Xenia couldn’t help a shocked blink at the news. Nor the quick glance at her unwashed clothes and blood-stained hair.
“Yes, you look like shit,” Alexei said. “That’s why we’ve come to fetch you. You’re to be cleaned up and delivered to him.”
Horror churned hot and watery in her stomach.
Deliveredto him?
In her books that typically only meant one thing.
Alexei scoffed, reading the terror on her face. “He doesn’t tangle with human trash. He has a…propositionfor you. Let’s go, Sister.” He popped his fangs to inspire her cooperation, then yanked her out of the cell, nearly dislocating her shoulder with his Fae strength.
“What…what kind of proposition?” Xenia asked.
Alexei’s answering smile was cold, sharp, poisonous.
“The kind that will determine whether your gray-winged Windrider friend lives or dies.”
CHAPTERTHREE
Idon’t understand why he never told me.”
Cassandra pulled her mother’s hand into her lap as a crisp breeze stirred the honeysuckles that climbed the trellises in the Temple courtyard. Their sweet familiar scent was as much a comfort to Cassandra as the warm hand she held.
After Tristan had dropped her off this morning, she’d intended to keep searching for clues within Cora’s memory. But as soon as she’d plucked up the glowing vial, she’d been gripped by an unshakable, restless energy.
The thought of spending another day alone in that bungalow with nothing but silence and Cora’s indecipherable visions had sent her careening through the streets of Thalenn, seeking solace in the one person, besides Xenia, who’d always been able to soothe her overactive mind.
And though Mama didn’t react to Cassandra’s lamentations, a peace settled over her as she recounted the details of this morning’s disastrous meeting with the Emperor.
“I thought we had been growing closer during the investigation.”
Mama turned her head, her blank gaze sweeping past Cassandra’s face.
“Though I suppose everyone bears the burden of their own secrets.” Cassandra pushed the fall of gray-streaked hair over her mother’s shoulder.
Mama had also been keeping things from Cassandra.
Like the fact that she’d been a Shrouded Sister when she’d met and fallen in love with Cassandra’s father. And that her blood had still been home to the Fae magic provided by the order when Cassandra had been conceived. The magic had fused with Cassandra’s developing body in utero, and become as much a part of Cassandra as her pulse, her skin, her breath. Her memory pulling and viewing abilities would never fade.
A dangerous outcome, as a mortal child born with magic was viewed as a threat to the Empire’s dominance. It was the very reason that the Empire’s interspecies anti-procreation laws had been enacted. And why Shrouded Sisters were forced to take a vow of chastity upon entering the order.
Had Mama understood the risk of exposing Cassandra’s abilities all along? Had she determined that the only safe place to hide her illegal child was with the Shrouded Sisters, a place where Cassandra’s powers wouldn’t be questioned? And had Mama sought obliviation—the mind-erasing result of excessive memory extractions—on purpose to ensure her secret died with her?
Useless speculations, really. Mama’s mind was now as vacant as her once-lively dark eyes.
“I could have helped bear those burdens, though.” A plea to both Tristan and her mother as Cassandra sucked in a shuddering breath and laid her head on Mama’s shoulder. “He must not trust me as much as I thought he did.”
The confession sliced through Cassandra’s chest.
She’d opened up to Tristan in ways that she never had with anyone. And to learn so abruptly that he hadn’t extended her the same courtesy had her rebuilding the freshly dismantled walls around her heart.
High Gods, she’d let herself believe that she was falling inlovewith him. A foolish notion that she chalked up to her inexperience, her impulsivity.
“Life outside these walls has been much more complicated than I anticipated. And the Emperor made it clear this morning that Tristan and I will not be able to aid in Xenia’s rescue. I’m not sure what I should be doing with myself. My purpose was soclearwhile I was here as a Sister. Now, I feel…aimless.”
A tear leaked onto Cassandra’s cheek, staining her mother’s cotton shift. She hastily brushed it away and sat up straight. “Enough blubbering. I should get back to the bungalow.”
Cassandra stood and pulled her mother from the bench. “I’ll take you back to your quarters.”
