Page 263 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘Sloane left.’

‘She was taken because she was pregnant with your child, Lachlan. That’s what they wanted from the start. They put her in Spectrum. They were breeding Brightlings from amplified violence to increase their power.’

‘No.’ His voice cracks. ‘No, no, no.’

‘Yes. You have to hear it now. You have to know.’

‘I can’t. This is wrong, it’s not—’

‘She was your daughter, Lachlan. That’s why we needed you. She had no true family, no blood. You alone could make her feel safe. Just your presence could regulate her emotions, and it did.’

‘She wasn’t...’

‘She was, and you know it deep down because so did she.’

Kade stares in astonished silence, utterly thunderstruck.

‘No. No, I loved her like a daughter, but that doesn’t mean I was—’

‘Did you never wonder why Penhalyx let you exist in this capacity for her?’ she intones quietly. ‘Did you never once ask why he allowed it, encouraged it even? What did the happy family you made in his absence matter to him when he intended to possess Julian in a few years’ time anyway? If anything, he welcomed the fostering of such a powerful family.

‘Few truly knew how dangerous Jessamine was, how many died trying to help her through teething. There was a reason Penhalyx was hardly ever there, why he stayed away, why the bodyguard turnover was so astronomical until we found you. She needed blood kin, and you…’ Blaire’s voice softens into an apology. ‘You were all she had left.’

‘Mimi was your daughter?’ Kade whispers despite himself.

A tear rolls down Lachlan’s cheek. ‘I don’t—’

‘Hey,’ Riley says sharply, moving to the door. ‘Something’s happening.’

Kade follows his gaze.

His senses prickle.

Riley goes to the door of Blaire’s underground apartment, cocks his head to listen, very still. ‘Coming up from underneath.’

Lachlan is on his feet before Kade, the former shock stripped from him so quickly it’d be alarming were he anyone else. He slips instantly into a neutral state of sharpened focus, trueborn soldier through and through.

‘The Front?’

‘Resets.’

‘How can you tell?’

‘Their heart patterns.’

Blaire’s attention cuts to Lachlan.

It lasts only a second, but Kade sees something borderline accusatory as her lips thin into a line, green eyes moving away swiftly to settle on Riley.

‘How many?’ she asks him.

‘Ten.’

‘I can take ten,’ Lachlan declares.

‘They’ve never made it inside,’ Blaire says, sweeping the file from the table and placing it inside the fridge. ‘Not once.’

‘I’ll take them out.’