It seemed he appreciated her scheming, so Petra dared to answer honestly. “I told the sovereign that I’d only consent to marrying him and his consort if he vouched for me. To be honest, even I was surprised when he kept his word.”
Petra was startled when Antonin sat back in his seat, his head tipping back with a roar of laughter. “Clever girl! I don’t know any beings — besides maybe dragons and weres, barbaric creatures that they are — who take mating as seriously as elves do. It was a stroke of genius to use that to your advantage.”
She didn’t tell him that shehadn’tknown how seriously the sovereign took his union to the witch. It was all a bluff. But if Antonin wanted to believe she was some diabolical genius for playing on the elvish mating urge — something she doubted very many people knew about — then that was fine with her.
“It seemed like the most expedient way of getting what I wanted,” she demurred.
Antonin nodded. Smoothing a hand over his beard, he agreed, “Efficiency is an overlooked but vital element to a successful rise through the ranks.Yourrise has been truly spectacular to witness, my dear. A covenless witch working as an initiate instructor to High Priestess of St. Emaine’s in a single stroke. Absolutely breathtaking.”
He leaned forward to rest his forearms against the edge of the table. His expression was eager and the tops of his cheeks a rosy red. In any other situation, he would have looked like a date thoroughly enjoying himself. “I admire that, Petra. I can’t say how much. You and I have such similar backgrounds. We bothcame from nothing and were chosen by Glory, not given magic through the happenstance of family. It took me over a century of service to get into the Ardeo and another to become Protector, butyou…If there was anyone worthy to become my bondmate and have my children, it’s you.”
“Well, that’s very kind of you?—”
Antonin interrupted her with a soft sound, his brows scrunching to give him a look of almost painful adoration. “Even now that I know all about your connection to Dooraker… You’re perfect, my dear. Truly perfect.”
Ice crystallized in her veins. “Excuse me?”
“Your uncle,” he continued, breezily, as he turned back to his meal. “It took me too long to discover the link, but when I did, everything became quite clear. The man was very clever — a trait that runs in your family, apparently.”
Petra slowly lowered her utensils back onto the table cloth, afraid that if she didn’t do so voluntarily, her numb fingers would simply lose their grip. Her mind didn’t race so much as it went curiously blank.
He knows.
Heknew.For how long she couldn’t say, but he knew the truth. Petra stopped feeling the cool air, nor the warmth of the wine in her stomach. She didn’t exist at all. She was outside of herself, protected from the horror of the situation by some great internal distance.
Apparently unaware of her distress, Antonin continued, “It was smart of him to keep you a secret. I do have such a soft spot for luminists, you know, seeing as we’re Glory’s favorites. And with your mind, I certainly would have plucked you from the flock early on. It’s for the best, I suppose. This way I got to see you rise to your true potential without any interference from me.”
He chuckled. The tines of his fork slid neatly through a roasted and glazed carrot when he added, “Well, a little interference. We both know St. Emaine’s seat wouldn’t have been vacant if it wasn’t for me, don’t we?”
Her voice came from somewhere far away. “I had my suspicions, yes.”
Speaking like he was inquiring about how she liked the color of his suit, he asked, “And what are your feelings on those suspicions, my dear?”
Hatred. Disgust. Fear. Grief.
There was so much, too much, and yet she couldn’t feel any of it. Not at that moment. Not when she was standing over her own shoulder, watching the conversation happen to the mirror version of herself.
Buy time,she urged the other Petra, the one who endured it all with a neutral expression and even voice.Buy Silas time. Say whatever you have to.
Her stomach rolled again as a new, terrible suspicion wrapped its fingers around her throat.
Did Silas tell him?
No, it had to be a coincidence that the Protector admitted he knew about Max so close to when she told Silas the truth. It had to be.
Because if it wasn’t, if she allowed herself to believe the cynical part of herself that had come out of that children’s home, then something fragile would shatter. Something she hadn’t even allowed herself to look at but knew was there in the comfort she took in his arms, the tightness in her chest when he looked at her like he was a lost little boy.
If Silas had betrayed her, that last little bit of hope and trust that had somehow managed to survive everything she’d suffered would be snuffed out forever. And it would be her own fault for letting her loneliness talk her into actually trusting the demon.
For just a moment it’d felt like she had someone to trust again, as mad as that sounded to her own ears, but now she was back to where she started — with the only person she could count on sitting in a plain wooden box in her nightstand, nothing but ashes and bone.
“I’d have preferred he retire,” she heard herself say, “but these things happen.”
Antonin nodded sympathetically and let out a long sigh. “They happen too often, but that’s the reality of the Ardeo, I’m afraid. We must do what’s best for the Temple, even when it’s not what we would personally prefer.” He reached across the table to lay one too-warm hand over hers. “I am truly sorry, Petra, but I’m glad we’ll both benefit from your uncle’s unfortunate choice to go against the Temple. I’m sure he’s happy by Grim’s riverbank, hearing the news that he brought us together in the end.”
She never imagined she’d actually have the chance to find out the truth, but now… Petra found herself back in her body, staring across the table at the man who murdered the only family she had left, and asked, “Would it be possible to know what happened?”
Antonin gave her another sympathetic look and squeezed her hand. “I’m afraid I can’t share all the details before we’re bonded and married, but I will say that he approached me personally with several outlandish accusations and threatened to go public with them. I was forced to take care of the situation. You understand.”
