Page 29 of Veiled Vixen

He doesn’t move from the floor. Just stays there in that defeated position. “Valor,” he says. And then finally he sits back up, still on his knees and finds my face. His eyes are so dark now, I don’t recognize him. They look like someone sucked out his soul. Like he really is dead and this body in front of me is a corpse. “You need to find out what’s going on with us. Something is wrong. With all of it. With Lyra, and Nyleena, and Delphi.” He chokes out her name.

His daughter.

“You need to ask Veila. You need to get this information. Whatever it is she’s doing, I’m gonna tell you right now, it’s not as simple as you think. I know what you saw. I know what she did to you and Jimmy. I know what Luck thinks she’s up to. I’ve heard it all. But that’s not what’s happening here. And you are her only weakness. You, Valor. You’re the only one who can figure it out. Please,” he says, getting to his feet again. “I’m fucking begging you. Use that soulmate bond, if that’s what it is. Make her tell you her secrets.”

He takes a step towards me and I dunno why, but I take three steps back.

The hurt in his eyes is almost too much. But the fear inside me, the fear of what he is—and that maybe we’re all the same, we’re all just like him—it drives me back.

He stops. His shoulders drop because he knows.

He knows I’m afraid of him.

“Can you please try?” he asks.

“OK,” I whisper back. “I will.” And then his eyes go back to normal. The dark corpse-pits disappear and the crackle of violet is there once more.

And suddenly I’m ashamed of how I’m acting. I’m ashamed of my fear.

“You’re my brother,” I say. “No matter what happens. You’ll always be my brother, Crux.”

He nods. But the light in his eyes is already fading when I back out of his quarters and go looking for Veila.