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“I can’t promise I won’t do what I think is best. If I don’t see another way, if I feel like it’s the only option, I’ll do whatever I have to to protect the people I love.”
“And you’re still saying that’s us?”
I linked my arm with his and rested my head against his shoulder. “No matter how confusing or difficult life gets, no matter how many questions I have or how little I understand or am sure about anything, I know that much at least.”
* * * *
Lorien
I tried to breathe slowly, to not let the frustration boiling inside me show on my face. The control I had over my emotions had always been one of my biggest strengths, after all. People who allowed their feelings to rule them made mistakes, allowed others to take control.
I would not be a slave to anything—least of all my own emotions.
“Enter,” came a familiar voice through the door after I knocked.
I turned the handle, then walked into the large office to find my mother seated at her desk.
She was lovely, at least for a woman of her age. Her hair had started to gray at thirty, so now at sixty, the salt and pepper tones had spread so not a strand of the old black remained. She somehow didn’t appear frail, as so many people her age did, but rather had a sharpness in her gaze that made others take notice.
She wore a loose black dress that hung to the floor, having passed the age where she attempted to show off her body.
Those serious eyes of hers softened however when they rested on me. “Lorien,” she said, a fondness to her tone reserved for her children.
“You called me, Mother?”
Uncertainty danced in those eyes at my use of mother. How many times had she asked me to call her Mom?
As many times as I ignored the request.
Who could blame me, though? I’d been raised only seeing her from time to time, forced to grow up with relatives to ensure I remained a secret. I was the spare, the extra kept hidden in case anything happened to my brother.
Then I thought about my father and my brother, at the way the light had gone out of their eyes, at the look of surprise when they’d realized I was behind it.
How could they be surprised, though? After all they’d done, after they’d barred the doors of this family against me, how could they not expect me to do something? To react?To break down those barriers?
Because they were weak fools.
And now running the family fell to my mother. She did well, something I would never have expected. When I’d killed the male heirs, I’d expected the entire family to fall into disarray. I’d thought that other families would rise up and attack, and that my mother would be unable to hold it together.
Ten years down the line, however, she had not only held on to our power but increased it.
Pauline Hatchet was not a woman to be underestimated. If I had any ties to family, any sense of accomplishment due to those I shared blood with, I might have felt a certain pride from that.
As it was, however, I felt nothing but reassurance that I still had the benefits of her position.
She rose from her desk and went to the large antique couch against the wall then patted the spot beside her. I did as she requested but kept a good distance between us.
“How long will this go on?” she asked.
I could have pretended not to know what she meant, but how would that serve me? “Not much longer now.”
Even if I didn’t know how it would end, I still held a confidence that itwouldend, and soon. There was a tension that occurred with anything important. It was like pulling a rubber band, stretching it bit by bit while feeling the way the material reached its limit.
That was the feeling I got, that all of us involved were approaching our limit.
One way or another, that band would snap and things would settle. Who would survive it, who would get what they wanted, that I didn’t know.
Which excited me more than it should have.
