, that the most important thing was making you believe there was no hope of finding Draco or reuniting with him. But,” he shook his head, “they could never kill him. King’s curse is alive and well, and they serve the new king.”
“Draco. They serve Draco.” So that part had been true. This was too much. I covered my mouth in horror. “I need to sit down.”
“You already are.”
I looked to my side. I was seated on a burgundy overstuffed couch.
“Allow yourself a few days,” Ansin said. “Your mind will sort itself out. It must merge two versions of your past into one.”
“This is so confusing.” We were in the living room of a house I’d lived in, but I was seeing it for the first time—the white curtains over the large window, the chunky hand-carved coffee table, and the Persian rug with swaths of navy blue, deep reds, and off-white.
Were these blond hardwood floors always here?
Maybe it felt new because I’d spent most of my time in the master bedroom, where I lay comatose for months, dreaming. And every time Dad came to visit, Ansin would greet him at the door and invite him to sit for a moment. Just long enough to get Dad to drink some iced tea laced with Sage’s dream juice. At the end of his visit, Dad would think he’d spent the weekend with me and Draco, his sweet, innocent beautiful grandson.
This is so messed up.
“So what will happen to Draco?” Because now that my memories were back, I knew why I’d been so worried. Right after Draco was born, I’d had a vision. Only, it was a glimpse of the future. Draco would someday grow up to be the new king, darker, deadlier, and more powerful than before. Ten Club wouldn’t be a club any longer. It would become his obedient army of elites. Thugs with limos and enormous bank accounts. They would take over governments, corporations, and every institution around the world, pushing their sickness into the world. And if you resisted or disobeyed them, they’d destroy you.
This would be our future. A global Ten Club dictatorship, no longer hiding in the shadows. And if my vision was right, I’d be the one helping Draco. I would drain the other Seers who had wronged me or stood in our way. I would kill anyone with the power to stop him. All because I felt the need to make up for abandoning him. Somehow my mother’s love would become twisted.
“They are keeping him asleep with Sage’s dream juice,” Ansin said. “He will stay that way until he dies.”
My jaw tightened, and I threaded my fingers together. I needed to stay calm and not react with my heart. This wasn’t easy to hear.
“So,” I swallowed hard, “the Spiroses are going to keep him drugged until he’s an old man.”
“They will if they want to be free. Draco’s death will be the end of King’s bloodline. If they fail, he will have many, many children.”
