If I ever did, it had returned with a vengeance. “Not exactly. I was raised by the Sisters of the Scion as an orphan in the Dusklands.”
“In a Temple?” Something beatific passed across Gavin’s face. “How lucky you are, to have grown up in the light.”
“It was the Dusklands.” I’d grown up in cold and silence; I’d grown up unloved and misunderstood and miserable. “There wasn’t much light to speak of.”
I could tell Gavin wasn’t convinced.
“The Scion’s Vow,” I repeated. “Are your men paying people to pledge their faith? Isn’t it against your religion to force conversions?”
“Forceconversions?” He looked affronted. “I would never. We’re just doling out a bit of the Scion’s charity.”
My heart thudded. “You’re only giving money to those who respond with the Vow.”
“Charity is a funny thing.” Gavin shrugged. “Not everyone deserves it. I’ve given beggars coin only to see them immediately buy liquor or joie with it. Not only was my money wasted, but it only made the tramp’s life worse. Asking for the Scion’s Vow gives me peace of mind—it assures me my charity helps those who already stand in the Scion’s light.”
“Not everyone who worships the Scion is without sin,” I snarled. “And not all atheists are amoral.”
“I can only judge virtue as I see it, cousin.” Gavin turned to me with a genuine smile, all warmth and daylight promises. “My worldview may seem too simplistic to you, but I cannot apologize for it. It’s all I have to guide me.”
My heart thawed, bathed in his certainty. He was sosure.Sure of his world. Sure of his place in it. Sure of what made people good, and willing to stand behind that. And I—Ienviedhim for it. I hadn’t been so certain of anything since the moment I spilled my own kinsblood with a shard of glass and stole an empire I didn’t deserve.
Severine’s voice echoed in my ears, magnified by a room full of mirrors.No one deserves anything. The only things worth having are the things you take.
“Do you think,” I asked, half to myself. “Do you think our family deserves that palais? This city? Thisempire?”
“Of course.” He sounded shocked.
“Why?”
“Because of our blood,” he said immediately. “We’ve been Sun Heirs for a thousand tides, and we earned the right to rule from Meridian himself. The Scion has favored our family with his perfect light.”
“But neither of us has everdoneanything to earn it.”
“We shouldn’t have to earn what we were born to,” Gavin argued. “Isn’t that the definition of legacy? We earn it simply by shouldering our inheritance—the responsibility to something greater than ourselves.”
His words thudded toward the base of my skull with a wrongness I didn’t have words for. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luca listening to our conversation with a strange look on his face. He caught me looking, and flashed me an unsettled smile.
He sounds like you, Luca mouthed, behind Gavin’s back.
I expected his words to spark outrage. Instead, I just felt sad. I knew what Luca was referring to—the defining moment of our relationship, when I chose Coeur d’Or over him. He’d offered me everything he had to offer—friendship, love, a world of hard work and harder laughter—but I’d turned him down. I’d turned him down because I’d been so sure of my own exceptionalism. I’d been so sure my bloodline defined me. I’d been so sure I wasowedsomething, just by being born.
What had he said? I struggled to remember.Our blood is nothing without the will that moves it.
“… why Papa chose these colors,” Gavin was saying. I tuned back in, feeling flustered. “To remind ourselves—and by extension, the world—of where we came from. It’s rare, in Aifir, to insist on household colors, but Papa knew we shouldn’t compromise on our image.”
Shadows crept toward my heart.
“Your image as Sun Heir?” I said sweetly. “But your line has not inherited for what, two hundred tides?”
“The Sabourin succession has not historically been a straight line,” he replied equably. “And honestly, Mirage, it’s something you might want to consider.”
“Beg pardon?”
“I just mean …” He gestured at my shadow-blue riding habit.
“What about it?” I snarled.
“You’re the Sun Heir, Mirage.” He glanced at the Relic around my neck. “Don’t you think these dusky colors you wear are disrespectful to the destiny you’ve assumed?”
