"She's not a child anymore, Abernathy. She's twenty-seven now. A woman. She's made her own life."
"Without me." The words came out broken, and for a moment, Thorn looked every one of his years. "She's lived thirteen years without me. Without my guidance. Without our family. She is a Thorn."
Tehvan watched his brother's face, seeing the crack in his armor. He needed something to solidify the lie. He needed proof. The ring on his finger pulsed and with it an idea he prayed he wouldn’t regret. He slipped his only connection to Elora off his finger. The metal was warm, almost burning against his palm. Thorn's eyes tracked the movement.
"I've been monitoring Florence all these years. Making sure she was safe. Alive."
He held the ring out between them, and Thorn's gaze fixed on it with an intensity that was almost frightening. The steady pulsewas visible even in the dim light, a soft glow that matched the rhythm of a distant heart.
"She's alive," Tehvan repeated. "And she can still be everything you wanted her to be. You always said bloodlines mattered most. Legacy. The continuation of the Thorn family methods." He took a step closer, the ring still extended. "She was supposed to be your prodigy. You can have that back."
Abernathy's hand trembled as he reached for the ring, then stopped just short of touching it. "Thirteen years is a lot to undo in a person."
"People can be... reshaped. Rewired. You've perfected those techniques over the years." Tehvan's voice was carefully neutral. The thought of handing Florence over to him, damning her to what should have always been her true legacy felt like the ultimate betrayal. He swallowed hard, reminding himself Thorn would never actually get his hands on her. He just needed to believe that he could. "She's still your blood. Still has your gifts. Still has the potential you saw in her."
"And if I take this," Thorn said slowly, his gaze never leaving the ring, "you and Elora disappear? Forever?"
"You'll never see us again. We'll be gone from the Empire, beyond your reach. But Florence… Flora..." Tehvan let the implication hang. "Flora comes home."
Abernathy's breathing had steadied, his calculating mind already working. The wild fury was being channeled, focused into something more dangerous—purpose. "How do I know you're not lying? That this isn't some elaborate trick?"
"I’ll show you the memory of what truly happened that night. You can see it for yourself. She wasn’t in the fire, it was just a cover up."
Abernathy stared at the ring for a long moment, the steady pulse hypnotic in the silence. When he finally looked up, his eyes held a different kind of hunger, anticipation. He reached out and took the ring from Tehvan's palm. The moment it touched his skin, his eyes closed, and something like relief passed over his features.
"My Flora," he whispered. "My legacy."
When he opened his eyes again, they were clear and cold and utterly focused. "Where?"
"That's my only leverage, brother. I can't give you her location until I'm certain you'll uphold your end."
Thorn's grip tightened on the ring, enclosing it in his palm. "I could extract it from you. Alchemy has ways of making even the most stubborn minds cooperative."
"You could try." Tehvan shrugged. "But I used alchemy to lock that knowledge away years ago. Only my willing mind can retrieve it. You could spend months experimenting with truth potions, trying to find a way to override the lock." He paused, letting that sink in. "But we both know you don't have months. Every day Elora is out there on her own is another day all your hard work could fall into the wrong hands."
Thorn's jaw worked silently, the muscle jumping as he ground his teeth. Tehvan could practically see the calculations running behind his eyes—weighing options, considering alternatives.
"Here's what's going to happen," Tehvan continued, pressing his advantage. "You're going to allow me to find Elora. We'll board a ship together and leave the Empire. She'll return the recipe shestole from you. Once we're both secured and safely away, only then will I tell you where Florence is."
"Unacceptable." But there was less conviction in Thorn's voice than before.
"Think about it, Abernathy. You could spend weeks trying to track her down without my help. You don't have her DNA for blood tracking spells. Mine wouldn't be precise enough—too many genetic degrees of separation. You don't know what name she's using, what she looks like now, whether she's even in The Empire." Tehvan took a step closer, applying just the right amount of pressure to make Thorn squirm. "I'm offering you a guaranteed path to your legacy. All it costs you is letting go of your revenge."
His brother was silent for a long moment, his free hand drumming against his thigh in a rapid, agitated rhythm. "Fine. But I have conditions."
Tehvan waited.
"Do you know where Elora is now?"
"No." The lie came easily, smoothly. Tehvan had practiced it so many times he almost believed it himself. "Though if I had to guess she would head for Kilfaire. Less imperial eyes compared to the capital." He paused, as if considering. "There's a scholar summit in Kilfaire next week. It would give me a legitimate reason to leave the Institute."
Thorn's eyes narrowed. "You're not going alone."
Tehvan had expected this. "Of course not. You'll want to supervise. Make sure I don't simply disappear with her." He kept his voice level, hiding the spike of anxiety at the thought of Thorn in the same city as Elora. "Though I have a condition of my own,"Tehvan said carefully. "No mercenary contracts. No bounties posted in either city."
"Absolutely not." Thorn's response was immediate. "If she surfaces in Aszona while we're in Kilfaire, I need eyes there."
"Then you risk losing Flora forever," Tehvan said simply. "Because if Elora dies, you'll never learn where your niece is."
