"No." The word tears out of me. "No, you didn't?—"
"I gave the order." Father's voice carries through the pavilion like a death knell. "I provided the assassin with the route through your wards. I told her exactly where to strike to end the pregnancy without killing you, because you, at least, could still be salvaged."
The world stops.
CHAPTER 35
TRUTH IN ASHES PART TWO
Nesilhan
I can't breathe.Can't think. Can't do anything except stare at the man who raised me, the father who taught me to ride horses and read ancient texts and believe in honor—and hear him confess to murdering my child.
"You—" My voice comes out as a croak. "You killed?—"
"I saved you," Father interrupts. "From bearing a monster's child. From raising a creature that would have destroyed everything you once believed in. One day, when you've returned to the Light Court and recovered from this temporary madness, you'll understand. You'llthankme."
Something breaks inside me.
Not my heart, that already shattered the day I lost my baby. This is something deeper. Something fundamental. The last fragile thread connecting me to the father I once loved snaps clean through, and what rushes in to fill the void is rage.
Pure, incandescent, all-consuming rage.
"Thank you?" The scream tears from my throat with enough force to shred it raw. My light magic explodes outward, goldenfire erupting from my skin, and I don't try to control it. Don't want to. "You murdered mychildand you think I'llthank you?"
"Nesilhan—" Solene reaches for me, but Zoran catches her arm, pulling her back.
"Don't," he says, his voice soulless. His face is the color of old parchment, his eyes fixed on Father with an expression I've never seen before. Disgust. Horror.Hatred. "Don't touch her right now."
"MY BABY!" The words rip out of me again, and I'm moving toward Father without conscious thought, my light magic blazing around me like wings of fire. "You killed my baby! You reached into my body and murdered the life growing inside me!"
"Guards—" Father starts, but he doesn't get to finish.
Kaan moves faster than thought.
One instant he's standing beside me. The next, Father is lifted off the ground by shadows that have wrapped around his throat like bands of iron, his feet kicking uselessly in the air as dark tendrils squeeze with deadly intent.
"You. Killed. My. Son."
Kaan's voice is barely recognizable. Not the silk-over-steel I've grown accustomed to. Not the dark amusement or the dangerous seduction. This is something older. Colder. The voice of a creature that has lived centuries and learned exactly how to make death last.
Father's face turns purple. His fingers claw uselessly at the shadows crushing his windpipe. Veins bulge in his temples. His legs kick weakly, uselessly, as he dangles in Kaan's grip like a broken puppet.
"I wondered," Kaan continues, his voice still soft, still terrible. "When Nesilhan lost our child, I wondered how an assassin breached every ward I'd placed. Wondered how she knew exactly when to strike, exactly where my wife would be vulnerable."
He pulls Father closer, until their faces are inches apart. Father's eyes are bulging now, bloodshot, filled with a terror I've never seen in him before.
"I told myself it was bad luck. Coincidence. A failure of vigilance that I would spend eternity atoning for." Kaan's shadows curl inward, wound tight enough to kill, dark tendrils probing at Father's eyes, his ears, his mouth. "But it wasn't a coincidence, was it? It wasyou. Reaching into my home. Touching what wasmine."
His grip tightens. Father makes a gurgling sound.
"You murdered my son before he could draw his first breath."
"Guards!" General Altin shouts, finally breaking from his frozen shock. "GUARDS!"
Soldiers flood through the pavilion entrance, weapons drawn, faces pale with fear. They know who Kaan is. Know what he's capable of. But they're Light Court soldiers, and their lord is dying, and duty compels them forward despite the terror.
Kaan doesn't even look at them.
