He lumbers around the group, giving the elves a wide berth, but he pauses at the edge of the trees. “Veda, if I may give you some advice?”
“Yes?”
“When you drag the truth from Halle tomorrow, ask her about Galeia’s parents—your grandparents. Galeia never spoke about them, but I believe Halle knows who… orwhat… they were.”
He gives me a pointed stare before he prowls away into the trees and disappears into the shadows.
I track his footfalls with my sensitive hearing for the next ten paces before they disappear.
Damn jotunn is as quiet as Emil has become.
“Darkness?” Anarchy’s voice breaks through my thoughts. “Did your mother ever speak of her parents?”
I shake my head. “Not once.” I can’t help sighing. “The focus was always on my father and the Nostra Empire.”
“It’s highly likely that your maternal grandparents were alive at the time of the keeper’s creation,” Lucian points out.
“Without a doubt,” I whisper, a heavy weight settling over my shoulders again.
There are so many things my mother kept secret from me. Her mechanical heart. The fact that she’d lived for so long.
Who she really was.
Suddenly, I’m fixating on Emil’s earlier declaration to Halle:Veda’s mother didn’t tell her anything.
“I need to speak with Emil,” I say.
Every member of my pack suddenly lurches upward where they sit, as if they would physically stop me, but they all stop themselves.
Riot speaks first, his objection far more measured than I was expecting. “That seems unwise.”
“You could get trapped in there with him,” Rumble points out.
“Possibly,” I say, releasing my legs to hold out my hands in a calming gesture. “But in a cottage of my own making?”
I don’t fancy the idea of having a conversation with Emil at the door and it’s unlikely he’ll stand there for me, anyway. The easiest way for him to avoid answering my questions is to simply stay where I can’t see him.
“I need to know what he knows,” I say. “I need to know why my mother wasn’t afraid of him. Why she didn’t try to get away from him before he ended her. I need to know how I destroyed the book. And most importantly, I need more information about my mother’s family.”
I’m already rising to my feet as I speak.
“Then we’ll come with you,” Lucian says, jumping up to join me.
“No.” I shake my head firmly at him and the others. “You really could get caught in that cottage.”
“Because I have a soul?” Lucian asks.
I nod. “Because you clearly have a heart.”
“Careful,” he says with a gentle smile. “You’re talking to a dark angel. I could take offense.”
I return his smile before I consider my pack. All of their fierce, trusting faces.
“You all have hearts.” I try to find the words to say what I need them to know. “If at any stage I really am a danger to you… well… I don’t plan on letting it get to that. But if it does, I expect you to protect each other. No matter what.”
Bending to scoop up the tattered book, I step quickly around the campfire and toward the cottage.
More than anything, I want to drop back to the ground beside my pack, curl into a worried ball, and let them comfort me.
