Page 69 of Empire of Dark
“What happened to him?” Her voice had gone soft, seeping like warm honey as she entwined more fingers through mine.
“He died. A hundred or so years ago. And I was left with seven asshole brothers that took to torturing me every chance they got after that.”
Her fingers along mine twitched, wrapping deeper along my hand. “Family isn’t always what it’s supposed to be.”
“No.” I exhaled a breath. “That it is not.”
“But you seem to have control now over your family.”
I shrugged. “It’s taken me near a century to come to this point, but I am merely a distant reflection to what Rodo’s power was. And all it has taken to gain full control was the three worst of my brothers dying. And then playing my remaining brothers and our cousins against each other at every chance I got. Destroying things they loved. Torture upon their men forinformation so I could always be one step ahead of them. You name it. I have done it. Yet everything I have is tenuous.”
“But I thought your family ruled the malefics in lock-step? You don’t have an elder council like the panthenites, but you are the most powerful family.”
An acerbic chuckle left my lips. “You know how many deaths it takes to achieve that? How many assassinations? How many other families of power had to be destroyed to keep that order of things?”
“A lot?”
“Too many.” I shook my head. “We fight too many wars. Against panthenites. Against our own people. Against man. All because idiots like my brothers have never found a way to control themselves.”
The frown on her face deepened. “And then you added Venetia into the mix.”
My head lifted, my eyes closing for a long breath. “All I have been doing for the last years is trying to extract her from that mix. From that stew of putrescence that is my family, for they will destroy her—if they haven’t already done so.”
“She’s not destroyed. She has more panthenite and well…you, in her than you give her credit for.”
So quick to defend my daughter.
I glanced at Ada, a smile tugging at my lips. She was the champion Venetia always needed, that I could not be. As much as I appreciated it, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. For Venetia. For Ada. For me.
Ada looked up at me, the frigid winter gales directed at me no longer streaking across her green irises. But I could feel her furious energy from earlier bouncing about her body, searching for escape. Her hand tightened on mine. “It sounds exhausting.”
I gave her one nod. “It is. And I am so fucking tired of all of it. It’s not sustainable.”
She stared at me for a long moment, searching my face. “You sound like you have a plan.”
“It’s possible.”
But I couldn’t say more. I did have a plan. A plan for the malefics and the panthenites and humans. And as much as I wanted to sink into her stare, into her understanding and her softness and her innocence, I couldn’t trust her. Not with the future.
Not when she was sent here by Triaten, a panthenite with his own plans for the future.
It wasn’t as though she trusted me.
She turned fully toward me, her right hand lifting and settling along my cheek. “You’ve been alone. Even with all your children, you’ve been alone.”
“I could never be to them what Rodo was to me.”
“So you didn’t even try?”
“Not until I was forced to.”
She nodded. “With Venetia.”
I heaved a breath. “Proof that I am a failure.”
“Proof that you can try. Do you think any parent gets it right their first time out? Why do you think there are so many screwed up people in the world? If humans, malefics, and panthenites were good at all of this, the world would be at peace. Which it is not. Accept that we’re all failures and then do better.”
The smallest smile breached my lips.