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“A lot of that was my work, yeah. Bastille had been abandoned by Azazel, caught by fae, rescued, then sent on an attack to your base, where they lost contact with him. All in about a month’s time, even. I’d feel bad if he wasn’t terrible.”
He sighed, waving his hand. “I still have contacts in the Council’s circle, too, but I can’t do my job as well when I’m not physically over there. It’s a crapshoot on what I get anymore. I did manage to sniff out a snitch and have him dealt with, but I feel pretty confined over here. No offense.”
I’d heard something about that snitch. At least that was one less thing to worry about.
I ducked my head, setting my palette and brush down. My mood for painting was souring at the reminder this line of conversation was giving me. “So you’re saying that you would have known about anything that went on before it happened back in the US? Got it,” I grumbled bitterly.
That elicited a knowing look from him. He could tell exactly what I was trying to say.
Aria might have buried the hatchet on the whole “leave us for dead” thing—and yeah, it made sense that Pack Olskin had decided to save themselves over us, the virtual strangers—but a part of me wasn’t really over it.
Ashe looked down at the ground, his long lashes hiding his eyes. “I don’t blame you for being mad about the trial still,” he started carefully, “but you know that you weren’t the only ones we’ve had to ignore, right?”
His narrowed, sharp eyes turned up to mine. “I’ve witnessed three hybrids that came before you two and got put on display; a wolf-vampire named Chester Cruz, a human-vampire named Ellie Langley, and a demon-fallen wolf cub that didn’t even have a name.”
At the word “cub,” my eyes widened.
Ashe noticed, giving me a grim look. “According to the Councilmen, fallen-blood madness and demon blood always result in cubs that are born feral. The Council lies about a lot of things, but in that specific instance, they were right. That doesn’t change the fact that they killed what was essentially a baby on livestream just to send everyone a message.
“As for Ellie, she didn’t even know she was a hybrid. Genealogy tests didn’t know she was a hybrid, either, because vampires are literally just cursed humans. Her ‘hybrid status’ was completely fake, and she was killed for it anyways.”
He laughed sadly, shaking his head. “And Chester? He was just a damn accountant. A blessed-blood wolf that dropped by a blood bank sometimes because he had that hereditary vampire curse. Super threatening, apparently. And if Elias had helped him, or Ellie, or even that cub whose… whose life was basically over before it even started, he wouldn’t have been there to even witness your sham trial.”
A beat of silence went up after that. It was clear from the way he was speaking, the scrunch of his brows, and how he was looking somewhere to my left instead of my eyes that this topic really upset him, though I couldn’t really grasp why.
Was it just… empathy? That sounded like such a foreign concept, especially coming from the family of a Councilman. But I’d been wrong before—about a lot of things.
“Wedidknow ahead of time that the Paras were hunting you two down.Iknew. There was nothing we could do about it if we didn’t want our pack wiped off the map. It might not mean much to you, but Elias hasn’t forgotten any of the hybrids he’s been forced to watch die. I haven’t, either. And I never will.”
He took a few moments for some deep breaths, and it just now occurred to me that I might have stumbled over a social faux pas on accident. God, I wished Aria was here—not only would she not have done this in the first place, but she would also have known how to navigate it better. What should I do? Apologize for the implication?
Yes.
I almost jumped at her voice suddenly being in my head.
You’ve been listening?I asked, cringing, and she just laughed at me.
I don’t have anything better to do right now other than lay in bed, so I’ve been tuned in since you asked him if Elias was his dad. Now, say you’re sorry! You shouldn’t leave a bad impression on someone you’re going to see a lot.
That was a good point. Still, the fact that I hadn’t noticed her listening in was just a little unnerving. Who else was going to sneak up on me today?
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t implying anything,” I said to Ashe.
He raised a brow at me. “Sure you weren’t. But, it’s fine. Water under the bridge.”
I watched him carefully; he didn’t seem to be lying just to spare my feelings, though. And once he sensed my skepticism, that grin returned.
“I have better things to do than hold grudges and be mad about stupid stuff, Angolan. I wasn’t even really mad, to begin with.”
That confused me for a second, but only until I remembered that typical blessed-bloods held onto anger poorly. Of course, he’d be ready to move on from conflict so quickly.
That must be a nice skill to have,I mumbled in my head. Aria’s laugh echoed back at me.
I didn’t really want us to stew in awkwardness, so I asked, “You said Elias was basically your dad?”
He perked up a little. “Yeah, pretty much. Jack is also a dad, though he always acted like a mother hen. Don’t tell him I said that.” He chuckled to himself. “Or do. I bet it’d make him mad.”
Well, blessed-bloods generally didn’thold ontoconflict, but this one seemed to be a fan ofstartingit, I noted with some amusement. “Where’re your parents? If that’s okay to ask,” I quickly added.
