Color returned to Sergei’s cheeks with a vengeance. His blue skin darkened to nearly purple as he tried to maintain his composure.
Taevas dug into his memories of a time he did his best toforget. Jaak’s many mates hadn’t been something he was interested in when he was fighting the war. They were victims, just as the entire Draakonriik was a victim. The rumors of how he treated them had only added fuel to the fire of his rage.
But he remembered a story about an Enel, a young dragon from an ancient noble family who’d been bartered and sold to Jaak in exchange for a position in his shambling, cannibalistic government. Whether it was the same woman who joined Glory’s Temple, he couldn’t yet confirm — but when he glanced at the shiny, dented metal capping Sergei’s horns, he suspected he was on the right path.
Taevas clasped his hands together and braced his forearms on the table. “I loved my mother,” he confessed. “I admired her. She taught me how to be a protector, and how to stand up for what I believe in. But sometimes I hate her, too, for the decisions she made. I wonder why she couldn’t have just done something different. Why she didn’t just choose her family over her morals. WhyIhad to suffer for her choices.”
Sergei’s throat bobbed. The chair creaked under his bulk as he shifted his weight. Still, he said nothing — even as a tear streaked down his bloody cheek.
Taking a breath, Taevas looked down at the table. “I would still do anything for her, if she were alive. If she needed me, I’d be there.” Lowering his voice, he asked, “Did your mother need you, Sergei?”
Chapter Fifty-Three
The sun had already setby the time he finally made it back to the nest. Once he finally got him talking, Sergei’s interrogation had taken hours. Debriefing with Theodore and his Wing had taken another interminable stretch of time.
His mind buzzed with everything he’d learned, but his recovering body screamed for rest.
Returning to his nest after a long day had always been a relief, but there was nothing like stepping through the door to find Alashiya sitting cross-legged on the bed. Her curls had been piled on top of her head and she’d put on one of his comfortable workout shirts. She didn’t seem to mind the slits in the back as she hunched over a tablet. Her fingers tapped clumsily against the glass. Going by the hard set of her mouth and brows, she appeared determined to learn how to use the device.
When she glanced up at him, little squares of light reflected in her eyes. “Oh!” She set the tablet aside and crawled to the edge of the bed. “You’re back!”
“I’m sorry that took so long,” he sighed, closing the door behind him. Drawn to her as inexorably as he’d always been, he crossed the room and sank onto the bed beside her. He didn’thesitate to snag her around the waist and pull her into his lap. Her shapely legs stretched out, bare and beautiful, as she looped her arms around his neck.
His tension instantly released when she looked up at him with those soft eyes. “What happened with Sergei?”
Taevas let out a long breath. “I had to make a few promises, but I got him to talk.”
“Why did he do it?”
Still conflicted even hours after hearing the story, he answered, “His mother asked him to.”
Alashiya blinked. “Hismother?”
Tucking her close to his chest, Taevas told her what Sergei had reluctantly revealed — only after securing immunity for himself and his mother in exchange.
After years of instability following Jaak’s death and the subsequent fall of her own family’s standing, Enel had indeed joined Glory’s Temple. It was the only thing that brought her joy, Sergei told him. He’d been primarily raised by his grandparents, but his love for his mother was clear. Even when he explained her descent into darker fixations and the desire for revenge against Taevas for ruining her family, he did his best to support her.
His only hesitation came when his mother entangled herself with a shadowy group he couldn’t seem to trace. Suddenly she wasn’t just devout. She wasdetermined.And the deeper she went, the more desperate she became. Then came the day she begged for his help, saying she would be in danger if she couldn’t deliver. Sergei claimed he had no idea what he was getting into until he saw the reports that Taevas had been kidnapped, then was called in to help the Ardeo soldiers with his transport.
By then, his fear that his mother had gotten into bed with people who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her if he didn’t comply had crystalized.
“My father terrorized her,”Sergei had explained, haltingly and with palpable bitterness.“The world threw her away and told herto survive on her own. Even my grandparents didn’t care what happened to her. I’m the only person who cares. I’m the only person who’ll protect her. So I did what I had to do.”
Taevas didn’t want to feel any sympathy for Sergei, but he did. He understood what it was like to feel that driving need to protect, even at great cost to himself. It didn’t mean he forgave the man for the part he’d played, but it did mean he wouldn’t kill him.
“He doesn’t know much,” he explained to Alashiya, “but he was able to give us more than anyone else. He said that he was instructed to bring me to the border between the Orclind and the EVP. He thinks that whoever has orchestrated this whole thing is in the desert.”
“Why were you the only one kidnapped?” She nodded toward her discarded tablet. “After Margot and I had dinner, I wanted to read about what happened. Everyone else was attacked, but you weretaken.Why?”
“He didn’t have an answer for that,” Taevas replied, shaking his head. “Or much else, for that matter. From what we can tell, it seems like he was used for his ability to get the soldiers through the ’Riik’s security. When the assassinations went sideways, he was brought back to assist a change in plans. The best he could offer was speculation.”
“Does any of it sound plausible?”
Taevas weighed the benefits and drawbacks of telling her what he suspected. He didn’t want to scare her when they’d only just gotten some stability, but she was his partner. His equal. Keeping things from her was an insult to her.
So he swallowed his impulse to protect her and said, “I think there’s real credence to the theory that they intended to tamper with my mind.”
Alashiya stiffened. Fingers curling into his shoulders, she rasped, “Why would they brainwash you but kill everyone else?”
