“Don’t worry. Your father’s no longer suffering.”
The boy sobbed.
“No!” Xaydin added quickly. “I mean, he’s still alive. And he’s no longer suffering.”
He caught the last sob in his throat. “What?”
“We didn’t kill him. We healed him.”
Fenrys blinked in disbelief. “How?”
“Your father was poisoned and Masakage—” he almost choked saying the name, “—cured him. He’s all better now.”
The boy drew a ragged breath. “He’s been in so much pain for so long. You have no idea.”
Actually, he did. He’d seen more than his fair share of such deaths while in captivity. Poison had been a preferred method of murder for those who’d been thrown to Meara’s care. The twisted queen had taken great pleasure watching others suffer a prolonged, painful death.
The memories of all those needless deaths haunted him eternally.
Fenrys reached out and hugged Xaydin. “How can I ever repay you? I know! I’ll cancel your contract!”
“It’s all right. Keep the contract and go see your father. I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
Squealing, Fenrys released him and flew off.
Gisela glanced away from Xaydin’s sheepish grin as he watched the boy leave. Her giant troll would die if he knew how adorable that made him appear.
He had a much bigger heart than he wanted anyone to know. But she saw it, and she was touched.
Biting her lip, she turned her attention to Masakage. Was Xaydin right? Could he really be an imposter? Had the real Masakage ever been with them?
She wished she knew him better so that she could help Xaydin find out the truth. It had to be driving him crazy to think that someone had taken over his brother’s place.
Which meant whoever was pretending to be Masakage was a shifter…
No wonder he hated them so much. It was frustrating to know that such a creature could step in at any time and “replace” someone you thought you knew.
Someone you cared about.
It was why her mother loved them so. In fact, her mother even paid some to masquerade as her from time to time. Most of those fools ended up dying from an assassination. Poor things to not see that end coming.
Unlike unicorns, any shifter could pretend to be a centaur. The only way to identify her mother was a unique mark that existed underneath her mother’s tongue.
A mark only three people knew about.
Gisela, her mother, and the poor, now tongueless man who’d placed it there. He was kept alive to identify the mark should there ever be any question of someone trying to impersonate her and remove her from power. Not that Gisela had ever met or even seen him. Her mother had told her about it, just in case.
While Gisela knew the mark was there, she didn’t know what the mark was or even what it looked like.
You’ll know if you ever see it. I’m not like any other and neither is my mark.
Which had always made her curious as to what it could be, but not so much that she’d risk her life to find out. Her mother would have her head if she dared such an affront.
But that had also made her curious if all shape shifters had such a mark so that they could tell each other apart.
One thing was certain, she had no idea that Masakage wasn’t Masakage.
Or was Xaydin so paranoid that he was suspicious without cause?
