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She paused with her fingers – still covered in the black gloves – in front of a black dress.

“No idea.”

She knew nothing about her heritage?

“How many Legacy families are there in the world?” I dug deeper, grateful that she seemed to be one of the few people in this clan who would answer my questions at all.

“Seven original Legacies managed to establish a clan,” she began, opening the next wardrobe filled with dresses. “Five of these clans survived the persecution, albeit with massive losses. Four still exist.”

“Persecution?”

Did she mean something like witch hunts, or had there actually been vampire hunts?

“Hunters and those who want to eliminate darkness from this world.”

Want? So, they were still hunting us?

“What happened to the fifth clan?”

Her explanation had sounded as if that clan had escaped the hunters, but had been wiped out in a different way. At least not in the same way as all the clans before.

“The Rolanow pack wiped out the Dragoslav clan once and for all a decade ago.”

Wait. Rolanow? Wasn't that the family Emely was forced to marry into?

“Dragoslav? What are the other clans called?”

Camille's gaze fixed on the fabrics, seeming emotionless, more controlled than before.

“Nzima, Yu Hua, Medici...”

And DeLoughrey.

“Don't you want to find out which of these clans you belong to?” I asked the question that burned most intensely on my tongue and examined one of the black vases.

Until a few years ago, I would have given anything to find out information about my origins. Now that I had it and was living with these people, I was no longer sure I wanted to find out more. Whether it was wise to get attached to these people.

The realization hit me hard.

I was already getting attached to my brother...

“Some things are better left unknown.”

I looked up from the vase with the lilies at Camille, who was still staring at the fabrics as if she were not quite present.

“It makes life easier, believe me.”

And in that moment, I felt so understood that I couldn't help but drift off and watch her pick out dresses and hang them over her arm.

I wanted to know everything, wanted to understand who and what I was, but it scared me.

I remembered the moment I had seen Alice Blair before my inner eye. Not as if she had been a ghost, but as if she had been real. Far too quickly I had pushed it out of my mind because I didn't really know if I wanted something like powers. Something that would connect me even more to these people here.

“Camille...” I managed to say, looking up from the dark red dresses.

She turned completely toward me, a slight smile on her lips, her gaze relaxed again.

“What is it, dear?”