Weakness.
He couldn’t afford it.
He was still trying to ensure he’d never be our lackey.
Byron met my furious gaze with his own. “And what would you have done if it were the other way around? If you had to choose between Tabitha or Nelle?”
That question. That fucking insidious question. It had ruined my fucking life.
Anyone else would understand.
Any of my family could have done the exact same thing as Byron.
Turned Nelle over to save my mother.
But I wasn’t just anyone.
Neither was Nelle.
And it had been my choice that set us down this bleak path, pitting our Houses against one another. Even as a child, Nelle had stolen a piece of me. She’d owned me back then, too.
“Where is my daughter?!”
“Locked away in the dungeon below the Keep. It’s dark down there…no light. Who would have known that your fearlessdaughter would be terrified of the dark?” Itsked. “Certainly not me.”
Byron’s face paled with shock and rage.
I fucking loved seeing that look on him.
And yet hated myself for saying, “She’s such a pretty thing with those big, wide eyes. So fucking innocent, on her knees, begging… It’s like a song, those words she keeps repeating. All she wants is to see you… Speak with you.”
“Then let her see me.”
Raising my hand, I studied my fingernails as if bored. “Everything comes at a price.”
“What is it? What do you want from me?” His patience thinned to its last thread. He was teetering on the precipice, but he hadn’t yet fallen over. “All of this,” he said, gesturing with a dismissive sweep of his hand. “Everything you’ve done was for this sole purpose. You schemed and manipulated to get me exactly where you wanted. So, what do I have to give over to see my daughter returned?”
I gave it some thought, or I made it look like I did. I stepped closer and drummed my fingertips on the sleek surface of my father’s desk. It was the only noise in the office besides Byron’s angry breath. “Something that belongs to the Head of the Great House… Only the Head.”
His eyes widened. It began to dawn ever so slowly exactly what I was talking about. “You’d give me back my daughter?”
“I won’t let her go because she’s mine. But I can be persuaded to be benevolent and kind. Make her life here a little more bearable. Maybe unlock the dungeon she’s rotting in and put her up in a proper bedroom like the little Wychthorn Princess she is. Wipe away those tears and tell her everything will be alright.” I softened my voice as far as I could at that moment, making it sound enticing. “Let her speak with you, her mother and sisterstoo. I expect they’d like to see her very much. The last time they saw Nelle, she was broken and bleeding and very much dead.”
Grief washed over him and made those age spots stark against a complexion that grayed in reminiscence of what it felt to watch his daughter purposely step off the roof of his family home, intent on killing herself.
Itsked.“Such a terrible last memory of someone so vibrant and full of life.”
He went to speak, but I held up my hand, cutting him off. Something that wouldn’t ever be tolerated under normal circumstances. “In the matter of your daughter, think on it. Think about all the things I could do to your sweet, precious little girl.”
I bowed and strode from the room. One of Byron’s guards watched warily as I passed by. My father stood in the hallway, patiently waiting to speak with Byron after my meeting with our illustrious leader. Deep in thought, he rubbed his blood-splattered chin. I stalked past with a silent acknowledgment, aware of his gaze assessing me. Yet I knew he’d overheard everything that had transpired inside his office.
I left Byron Wychthorn stewing in the stinking cesspit he’d created for himself.
I’d let him stew and sweat and panic over what we’d do to his beloved daughter. When it came time to collect what we wanted, he’d be so desperate he’d hand over anything. But it wasn’t just anything. We needed the one possession the Head of a Great House was entreated to protect. And we knew he held it, because once, a long, long time ago, we’d been Great House Crowther.
5
Graysen
