AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shut it, Helen. I’ll sneak into any damn place I need to.” Triaten pointed at me as he moved to go toe-to-toe with Helen. “That’s why you wanted Ada—why you searched everywhere for her.”
“Fool.” Contempt thick in her voice, she leaned forward, taking up an enormity of space even against Triaten who was easily double her size. “You still think you know so much more than me. Your father had the same defect.”
The edge of Triaten’s lips twitched. “I know you tore apart every lead you had to find Ada after she disappeared during the war.”
“I only wanted you to think that,” Helen spat out.
Triaten’s jawline set hard. “Liar. You were desperate for her.”
“No, fool, it’s why Iletyou hide her. I let you hide her away at the Academy. I couldn’t allow her to breed. I couldn’t chance any offspring we had no way to control.”
At that, my fury popped free and I moved to Helen’s side. “You had me drain away a lifetime of hiding at the Academy because you didn’t want me to breed?”
“Of course, I did.” She looked at me, but didn’t fully turn to me. I wasn’t as much of a threat as Triaten and that pissed me off even more. “Our species does not need you to breed.”
I stepped in close, so close I could see the vein throbbing at the side of her temple. “But—but what about Lyle? We were an approved match. You approved it yourself. Gave us the blessing to procreate.”
Helen turned fully toward me, staring at me like I was a simpleton. “Lyle was shooting blanks—he was never going to have offspring.”
“What?” I reeled back a step. No. Impossible.
Another stumbled step backward and a rush of dizziness swept through my head.
Hell, maybe I was a simpleton. Manipulated by the likes of Helen my whole life.
She just stared at me.
My words crept out. “You—you knew that about him?”
“Of course, I did, girl.” She advanced a step on me. “I know everything that happens with our people. Every. Damn. Thing. All Lyle’s seed came from him dead.”
“How…” Bile slipped up my tongue. I didn’t even want to think about how Helen might have known that fact.
Rage a pathway to reclaiming my faculties, I shook my head, a sneer on my face as I took a disgusted step to the side away from her. “Never mind.”
“Helen, you’ve crossed a line in keeping all of this from us—fucking Hades’ blood. Half-breeds from the start.” Triaten’s voice had gone deadly calm, shards of ice slicing into Helen. “What the hell?”
Helen pointed her hawk nose at Triaten. “Of course there are half-breeds. There have been since the very beginning. Half-breeds are not how we move forward.” She pointed to me. “She wasn’t even supposed to exist. Her line never should have propagated. It wasn’t until she was born a breeder that I even looked into her lineage.”
Teeth gritted, I spat out words at her. “Lineage you’ve kept from me my whole life.”
“Lineage you didn’t need to know,” she hissed. “If you had known, what would you have unleashed? It was bad enough what you did during the war.”
My jaw dropped.
She knew? Triaten had sworn he had hidden the destruction I’d unleashed. Hidden it from everyone.
Helen’s arms folded in front of her. “Don’t look so shocked. I know exactly what you did during the war—the death that exploded from you. And now you think to stand there and tell me you have a right to exist with what is inside of you? That you have a right to breed when death lives just under your skin? You are the maddest one of us all.”
“Tri.” Aiden poked Triaten in the back.
Triaten stepped in front of me, blocking me from Helen’s view. Better that, for I was going to tear her fucking head off if I looked at her supercilious face for one more second.
“Where is he, Helen?” Triaten asked, the entirety of a north pole chill sweeping down with the frigidness of his voice.
“Who?”
“You know exactly who.”
