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Maybe it was his tone. Maybe Leah saw the truth in his eyes. Perhaps his energy shined with intensity.
Whatever it was, she asked, “Do you promise?”
“I swear it on my life.”
She relaxed, the tiniest bit. Shoulders no longer as tense, the corners of her mouth softened. She nodded once, as solemn as he felt.
“Very well.” He reclined back in his seat, thinking how to present the situation to make it seem better than it actually was.
No. He wanted the truth, and Leah did, too.
It was time.
“My father is Zavorian, my mother was a Quillon who supported them,” he began, the words feeling bitter on the tip of his tongue. He hadn’t talked about this since he’d been a youngling. Even after all these yanns, the memories still scabbed at some inside wound he’d thought had long disappeared.
Ironic that he, the spy who suspected everyone, hadn’t realized this simple fact about himself. Now that he had, he would have to do something about him. Kyren kept talking about healing, maybe Taryn could give it a try.
“Both of my species live a long life. My mother went away with the Zavorians when they left Quillon in ruins. She became my father’s first wife, though they were not Lightmates. I never quite understood the two of them together, as little as I witnessed. Perhaps it was the mean, ambitious streak in both of them that forged their connection,” he went on.
These words were not kind. But they were true. His mother was as cold as she was beautiful. It lessened the blow to know that she wasn’t cold only to Taryn, but to everyone, aside from his father.
“Sometime after they had created a new reign on the gigantic Zavorian ship, I was born,” he said. “They rejoiced for a moment, threw a gathering that everyone on the ship was required to attend, then I was sent off to the nursemaids and they didn’t bother with me until I was old enough to walk and talk so they could show me off in front of the court.”
Leah, who had been patiently listening, leaned closer. That was a very good sign. “Court?”
Taryn opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
Nines, he’d never hesitated like this in his entire life.
But he knew this truth could repel Leah from him forever. He couldn’t hide it anymore, though.
He’d been commended for his courage too many times to count.
“Yes,” he hissed. “My father is the Zavorian Rohin.”
Leah’s translator buzzed. “Rohin?”
“Monarch. He rules the Zavorians,” Taryn said. “He led the invasion on Earth.”
19
TARYN
Leah had gone silent.
No, she’d gone completely still. Even her breaths were so soft and fast, Taryn barely registered them. But her eyes…her eyes changed.
There was an entire storm raging behind them, more dangerous than the tempest they had faced only a dann ago.
“You’re…you’re the Zavorian Prince?” she asked, lips barely moving, as if she was talking to herself.
“One of them. I was the Crown Prince,” he said.
“Not anymore?”
“Never. I escaped when I was young.”
His mother had died in a reckless ambush. Taryn was loathe to give his father credit for anything in this existence, loathsome as he had always been, but he’d grieved. Too much, as far as Taryn was concerned.
