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“Let’s start getting some of these answers she will need. Nora is busy with the new deals, Hanna with the trade outpost, and Olivia has taken back over the coven now that she banished Denis. I can act solely as Inez’s mother-in-law.”
I nodded and realized she meant right now to give Inez more time to be comforted by Kristof. As much as I wanted to help with that—be there when she needed me—this was important too.
Matilda asked to see the first sketchbook, flipping through the pages. “And you believe now that you—these are all things Inez saw that Aether is giving her to unlock her past?”
“That’s the best guess I have from what I’ve been piecing together, but I don’t know. It’s all filled with worry and warnings, and that’s hard to constantly have that feeling in me and really understand what else is going on around me.”
She handed back the sketchbook and patted my shoulder, the look of pity in her eyes helping but almost hurting. She’d been through too much herself and for some reason, a look of pity from someone in her position made me realize how much worse the spot I was standing in was.
We went down to the dungeon since Henry was locked down somewhere else and far from Inez or being able to give any influence.
“You,” Emil hissed when I entered the dungeon and his gaze landed on me. “You are the bastard who stole Viola from us.”
“Most would use ‘stole’ for a possession and ‘abducted’ for a person, so I find your word choice very interesting,” Matilda said as she breezed into the room. She glanced from Emil to Josephine. “You must not value your lives to behave this way in front of a princess.”
“I gave birth to Aether’s champion,” Josephine said right back. “I kneel nor bow to no one.”
Emil was clearly of the same opinion, smirking at Matilda.
“Fools. I assume Inez received her father’s intelligence,” Matilda said with a sigh, moving her hand and cutting both of them across the knee with her power. It was clearly a move she’d used enough to perfect because they both knelt down from the wound, their leg no longer holding their weight.
Ouch.
Good.
“Inez is more respectful and has better manners and is a princess so this—”
“Stop calling her that name,” Josephine bit out. “It’s—”
“Perfect for her, so do not disparage it again,” I bit out.
“You stole my child from me,” she said, venom in her eyes. “Do not speak to me unless it’s to offer your life in penance.”
“Well, since Aether pushed him to rescue Inez from your abuse, I don’t think you have much of a leg to stand on,” Matilda informed them, her tone amused. “Now, where is Inez’s father?” She glanced between the two of them and then burst out laughing. “Oh, you think you have something to offer or a way to—”
“I don’t answer to you. I will speak to my sister,” Emil sneered. “Bring her here so I may speak to her alone and handle all of this.”
“You will never be alone with Inez, not now, not ever,” Matilda declared firmly. “She asked specifically for that.”
And that pissed them both off. Ridiculously. Emil raged out and pulled against his chains and the restraints he had no chance to break.
“What was the phrase to activate her brainwashing?” Tian asked from the doorway. “What is it that you need to utter for Inez to hear to reactivate her conditioning?”
They couldn’t even hide their shock.
Not confusion. Not revulsion at the idea someone would think that of them.
Shock. Annoyance at being busted came next.
They really had brainwashed her, my sweet Inez.
Kristof wouldn’t have to worry about killing them because I was going to with my bare hands and enjoy it.
14
Tian
“My grandmother used to speak of whispers that the Liu princesses could control people like puppets,” Matilda muttered. “It was the gift of that house some believed.”
