I’ve never seen him so ruthless.
“There must be another witch with whom Lucan can mate and gain credibility.” I try to think of one.
“Who? It must be someone closely related to a Council member. Mathias murdered MacKinnett’s daughter, Auropha. O’Shea has no female descendants. Camden has no heirs at all. Blackbourne has already sided with the enemy. Spencer’s only daughter has scarcely transitioned, and the lot of them have proven dodgy, besides. That leaves you.”
Though his assessment is cutting, he’s right. My frustration boils. “You’re sacrificing my happiness for your own.”
Bram’s eyes narrow as he stands. “Am I, really? You’ve long gone out of your way to help the cause, even when I ordered you to cease. You understand that no one will know a shred of happiness if Mathias is elected to the Council. Casualties will be high, particularly among existing Councilmen and their families. He will seek to replace me and any who oppose him with his puppets. To do that, he must kill every opponent and their families—every last man, woman, and youngling.”
Dread spreads through my body, swallowing up my futile anger. Despite Bram’s reasons for pushing me to mate with Lucan, I cannot fault his logic. If Mathias earns MacKinnett’s Council seat, he will quickly enslave or kill everyone he perceives as his enemy. The women… I shudder, remembering Anka’s ordeal and the bodies of MacKinnett’s female servants. If Mathias has his way, he’ll leave thousands of those tortured, broken souls in his wake.
“Besides, you may think now that Rykard makes you happy, but he lacks the means to keep you in the lifestyle you prefer.”
I glance at Ice. His face holds all the warmth of a glacier, frozen with a mix of fury and humiliation. I’d slap my brother…if I was convinced he wasn’t still somehow impaired. “Don’t paint me with that shallow brush. Material things aren’t important. The man is.”
“The man…yes. Did you really imagine that he has no ulterior motive for Calling to you?”
I’ve already considered that possibility. But the real question is…are those potential reasons stronger than his feelings for me?
Ice steps forward. “Goddamn it, Rion. Stop browbeating your sister and?—”
“Does she know the truth?” my brother snaps.
Foreboding slithers up my spine.
Ice hesitates, resignation stealing across his face. “What purpose would telling her serve?”
“Telling me what? Stop talking about me as if I’m not standing right here!”
Neither wizard speaks, merely glares at each other with equal measures of resentment and resolve.
Finally, Ice sighs. “Mathias killed my sister, Gailene, when she was seventeen. He kept her for days, under the haze of Terriforz, before he tired of her and gave her to the Anarki. They delivered her shaved and branded corpse to my doorstep.”
I gasp, horror freezing my face. The brutal image sears itself into my mind—a seventeen-year-old girl, tortured and broken. How did I not know that Ice had endured such devastating loss? Why didn’t anyone tell me? My heart goes out to him and his visible grief.
Eyes tearing, I cup his cheek. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I?—”
“I was a new Councilman,” Bram cuts in. “Ice and I had been…friends prior to Gailene’s death.”
Friends? The idea staggers me. These two men who could barely be in the same room without violence were once…close?
Finally, I close my gaping mouth and force my brain to engage. “Where did you meet?”
“I was studying politics, shadowing the Council,” Ice explains, voice low. “I was still in school. Bram was my assigned mentor.”
The brother who raised me once guided the man I’m falling for? “And you considered yourselves friends?”
“I just said that,” Bram spits.
Fists clenched, I swallow back my temper. “I don’t need your anger or your snark. Neither are productive.”
My own brother shoots me a glare that’s horrifyingly emotionless.
“We were friends,” Ice answers with solemn green eyes. “After Gailene’s murder, I went to Bram, hoping he could help me seek justice.”
“Rubbish!” Bram shouts. “You demanded I use my influence on the Council to nominate you for the seat MacKinnett eventually occupied so you could avenge your sister.”
The notion is both idealistic and absurd. A Deprived on the Council? That hasn’t happened in nearly half a millennium, since before the Social Order. Today, Bram might have the influence to seat Ice. But when he was new? No.
