“I wanted youevolved, but evolution requires change.”
Changewas a funny way of spellingmurder.
“Ankou brought me here.” The implications soured my stomach. “Does that mean you’re his god?”
“I am his master, yes.”
No wonder Ankou excelled at osteokinesis if his god created life, but how did I end up a death goddess if Ithas was neither a god nor death adjacent? But…Ithas called himself Ankou’s master. Did Ithas mean he hadn’t created him? That Ankou might be on loan? Or was I reaching? Desperate to escape the notion of Ankou as a relative? Kierce called his god his master, after all. “Ankou knew that I was your daughter the whole time?”
“He has always known who you are to me.”
Something about his slippery turn of phrase struck me as untrue. “Even while he was hitting on me?”
Armie had always been flirty with me, and a pervert with everyone, butick.
Even if Ithas had used his blood to bind Ankou into his service, it wasn’t like a few drops was enough to make me related to Ankou. Not even a blood transfusion could do that. I was freaking out over nothing. Ankou wasn’t a cousin or brother or uncle. And even if this guy contributed to my DNA, Ithas wasn’t family.
Matty and Josie were my family. “Why arrange this meeting now?”
For someone eager toevolveme, he sure had taken his sweet time arranging our introduction.
“I have difficulty manifesting a body outside of Abaddon, but I wanted to meet you face-to-face.”
Hmm. That made it sound like I was safe from him in my world. Good to know.
“Except there’s no face.” I braced a hand against the wall to stand. “You’re hiding in the shadows.”
“There are other reasons I haven’t approached you until now.”
Dread balled in my gut, and I got the sense I wasn’t going to like what I saw when his outline solidified in front of me. The black mass of particles twisted and twined until a slender male form emerged dressed a bit like a Victorian gent. All he was missing, really, was a top hat.
Movement drew my gaze down to where he flexed his bare toes, ten of them.
Okay, he also needed shoes and to give me tips on how to hold on to appendages.
His feet were solid black, veined like the stone where Ankou dumped me into Abaddon.
That felt important, somehow, but I couldn’t say why.
“Give me a moment.” He drew a circle in the air before his face. “Fine details require the most effort.”
Three heartbeats later, a masculine version of my face stared back at me from beneath a thick curtain of white-blond hair that hung in his mossy eyes before he shoved it off his forehead with a scarred hand. I wasn’t an expert, but the skin appeared burnt, roped with old injuries that had healed to a silvery white.
The similarities between us made my palms damp. “Is this your real face?”
“It is the face I wore at your conception, yes.” He let me look my fill. “Does it meet with your approval?”
Any trace of myself I had seen in him, any kinship I might have experienced, vanished when it hit me this version of him wasn’t real. To discover my looks were by design rather than a true family resemblance made me feel less real too.
This right here was exactly why us Marys hadn’t wanted to learn about our parents.
We had always known they would only disappoint us, and Ithas had done a bang-up job proving us right.
“What do you want from me?” I couldn’t look at him any longer. “Whyevolveme?”
“Is a father not allowed to take an interest in his daughter?”
An earnest curiosity filled his tone, and I didn’t trust it for a hot minute.
