“I’ve left her everything she needs. The greenhouse will sustain her. ARIS will protect her. She’s smart—smarter than her father ever knew—and she’ll survive. But I worry...”
The woman’s voice cracked.
“I worry about what happens when someone finds her. When the secret gets out. Because it will, eventually. Secrets always do.”
She leaned forward, staring directly into the recording device as if she could see through time to whoever would eventually find these crystals.
“If you’re watching this, and you’re not her father—if you’ve found this tower and found this child—then hear me now. Whatever you’re thinking, whatever you’re planning, walk away. She’s not a resource. She’s not a weapon. She’s not a cure for your dying empire or a prize for your collectors. She’s a person. A brilliant, curious, kind-hearted person who has already suffered more isolation than any soul should bear.”
The nursemaid’s hand moved to end the recording, then paused.
“But if you can’t walk away—if you care for her, truly care for her—then protect her. Not from scrapes and bruises and the dangers of climbing stairs. Protect her from the people who would use her. Keep her secret safe. And for pity’s sake...”
A sad smile.
“...let her live.”
The screen went dark.
He stood motionless for a long time.
The implications unfolded in his mind like a map of dangerous territory. He thought about his former pack and Lysara, manipulating and scheming her way into power. About some of the people he’d encountered during his traveling years—ruthless individuals who would burn entire settlements to ash for resources far less valuable than what Liora carried in her veins.
If anyone knew what her blood contained, she would be hunted. Captured. Drained.
The image of Liora strapped to a table in some sterile facility, tubes running from her arms and her blood harvested while she screamed, rushed through his mind. Or worse—Liora kept docile with drugs, bred like livestock to produce offspring who might carry the same trait.
His beast roared at the thought. Rage, red and blinding, flooded his system until his hands shook with the effort of containing it.
No. Never. Anyone who tries will die.
But containing the rage wasn’t enough. He needed to think. To plan.
Did she realize? Had the nursemaid told her before dying, or had she kept the secret even from the child she’d raised?
No. If she knew, she would have mentioned it. She was too curious, too open, to hide something so significant. She’d noticed her wound healing quickly and dismissed it as normalbecause she had no baseline for comparison. She’d never seen anyone else heal at a natural pace.
She doesn’t know what she is.
Which raised the real question: Should he tell her?
He paced the sterile room, his mind churning through possibilities. She deserved the truth. He believed that absolutely. But the truth would change everything. It would explain ARIS’s paranoid restrictions. It would validate her father’s decision to build this prison. It might even give her the answers she’d been demanding.
But it would also terrify her.
She already felt trapped. Already struggled with the weight of her isolation. How would she react to learning that the cage she’d resented for so long was the only thing standing between her and a universe of predators who would do anything to possess her?
Would she still want to leave?
And if she did—if she still chose freedom despite the danger—how would he protect her? He was one warrior. Strong, yes. Skilled, yes. But one warrior couldn’t stand against the armies that would come hunting if word spread.
I have to tell her,the rational part of his mind insisted.She has the right to know.
But not yet,another part countered.Not until I have a plan. Not until I can offer her more than just the terrible truth.
He stopped pacing and stared at the dark screen where the nursemaid’s face had been. The female had spent twelve yearskeeping this secret. She had died keeping it. She had asked whoever came after to protect Liora, to keep her safe, to let her live.
He could do that. He would do that. But he wouldn’t do it by keeping her in another cage, even a cage built of silence and good intentions.
