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“I can,” I chuckled darkly. “I just don’t want everyone to know what I’m about to do. Not even Inez.”
“I won’t tell her the dark parts but that you helped her,” he agreed.
Fair enough. I focused on Emil and took off my power that would have had him forget our meeting. He might have gotten away from me, but that wouldn’t have gone away.
And I’d learned from mistakes to do it when meeting someone I was going to do bad things too, not at the end. Emil was the perfect example of why to do it first so I still had the advantage if they ever got away.
I waited until Emil remembered, looking ready to gut me. I turned to Josephine with a smirk. “Your son now remembers me. I was friends with your mate, Marvin, remember him?” I waited for her to nod, Emil yelling at me to shut up. “Marvin was planning to return to you, be a family, but—”
“No, he wasn’t,” Emil bellowed. “He was going to take Viola away from us. All the fucking work I’d put into her and he was just going to run off with her.”
“What?” Josephine gasped. “You’ve told me many times you’ve never seen or heard from your father since he left us.” She looked at me when Emil tried to lie through his teeth. “Why didn’t he come for me?”
“Emil murdered him. He confessed it to me himself,” I told her. “He didn’t want Marvin next to you and needed control of Inez to be his, planning to toss you aside. So he killed Marvin who loved you so much he was lost without you. Emil took everything from you.”
It was a lie and Marvin hated Josephine… But so what? We’d get more out of them easier if she believed me and turned on Emil.
And I made her feel that I was completely right in what I was saying with my power. She now believed it completely.
I smiled evilly when I felt she did, sobbing for her lost mate. “Excellent. Let’s get started now.”
15
“Please limit what you tell me for now,” I said to Tian when he found me sitting out on the terrace at the fire pit. I had wanted to go to my “vacation home,” but that wasn’t smart with Keres and corrupted we couldn’t sense.
But I did miss that place. I hated how much she was taking away from me.
“I understand. What do you wish to know for now?” he asked, his voice showing some emotion which was rare for Tian.
I swallowed a sigh and looked at him. “I’m really not mad at you, Tian. I understand and—you were nicer than most even to think to help and not use the situation to your advantage. It’s really—we’re fine.”
He sighed, nodding and then sighing again, looking almost vulnerable. “I really like my place here. I like the job I’m assigned. Something about making sure every outpost has vehicles and something so basic that was lost to many feels…” He shook his head.
I didn’t understand it, but I was glad he liked it. He was good at it, Kristof saying he immediately handled it and kept a running list of things needed for someone to add into my schedule. Nothing was a rush, everything was being built up—Tian was the right person for the job.
And this one too.
“First, did you find anything on Keres?” I asked, wanting to handle what was most pressing instead of my past traumas that I didn’t even remember.
And I wasn’t sure I wanted to remember.
“I cannot be sure, but I believe she might have taken over the coven in Florida or is in league with them,” he said, nodding when I couldn’t hide my shock. “Three times now I have caught sight of her and followed the path. I cannot sense them, but as old as I am, I know how to tail someone blurring.”
“And you’ve ended up in Florida?”
“Twice. The last time they stopped as if knowing someone was following, and I’m fairly sure I ran past them and didn’t know. But the trajectory was the same and would have put me deep in Florida.”
I bobbed my head. “Good. That’s amazing, thank you, Tian. It’s something we have to handle carefully and cannot be common knowledge. I would like you to speak under a barrier with James, Kristof, Vitor, and Petre on ideas. I cannot be—I should not make the decisions needed in my current headspace.”
“I understand. What else do you wish to know?”
I sighed. “Was Jaxon right and Eddie’s mom found them?”
“Yes, a messenger for the Pinault coven located them and told them you were found and to come to their coven to speak with the princess. She would give the information then and renew their deal.”
I growled at hearing that. That was a direct—I couldn’t let that go.
“Yes, she was clearly going to make a move against you. I think we should send someone to investigate if she’s sick or what the situation is there.”
