My spine tensed at the rage that would follow my answer, the air in the room turning chill in expectation. Even the guards who surrounded us tensed, their eyes watching my father as he approached me, each impact of his foot against the floor resounding loudly in my ears.
“Tell me of Sain,” he snarled, his voice more of a warning than I would like to admit.
Even through the look, even through the fear he tried to instill in me, I stood tall, my eyes unwavering from his. At any other time, I might have tried to find my way out of the situation with flattery or lies, but this time, I had at least been able to give him what he wanted.
“It was as you said,” I whispered, careful to keep my voice low, to draw him into me with the news I had for him. “Sain has not escaped the bind you have on him, no matter how much he pretends to be free. Whatever you have done was enough, and he slipped. He slipped enough that I was able to find him before the attack began then incapacitate Thom and draw him back in.”
“So he is in love with you, then?”
“No,” I admitted, surprised to see his face fall.
My father prided himself on wooing and bedding women in record time, a skill that was passed on to none of his children. For whatever reason, he was not pleased with it, either. I had come close with Cail on his instruction, but the fool had died before I’d had a chance to complete the task. I still took his magic in the end.
“But his magic is still attempting to fuse with mine, something that I helped along. The possibility of a restored bond is too much for his weak energy to resist. Give it time, Father. He will feed into our hands, just as you wish.”
“So, he has seen you, then?” Edmund’s eyes flashed with greed again, desperate and needy as he watched me, unwavering as he held me in place.
“Yes.”
I would have thought the single word would have brought him joy with how he had taken the news so far, but in no more than a flash of light, the greed and desire that had filled him departed, leaving a mask of fury.
His eyes were dark, as he growled at me, “And what do you think will happen if he chooses to give Ilyan the information of your visit?”
I flinched at the ice in his voice, the carefully masked disgust that rang clear. I knew he had meant to manipulate me with the fear, but I felt none of it. It only ran through me like water as my own smile spread.
I took a step closer to him, his body stiffening in expectation of what, I wasn’t sure. He should know I wasn’t foolish enough to attack him. No matter how much power my body held, it still would not be enough to face him.
I wasn’t foolish enough to try.
I was foolish enough to face him for this, however.
He thought me to have failed, yet he shouldn’t be so na?ve. He was the one who had raised me, after all, trained me, turned me into what I was.
For the first time, I felt as though I had lived up to that.
“That won’t happen.” I was sure of myself, a fact that only enraged him more. My own joy at the game grew with what I knew to be coming.
“How can you be so certain, Ovailia?” It was a snap that bit through me, but I ignored it as well as the warning in his eyes. I ignored the way his guards flinched and moved against the wall in preparation for what was coming.
“Because of what I did to Thomas.”
His rage froze in place. His face was stuck in confusion until what I had said began to slip into place, his dislike for Thom fueling a whole other set of emotions.
“Ah, yes, the most foolish and useless of my children. I’m always surprised to hear he has evaded me,” he sneered. “Tell me, what did you do to him?”
“I poisoned him.”
“Poison? From the Vil?s?”
My smile only grew, the complexity of what I had done, of what I had created, swelling through me. Even my father with his brilliant mind could not see it.
An exhilaration twisted through me, tensing in my shoulders as I lifted my chin, ready to tell him and see the look in his eyes that I desired above all other.
“No father, with something the mortals do. It reacts to the body like a p?etí?ení dávka but cannot be healed the same way. If he missteps even a little bit, I will destroy his dearest friend.”
“Control.” It was one word laced with so much emotion I could have bathed in it.
He looked at me as he processed what I had said, his hand lifting to press against my cheek. I froze, waiting for what would come next.
A pat or a slap.
Pride or distaste.
“Just as you have taught me, Father.” It was my last plea, and I was certain the tone in my voice revealed that. Right then, I didn’t care.
“And I couldn’t be prouder.” He smiled at me, his lips curling in a long, greasy line that oozed into me in a relaxing warmth I hadn’t felt from him in what seemed like centuries.
Right then, I couldn’t have been prouder to be his daughter.
I would do anything for him.
RYLAND
Twenty-One
“Take it out,” was my first thought since waking. It seeped out of me in a moan that sounded more pained than pleading, the ache of my body following right behind.