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The last photo on the vanity was a family portrait of all five of them, here in front of the lake at this home. Their mother now had black wings, her mouth open in laughter. Kol smirked, an arm around his brother’s shoulder, while Valla and Kieren laughed. Their father mirrored Kol’s expression. Their mother had different color wings than in the other portrait. I marveled at Morgon women, giving up their identity to accept the transformation of heartbonding, letting go of their clan colors to match her mate’s. It was more than a woman giving up her last name. They sacrificed a part of who they were to tie themselves completely to their love, a physical representation of the bond for all to see. Did Kol not want to give me soulfire because a human woman couldn’t show her full devotion to the world? Without wings, how could we ever match the union he admired so much between his parents?
“You asked about dreamwalking,” Valla called from the closet. I returned to her, shaking off darker thoughts. “Kieren and Kol don’t need to sleep to dreamwalk. Must be the twin thing. Kol once told me they can feel the pull of each other when they need to connect in the dreamworld. They go into a trance-like state, not needing to actually sleep.”
Valla perused through her clothes, pulling a pair of pants from the hanger. “Here. This should fit you. And try this top. We’re about the same size.”
I gazed at her slim, lithe body, unbuttoning and sliding off my jeans. “Except I’m a bit rounder and wider.”
“If you mean bigger boobs and full hips, well then, yeah. But trust me, you wear it very well.”
We giggled. Not needing to unbutton the back flaps of the cream-colored top, I slid it over my head. I had to squeeze into her brown leather pants, sucking in to zip the zipper.
“Moira. Do you need some antibiotic?”
I glanced up. She gestured toward my legs, having seen the tiny marks before I’d pulled on the pants.
“No. It’s fine. He didn’t—he wasn’t able to go deep.” I needed to know something only she could tell me. “Valla, can you smell him on me?”
I had to be sure there was no trace of that monster, knowing Kol’s reaction would be violent in the extreme. Not against me, but it would jolt Kol into a suicidal crusade to kill every one of them, even if I had killed their king.
Valla stepped closer and leaned toward me. She smiled. “No. Only my thick-headed brother’s scent is on you.”
I sighed relief, exhaling a puff of air.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“No,” I replied, stealing a look at myself in the vanity mirror.
Her clothes certainly fit. Like a glove. They looked obscene on me.
Shaking her head, she grinned, looking very much like Kieren.
“What?” I asked, self-conscious. “What’s wrong?”
She laughed. “Not a thing. But this better not tempt any of those boys to touch the merchandise. Kol wouldn’t like it.” She opened the dresser and found a pair of black, knee-high stockings. “I think I have some boots downstairs.” She tossed the stockings to me. “I don’t usually keep footwear here, but I’m pretty sure I have a pair I left last time.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, then rolled a pant leg up and slipped on a black stocking.
“Valla. Tell me about this place. It speaks of family and love, but Kol and Kieren—” I didn’t know if I should mention their obvious rift.
“My brothers.” She snorted. “Yeah, they’re total dumbasses.”
“What happened?” I couldn’t keep my curiosity from getting the better of me any longer. Prying or not, I needed to know what had put that scar on Kol’s face, the limp in Kieren’s gait, the darkness between two brothers who had once loved each other dearly.
She sat on the bed next to me as I slipped on the other stocking.
“Do you know about my parents’ deaths?”
I nodded.
She blew out a breath that lifted her fair bangs off her forehead. “My father served as a member of the Cloven Senate. His death was diagnosed as a heart attack, but Kol thought otherwise. Father had spoken to him of leaving Cloven altogether, as he’d been opposed so often on the Senate, not always sharing their views.”
“Views on what, if I might ask?”
Her blue eyes shimmered emerald in the warm light of the lantern on the wall. “Race, politics, Morgon dominance in the corporate arena. There were some clans pushing for Morgon dominance, a boycott of Gladium where Morgons were merging with human companies.”
“I imagine the Coalglass clan was one of them.” My stomach twisted at the thought of Barron.
“True. But they weren’t the only ones.” She tucked one leg under her, sitting on her foot. “So my father was one of few who opposed the majority. There was a significant vote looming that would boycott all imports and exports from Gladium. My father was on the side of Morgon and human merchants in Gladium who did business with open-minded Morgon merchants in Cloven. Because the taxes were too high for small Morgon merchants to ever make a significant living inside Cloven alone, many had reached out to Gladium to export their goods. They’d always have to bow and scrape to the nobility, who kept them under heel.”
