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He embraced me and kissed my cheek. “Thank you for remembering who you are. I know you’ll feel a little strange and empty right now. You’ll be hungry for new thoughts and longing for truths that you can trust, but all I ask is patience. Those answers will come. You are a clean slate, Aslan. You will learn who you were meant to be with time, and it will be my honour to teach you.”
Looping his arm around my waist, he pulled me forward. “Now, lean on me. I know you haven’t been well and you’re weak. Allow me to take care of you.”
I didn’t say a word.
I merely let him support me as the click of my new cane echoed, and the shuffle of my hop ricocheted around the cave that was no longer my cell.
I let him guide me from the catacombs, turned my back on my pain, and left a trail of submission behind me.
I was his perfectly disciplined pet.
I was his mind-blank son, and finally...I was home.
Chapter Forty-Five
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Galician: Corazón)
*
Present...
BLOOD, BRAINS, AND CHIPS OF BONE went flying.
The gun kicked hard in my hand, the sharp scent of gunpowder clouding around me.
The thud of his corpse as he fell.
The shatter of his skull as he died.
Who was he?
I didn’t care.
What had he done to deserve this?
It didn’t matter.
My father had told me to shoot him...so I did.
“You did well, Aslan.” Cem grinned, holding out his hand. “Now, give me back the gun.”
Instantly, I spun the handle and passed it to him. Ten guards surrounded us, keeping Cem and me safe from any enemies. The dark warehouse had minimal lighting on, pretending to be a disused factory instead of the sorting and packing headquarters where shipments of pure cocaine came in to be weighed, bagged, then given to mules to carry worldwide or sold to local gangs to distribute.
Ever since my breaking two years ago, I’d been slowly shown behind the curtains of Cem’s operations. For most of my fourth year with him, Cem treated me like the lord he said I was. He flew me overseas in his private plane and smuggled me past border officials thanks to obscene wealth and power. He did what he promised, taking me to his estates and boltholes, revealing every mansion and palace.
He kept me hidden because he said he wasn’t ready to tell the world who I was, even though he’d made it very well known to his generals. He said he wanted to keep me for himself before letting me loose as his heir.
But I guessed there was another reason.
I suspected that year was a test. A test to see if I meant what I said and wasn’t faking what I did.
Each night we spent together in some library in some expensive home, drinking expensive liquor and discussing his expensive tastes, I felt him watching me, studying me, trying to see if there was a part of me that wasn’t shattered.
