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Oh, how I wish I could let him believe that.
“I don’t know if you share the same parents or just one, but I don’t think he was lying.”
“Why?” he practically growled.
“Because I saw someone else there,” I answered. “Someone that I think you’re also related to.”
He closed his eyes briefly, and when he reopened them, the amount of rage he had building inside seemed to lessen.
“Whatever you say,” he said, “I won’t blame you, and I know this isn’t your fault. I can handle whatever you learned.”
I knew he could. That wasn’t why I didn’t want to tell him. I just didn’t want to hurt him.
“Your grandmother was there,” I said. “She brought me food most days. Spoke with Knox—your, uh, brother—in a way that confirmed he was related to her.”
His face paled. “She’s working with him?”
“I think so. It doesn’t seem like the best working relationship, and he called her Estelle instead of Nannio like you do, but there was no doubt that she was there willingly.”
Scales appeared on his arms as he released the hold that he had on my hands, fisting his fingers and tightening his jaw. “You’re sure?”
I nodded once.
“I’d thought she was dead.” His voice was void of emotion. “That would have been better.”
ChapterEleven
CILLIAN
My Nannio, a traitor? If I’d heard it from anyone else, I would have had a much harder time believing them, but Dawsyn had no reason to lie to me. She had no agenda here, no ties to this world besides me.
The thoughts racing through my mind weren’t good. Not for me or anyone. How long had Estelle—as I’d now call her—been working with this Knox person? Couldhereally be my brother? How and when would he have been born?
What was the purpose of sending me to Mystics Academy to find something to stop Knox if she was working with him? Did she expect me to find nothing and fail? Was the trip just to get me out of the way?
The potential answers to those questions infuriated me to no end and had more scales pushing forcefully through my skin. I tried to calm my rage, but nothing I could think about in that moment was helping.
All I could sense was the betrayal. Had Knox killed my uncles? What vendetta could he possibly have against our family and realm that would bring him to this kind of destruction?
Sure, if he really was my brother and one or both of my parents had abandoned him at some point, I could understand being vengeful, but bringing down an entire realm? There had to be more to this than what I was attempting to piece together.
“Did you hear any of their conversations?” I asked Dawsyn. “Did they say anything about why they were doing this?”
She reached for me, running the backs of her fingers over my arm that was still covered in scales. “Are you sure you want to keep talking about this right now?”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” I said. “People want to go back to their homes. We only have so much food.”
She nodded toward the scales. “Does that hurt when you do that?”
“It’s…uncomfortable, but don’t change the subject.”
Her huff of annoyance was endearing. “Fine.” She began to rattle off everything that had happened since the moment she was taken. How Knox had shown up and she’d almost gotten away, but then he’d mentioned River and shown her a photo of him beaten and tied to a chair. Told her that if she didn’t choose to be his mate, then she’d be a murderer.
A fucking low blow that wouldn’t have been true even if River had died, but knowing what I knew about Dawsyn, she would have taken those words to heart.
Then there was the warlock that had tried to keep his identity hidden, but Dawsyn saw a tattoo that she intended to tell Beatrix about. That was my mate’s vendetta, and I’d happily support her in getting back at that warlock for hurting her best friend.
By the time she got to the part about the hidden door in the forest, my body was shaking. The only thing that kept me from snapping was the fact that Knox hadn’t actually touched her.
