Her lips part. Then close. She peers at me. “You want me to find out for sure?”
“I do.”
I’m not sure what other creature he could be—and the assassins made it clear that the dragon shifters in Philadelphia have their own challenges—but there’s something uncanny about him, and I just can’t put my finger on it.
She chews her lip. “But… I could lie to you.” She shakes her head rapidly. “I could lie to you about all kinds of things. About everything.”
She’s right. The trust between us is fragile, and her demon nature puts her at risk of perpetrating deception.
“You could.” I give her a nod. “But you won’t.”
She’s subdued, her features downcast. “How can you be sure, Striker?”
“Second chances, remember?”
She remains quiet for a long moment, returning to staring out at the city. “Thank you for your trust. You’re the only family I’ve got now, Striker. I promise you, I’m not about to throw that away.”
“Good, because I’m also not going to jeopardize what I’ve sacrificed so much to gain.”
I lean forward and plant my palms against the windowpane. My claws could cut right through the glass, shatter it. I could burn through this room, tear it all down. But I’m done destroying things.
“Tell me something else, Zara,” I say. “What doyouknow of this serpent shifter?”
I heard Abel’s version—the serpent shifter is powerful, a seasoned warrior, incredibly hard to beat, and worthy of fear.
Zara’s answers come freely now. “As Abel said, he stands at the right hand of a dark entity whose power and influence rivals Lady Tirelli’s. But this dark entity is more than a physically strong being. His influence is vast. He lives in the shadows but has the power to command all dark creatures. All of them swear allegiance to him.”
This is unwelcome news. “All of them?”
She nods. “Every clan, every pack, every group made up of dark creatures. They have their own leaders, of course, their ownalphas and commanders, but they all, ultimately, bend a knee to this dark entity. When he commands them, they obey.”
I consider this carefully. “What kind of supernatural is he, if he can command all of them?”
It’s hard to imagine shifters and witches and harpies, with their diverse needs and rules, all following the same leader, especially given how loyal they are to their packs and clans.
Zara folds and unfolds her hands in front of herself. “Nobody knows what he is. I don’t even know what to call him other than ‘dark entity’ or ‘dark one’.”
I growl in the back of my throat. “That kind of anonymity can only breed fear and obedience. If his followers don’t know his exact power or even his identity, then they can’t know his weaknesses either.”
“All I can tell you is that he was in power long before I was even born, let alone before Father and I came to New York,” she says.
He’s well entrenched, then.
“How did Lady Tirelli work around that?” I ask since I can’t imagine she would have bent a knee to anyone, not even to as powerful an entity as the one Zara describes.
“They had a truce,” Zara says. “She didn’t interfere in his operations, and he left hers alone.”
Hmm. But now this entity’s right-hand warrior came after a Draven Industries weapons cache, which Lady Tirelli used to control.
Either this dark entity is making a play for control now that Lady Tirelli is dead, or… “What did Oliver do to make this entity angry?”
Zara draws a breath, and the same furrow appears in her brow that I noticed yesterday when she saw the picture of the serpent shifter. “That’s the thing… I don’t know. Neither does…did… Father. That’s why he was so agitated.” Her voiceis strained, and I sense the way she forces herself to continue. “Even after Lady Tirelli disappeared, Father made a point of staying out of the dark entity’s path. He couldn’t figure out what he did wrong to warrant this recent attack.”
She’s suddenly shaking. I sense her sadness but also her anger, the way her emotions pull against each other. I could assume it’s about the threat this dark entity and his serpent shifter warrior pose to us, but I suspect it’s deeper than that.
She hated our father as much as I did, but she needs to mourn him, too.
I reach out for her again, this time with both arms, offering her a hug without assuming she’ll accept it.
