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She waved her hand in the air. “I’m the High Court liaison. I liasoned.”
“Bianca,” I stated firmly.
Standing in the doorway, she turned to look at me. “Correspondence from other Houses in regard to the disaster that was the commemoration hosted by our favorite leader at Fire and Fluorite. Read through it. It bodes well for us. It would appear Mathis’s call for blood and punishment in public didn’t resonate with other advisors and councils. No one is willing to make a move yet, but their interest is piqued.” She winked, then left, closing the door softly behind her.
“You told her?” Ysa asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
“She figured it out. I didn’t say a word.”
Ysa shrugged. “I’m not surprised. It’s Bianca. She’s observant, and she’s good at reading people. That’s part of her job. Blood or not, she is your family. It’s hard to keep secrets from her.”
“It would seem so.” Ysa held a single file, and I jutted my chin while I looked at it, indicating it was time for a change of topic. “What do you have for me?”
Her expression changed, and she sat in the chair Bianca had been in. “It’s all the intel you asked for on Dannika and her family, and the pack that Abbey is from.” She placed it on my desk, pushing it across the wood with her index finger. It sat in front of me, unopened. I toyed with the edge of the thick manila cardstock, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. “Is there a problem?” Ysa asked, her brows furrowing.
I exhaled loudly. “It feels like a breach of trust to read about her life on paper like this. She told me if I was curious, I could ask her anything. Perhaps I should.” I’d already made more than enough mistakes with her. How would she react if she knew I had research done on her and her family? What if there was something in this file she didn’t want to tell me yet? I’d hurt her enough. I shook my head, pushing the file back to Ysa. “I can’t. Not right now.”
The crease between Ysa’s brows deepened. “Elias,” she started, but she paused. Her mouth opened, then closed, and she twisted her lips to the side. This wasn’t like her. She was straightforward and didn’t take time to think about her words this carefully.
“What?” I asked, finding myself annoyed.
“There’s something in that file you need to know. Now.”
“No, I’m not going to?—”
“Listen to me. As your second,” she said harshly. Her expression softened, and her voice lowered. “And as your friend. This is important.”
That had my attention. I could only recall a handful of times that Ysa had played that card. None of which had ever been regarding good news. My gut tightened. I tilted my head in her direction, telling her to speak her piece.
“Danni’s father,” she started. “He died in the Great Sacrifice.”
I blew out a sigh of relief and nodded. “I already know this. It was the night she was born.”
Ysa shook her head slightly and took her sunglasses off. The look in her dark eyes stilled me. Regret. Pain. The sense of dread was overwhelming. “Did she tell you who he was?”
“No.”
She closed her eyes, sighing. When she opened them, the anxiety inside only worsened. She was able to communicate entirely too much with just a simple look. “He was Scott Kingston.”
I slumped in my chair, staring blankly at Ysabeau.
“No,” I breathed. “But he was . . . Alpha Supreme before Mathis. He was . . .”
“Her father,” she finished, reaffirming her statement. “And she was the rightful heir.”
Leaning forward, I ran my hands through my hair, resting my elbows on the desk. Cradling my head, the past ran through my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut. “But her last name . . .” I trailed off. Maybe Ysa was wrong.
She tapped on the file. “Is her mother’s. Mathis had the name Kingston wiped from their family. No member of any pack in Fire and Fluorite carries that surname, and no child born is permitted to have it as a first name.”
I knew her father. He was a good man. A good leader. When I thought about everything I knew about Danni, it made sense. Her innate sense of decency, her tenacious spirit, her desire to keep the harmony and not hurt others, and her ability to stand her ground when necessary: It had all come from Scott. She embodied every quality I’d admired in him. He was the complete opposite of me.
And I was the reason he was dead.
Guilt consumed every inch of my being.
“Does she know?” Ysa whispered.
I shook my head. “No. I failed to mention the part where my actions caused Claudette’s death and I started the war, thereby causing her father’s death in turn.”
