“I saved your life.”
“And for that I thank you, but I’d be an idiot if I didn’t suspect you of ulterior motives.”
Tate was grateful. Truly. That didn’t mean she’d be a fool and trust blindly. That was simply a good way to get a dagger in the back.
“I’m guessing you’re a sleeper.”
He’d have to be to exist in the here and now. He wasn’t dragon-ridden and even the chance of one of them surviving all these centuries was small.
Peter squirmed in Night’s hold, pushing the Veles’s hand away. Night let him but continued to hover over him in silent threat.
“Alright. Fine. You win. Yes, I was a sleeper but not in the way you likely think.”
“What’s your relationship with Jax and the rest?”
“You’re surprisingly close.” Peter lifted his chin. “I’m Kenneth’s son.”
There was a hint of rebelliousness in his gaze as if he expected her to ridicule his claim. Like he’d faced similar situations in the past and been forced to bear it.
He was right in that Tate didn’t believe him, but not for the reasons he thought.
“You’re Silva,” Tate said.
“Half Silva,” he corrected. “My mother was a slave Kenneth freed.”
“I don’t believe Kenneth would put his son into sleep.” Nor could she see any of the others doing it either.
“It’s funny hearing the person my father so thoroughly betrayed say that.” Peter’s lips quirked as he held up his hands, showing fingers that were much shorter than they should be. There was scarring on the nubs and the claws he should have had were missing. “Sentiment back then wasn’t so kind to the offspring of a Savior who carried the blood of his former enemies.”
“You’re saying he put you into sleep in the hopes of a better future when you woke up,” Tate said flatly.
“It’s what they did for you, after all.”
The last thing Kenneth said in that dream place came back to her. He’d mentioned a kid. Peter didn’t strike her as particularly child-like, but Kenneth’s words seemed to support his claim no matter how Tate wanted to deny it.
“How does Christopher fit in with all this?”
Peter hesitated. “In the memory lake, you saw the thing that set him on his course. What you didn’t see was the reason and what happened afterward.”
Tate folded her arms across her chest. This should be good. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”
“In my father’s time, we called it the proctor of an Ijiri. One of their agents who did their bidding and carried out their will. They seeded them throughout the world in the short span before they sought their sleep, in the hopes of paving their way back to power. The proctor could take on the appearance of a human for a short time to feed. From what Christopher told me, and the things I inferred, it was one of the last the Ijiri left behind and had used the temple of the guardians as a hunting ground for centuries.”
Tate straightened, interested despite herself. “Why didn’t he kill Christopher?”
“I think he planned to but when he scanned Christopher’s memories to assume his place, he found some interesting information that distracted him. Christopher had stumbled on a story related to the Creator’s offspring. He took advantage of the proctor’s surprise and managed to escape. While on the run, he also woke me.” Peter allowed himself a self-deprecating smile. “He offered me a deal. I help him and in return he’d release me. It wasn’t until much later that I recovered my memories. Even then I didn’t see much issue, given how my so-called father sent me into sleep without ever asking me if I wanted to go.”
Tate considered Peter as she ran her fingers along Rath’s spine, ignoring the pleasure and contentment she could feel coming from the dragon. Peter’s words made for a pretty story, wrapping up all the loose ends rather nicely.
That was the exact reason she felt she couldn’t entirely trust the other man.
“Why did you save me?”
A faint trace of rebelliousness flashed across Peter’s face and for a long moment Tate thought he wouldn’t answer.
Night scraped his claws against the floor in an obvious threat.
“Because you’re the Apportens Mortis. The only thing that can move the ship,” Peter confessed. “You were partially right earlier. Nathan does want to find the Creators, but not to resurrect them. He plans to kill them and absorb their power. I have no intention of letting that happen. Without you this ship goes nowhere.”
