Arthie pursed her lips to the side. “That’s me.”
“Then… that makes you the Casimir boy,” his mother slowly began, looking to Jin.
Arthie could tell he braced himself for a scolding. It was instinct, she supposed. These were his parents. It didn’t help that he’d been worried about their reactions from the moment he’d learned they were truly alive, but she hadn’t imagined the Casimir reputation preceded them past the shores of Ettenia.
His mother’s face softened with a laugh. “You two have been thorns in the Ram’s side for years now. We hear little about the outside world, but tidbits reach us eventually.”
Jin couldn’t tamp down his smile at that, but Arthie would take a tad more convincing. Her hand didn’t leave Calibore.
“And it’s a boon the Ram didn’t know as much,” his father said. “You couldn’t be both our sonanda thorn in the Ram’s side.”
Had she known, Arthie didn’t doubt the Ram would have killedJin—or attempted to, with a relentless passion. But she had not, and it appeared she’d threatened the Siwangs and ended it there. It seemed it didn’t matter to her whether Jin was alive, only that the Siwangs believed that he lived so they remained compliant. As his mother said, they didn’t have ready access to the world outside of the fort to know otherwise.
“Arthie pulled me out of the fire that day,” Jin said, glancing at her. “I went through the house, looking for you both. She saved my life, and she’s been saving it ever since.”
“The sister you always wanted,” Jin’s mother whispered, her eyes welling with tears.
“I believe introductions are in order?” his father asked with a sniffle. “I’m Shaw.”
“Sora,” his mother said to her. “And who might this handsome man be?”
“Matteo Andoni, currently displaced and apprehended in a prison that doubles as an armory and laboratory at once,” Matteo said. “So I’d rather not chitchat.”
Arthie bit her lip at his curt tone.
“That’s how you sound too, you know,” Jin whispered to her.
“Are we to act as though everything is fine and dandy because they’re your parents, Jin?” Matteo continued.
To her surprise, Jin didn’t lash out at Matteo. He merely looked to the Siwangs for an explanation, and that set Arthie at ease. It meant he wasn’t going to toss caution out the window because they were his parents. She didn’t know why a part of her believed he would to begin with.
“No,” Shaw said softly. “We expect nothing of the sort. We are indeed responsible for the vampires housed here, silent soldiers awaiting the Ram’s commands for deployment.”
“How many?” Matteo asked, deathly still.
“Thus far, one hundred and fifteen. We took several in for testing every year, though last year saw the vast majority. In that, we had little choice.”
“There is always a choice.” Matteo’s voice was hard.
Arthie paused at the heat of his tone, at the anguish rolling off him in waves. The weight was almost tangible. He took the slightest step away from her.
It was a strange thing, the hurt that tunneled under her skin.
“Just as Lady Linden chose to kidnap those vampires when she could have been content with knives and guns. Just as the Ram chose to colonize what she had no right to touch. Just as she chose to make me what I am—”
“She?” Shaw asked.
Jin nodded. “Lady Linden and the Ram are one and the same.”
The Siwangs gasped in unison.
“And she made me into the Wolf of White Roaring to merge the two,” Matteo said.
Shaw sank into the chair behind him.
“I could have been one of those vampires,” Matteo continued. “I lived every day with the fear that I was next, to be kidnapped, drugged, stuffed in a coffin and brought to your Ceylani doorstep. Is that not a result of your choice?”
Jin lifted a finger, but Matteo wasn’t finished.
