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“If I’d attempted to find a way to warn you, and my mother discovered my treachery, she would have killed you herself. At least my way you stood a chance,” Isa argued. “You have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to do anything.”
“Look at it this way, then,” Isa said. “I’ve been aware of your plan for a little over a month now, and I’ve done nothing to stop you. You want an equal share in the Brumal? I’ll give it to you.”
“In exchange for?”
“You.”
The room went so still and quiet, it was as if none of them were even breathing. First didn’t seem surprised by his boss’s request, and Vetle must have been too shocked because he didn’t protest either.
“It’s been ten years,” Odin found himself saying, though it’d be a lie to claim he wasn’t also completely caught off guard now, “why did you wait so long to tell me about your mother?”
“You were angry,” Isa explained. “I know you. You wouldn’t have listened. But after I saw you with Hunter, knowing that you’ve forgiven him…Now is the right time. I’ve waited, I’ve been waiting. Why else would I have agreed to a truce so easily when you first arrived back in the city?”
Hunter’s suggestion that Isa had reacted poorly at the gala due to his feelings for Odin raced through his mind. Had Odin really been this wrong about everything? About the both of them?
He’d believed Hunter’s feelings were faked.
Hunter claimed they’d been real.
He’d believed Isa’s feelings were faked.
Now…
What were the odds that, in both cases, he’d been wrong? Slim, right?
Right?
“Do you remember what we used to talk about,” Isa said, “when it was just the two of us, alone in the dark?”
Their parents had combined the two most powerful Brumal families and they’d talked about continuing that. Staying together and running the operation as a combined front. As equals. They’d thought it was possible because their parents had already set the example, seemingly in a happy partnership.
Only, that hadn’t been true at all.
Isabel Frost had been lying in wait, playing the long game.
“Your mother attacked my father,” Odin reminded. “There may not be proof, but we both know that’s what happened.”
“My mother was a monster,” he agreed.
“You are a monster.”
“And we are one and the same,” Isa countered. “There is nothing I am capable of that you are not as well. At the end of the day, we’re both darkness incarnate. We may as well be that together. Think about it. Peace between the Brumal families. How nice does that sound? Ruling Sanctum side by side?”
“The Emperor would probably have something to say about that,” Odin stated.
Isa laughed, the sound boisterous, cutting through the room's stillness like a knife. “Emperor Altx? Didn’t you know? He’s in my pocket. Greedy little bastard, that one. He’s been my puppet for years now.”
Odin felt a coil of dread slink through him at that tidbit of information. Controlling some upper-level government officials and a few Royals was one thing, but the Emperor of Sanctum? The man in charge of the entire planet?
If this was true, he’d vastly miscalculated. No wonder Isa hadn’t bothered stopping him when he’d realized Odin was buying out the places in his territory, making it his own. What did that matter, when Isa had a hand in the entire planet?
The Brumal were spread throughout, of course, but there were still areas where they needed to follow the law to stay under the radar. If Isa was telling the truth and controlled the Emperor, he could have the law altered to fit his personal needs whenever he wanted. That was…dangerous.
Suddenly, this conversation didn’t feel nearly as amicable as it had only a moment ago.
This was why Isa had really come. Not to explain about his mother or suggest they get back together.
