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“Does my son feel the same way? About your alliance being a matter of necessity and nothing more?” Lucius tipped his head in that inquisitive shifter way. “Will he go his separate way when this is over?” His question seemed weighted somehow, like he was looking for a specific answer.
“I don’t care what Tavionfeels. Your son made my life a living hell. Abandoned me to Solok in the Citadelle’s prison, threatened to stake me outside of Tempeste for the Fae King to find.”
He blanched at that, and I blew out a long breath. “I understood his anger. He’d lost his brother and needed someone to blame. I made the perfect scapegoat. But I’ll never trust him, not when I’ve watched him manipulate and lie like it’s second nature.”
“That’s my fault.” There was deep sorrow in Lucius’s voice, and I squeezed my eyes shut at what was coming. “Julian…was my oldest.” Lucius swallowed hard. “Myfavorite. I know a father’s supposed to love his children equally, but I was foolish and self-centered, never giving a thought to how my preferential treatment might affect Tavion.”
He shook his head. “How he might feel alone and unloved, unable to trust anyone ever again, but that was exactly what happened. By the time I realized my mistake…the damage had been done.”
“And now that you only have one son left, you want to mend what’s broken.”
“Before it’s too late, yes, I would very much like to make things right.”
My shoulders slumped, and the ice around my heart began to melt, just a little. And damn if I could make it freeze over again. “Is this where you convince me to give Tavion a chance?”
“No. This is where I tell you Tavion’s days are running out. My son is sick, a genetic mutation that we discovered too late, the same illness that took his mother from us.”
The ice around my heart disappeared completely.
“What sort of mutation?” I took in Lucius’s half-shifted appearance, searching for signs of sickness, but the old wolf shook his head with a rueful frown.
“Nothing like this. Celia’s disintegration began because shecouldn’tshift at all. From there she grew weaker. Then she went blind. By the time she could no longer speak, she was completely bedridden. I tried everything, called in every favor from everyone I knew. I would have sold my soul to save her…but there was nothing to be done. My mate wasted away in a matter of months.”
“Does Tavion know?” I asked through numb lips. “About the mutation? About his mother?”
Gods, Tavion was such an arse, but…he’d lost plenty, too, just like I had. He just hid his losses better than I did.
“My son knew his mother was sick, but he wasn’t here during the worst of her decline. Tavion doted on his mother, and Celia…was proud. She didn’t want him to see her like that, especially at the end.”
“Your son shifted a few days ago just fine, so if that is a warning sign, he’s not sick yet.” Lucius’s face relaxed, relief shining in his eyes, sending another one of those stabbing pains straight into my heart.
“Thank you for such a small kindness,” he muttered. “I’ve lost one son, I cannot bear to lose Tavion, but…there is no escaping this, I fear.”
My own stomach was clenched tight, because from the look on Lucius’s face—a mix of horror, fear, and pain—he was telling the truth.
I didn’t like Tavion. He was arrogant and abrasive and we’d been locked in this conflict of ours practically since the moment we’d set eyes on each other. But…I would never wish a death like that on anyone.
“You believe Tavion has the same mutation?”
“How many silver wolves have you ever seen?”
“Exactly one, but that doesn’t mean anything, because I’ve only ever seen one wolf shifter in my entire life.” I couldn’t help the ghost of a smile that curved my lips. “And a half-shifted one.”
Lucius’s fuzzy ears twitched. “Tavion’s the spitting image of his mother. Julian had her eyes, but Tavion…He is his mother’s son, through and through. Celia was a silver wolf and something about their blood, or their magic is…wrong. She wasn’t much older than Tavion when she started showing signs. I just…” Lucius pursed his lips around his elongated fangs and sighed.
“Just keep an eye on him, will you? I fucked up my chance with him. In truth, despite how things look on the surface, Tavion’s gotten the short end of the stick most of his life.”
I was going to fucking regret this, but…
“I’m doing this for you, not for him,” I said quietly. “What warning signs am I looking for?”
“Celia’s illness started with hand tremors. Look for those. Then he will lose the ability to shift, then blurred vision, numbness, and stumbling.”
“I’ll look for those signs.”
Outside, Tristan whistled for me to hurry up. I squeezed Lucius’s fur covered hand. “You have to remember to eat, Lucius; there’s enough in the pantry for a couple weeks. Starving yourself won’t bring Julian back. And he wouldn’t want you to be a martyr.”
“Dane’ll be back long before then,” Lucius curled his huge taloned fingers around my tiny hand. “It was nice meeting you, Anaria. My son wasn’t wrong about you. You’re going to change the world.”
