I put him on his side of the room, on a rock, and grabbed the grapes I’d had in my mini-fridge in his dish.
He lurched toward it with determination.
“You okay?” Rune’s voice was soft from the doorway. I hadn’t even bothered to shut the door; I’d been so in my head.
I kept my back to her for a slow breath before turning toward her. “I’m peachy.” I popped one of the grapes for Ragnar into my mouth. “Headmaster pep talk. Your mom is terrifying.”
“Hmm. Let me guess. ‘You’re being watched’ and ‘don’t fall in love with my daughter.’” She did a perfect imitation of her dad.
I snorted a laugh as she shut the door behind her and came over to crouch down beside Ragnar, watching him devour that grape with her golden eyes. Her hair was up in a messy knot, showing off how beautiful her face was.
“It’s scary how good you are at that.”
Rune’s mouth kicked up. “My dad has a very predictable vibe.”
“Maybe for you,” I chuckled, but then all the humor was drained out of me. I sat on the edge of the bed, holding a bunch of grapes.
“What’s wrong?” She frowned, getting up and sitting next to me.
“I’m just thinking about my dad.”
“Tell me about him.” She stole a grape from my lap and pushed it between her lips.
“When I was eight,” I started, rubbing the injection scar on my inner arm. “Humans invaded our house. They injected tourmalyke into our veins.”
Rune’s brows knit together. “Tourmalyke? It?—”
“Makes our magical essence impossible to access,” I finished for her. “Yeah. Supernaturals tend to pass out fast, too. My mother, my sister, and I passed out after being injected. Dad wasn’t home because it was during Kalista’s Second War, and he was an agent. When I woke up, the Supernatural Council agents were in our kitchen, and Dad was home. But he was on the floor with a foot on his back.”
“Why?”
“Because they were arresting my dad.” My voice cracked. “He didn’t do what they said he did.”
Rune’s hands twitched, just once. “What did they say he’d done?”
“Correspondence with human spies. The humans put incriminating documents on his laptop. Access logs. Wire transfers. Plans.” The old story they’d told tasted like shit because it was all bullshit. “All of it was found on his computer with timestamps and everything to match. A vampire apparently gave the tip. Dad is—was—the best hacker on the council’s payroll. He taught me everything. He taught me to leave no fingerprints, no trace of anything. Then, suddenly, his computer was a crime scene that screamed his name.”
Rune exhaled slowly. “So, your dad was good enough that if he were working with humans, he wouldn’t have gotten caught that easily. How do you think they framed him?”
My heart was about to burst in my chest.
She believed me.
“Tourmalyke buys time.” I rubbed my chest, hoping to ease the ache there. “They sedated us, planted evidence, and called in the tip. It’s not a surprise vampires were working with humans. Many supernaturals were.” Rage flared in my gut, and fire sparked on my fingers. “Tech was different back then. They hauled him in before anyone thought to look for certain traces that could’ve proved it was planted.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“My mom begged. I took care of Sora. The Supernatural Council told her to be grateful we weren’t all punished.”
Rune leaned her shoulder against mine. “We’ll take his laptop apart,” she said. “Piece by piece. Tech’s better now. Can’t that prove his innocence?”
“If they still had the laptop, maybe.” I scowled. “It waslostin evidence. My guess is that the humans took care of that, too.”
“Where’s your dad now?” Rune plucked a grape and popped it in my mouth before I could react.
I choked on a surprised inhale…and it wentwrong.
The Fates-damned grape seemed an unlikely vessel for death, but it wasn’t the first time a grape had become my end. The round fruit caught, and a sharp spike of panic hit me as my airway closed around it.
