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She paused, looking at the tree and then looking at me as she puffed out a long sigh. “I never thought to question it—the threads were all entwined and it was buried…”
She shook her head. “Except Hades could, it would seem—have children.”
“What?” I glanced at the tree.
Skye pointed at the main trunk of the tree. “Melinoë’s thread does not come from Zeus. It comes from Hades and Persephone. That knot was buried, hidden under the threads, which means they had one child between them. Melinoë. Not much is known of her—she was an enigma. And then who and what she really was, was lost to the annals of time, or so Helen has told me.”
My brow wrinkled. “And?”
“I lost it a couple of times along the way, but it appears as though your lineage through the female side goes back through Melinoë, which means?—”
“I have half-breed blood in me. Hades’ blood.” I staggered a step backward, the earlier dizziness I’d felt setting in in full force.
Skye nodded. “Not only that, you have a fairly traceable line back to them. For so many on the tree, they are many, many layers of generations removed from the original panthenites. So much so that it is nearly impossible to trace abilities and where they come from. What abilities do you have?”
The room spinning, I staggered another step backward, my mouth opening and closing, but I couldn’t get a word out.
A real reason for the terror that lived inside of me. The destruction. The monster.
Iwasa monster.
I was death.
Straight from one of the original malefics. One of the original monsters.
“Oh, hell. Too much tree for you.” Skye darted forward, grabbing both of my arms to keep me upright. “Let’s get you out of here.”
The tree went wavy, the colors flickering in and out of focus as she wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me with her toward the door. Into the dark vestibule and then Skye opened the door to the hallway.
Her body suddenly stopped, jerking backward and pulling me with her.
I fought through the dizziness that was turning the world sideways around me and focused on the figure standing in the hallway in front of us.
Helen.
Chapter19
{ Ada }
Helen with her pinched face. Her accusing eyes.
Helen—the elder that Triaten had spent a century hiding me away from. The elder that had plans to breed me by brute force.
Something I’d been hiding from ever since Lyle died.
Helen’s grey eyes, an aged color that hinted at once being blue or maybe purple, scanned my body.
I was still leaning heavily on Skye, and Helen’s mouth twisted in outrage. “Skye. This is absolutely unacceptable. What do you think you are doing?”
Skye glanced at me, then looked to Helen. “There were questions about lineage that I was asked to help tease out.”
Helen’s glare shifted to me, and she stared at me for a long moment. Much like she had stared at me a hundred and twenty years ago when she approved my relationship with Lyle—like I was a walking womb and that was my only purpose on this earth.
Those of us deemed breeders, as a lot, both feared and loathed Helen. She controlled our futures. How many offspring we had. Who we mated with and how that mating happened—forced or not.
Her right eyebrow cocking, Helen glanced at Skye. “Ada was in there with you?”
“Yes.”
