Page 15 of War of the Mazza
“No.” I shook my head with more vehemence than was necessary, but he caught me off guard. We cleared the doors before I continued. “We want to stop Rainer. Save Earth. Put a stop to the archaic and harmful agenda of the Manno house. But that’s it.”
Wade steered us down a path that I was pretty sure led to the outside edges of Yunez’s personal courtyard, just on the other side. Lush green vines and bright orange blooms climbed the walls on either side of us.
“Hm.” Wade pushed his lips to the side as we kept our walk to a steady, calm pace, completely at odds with the fucking wild stampede happening inside my chest. That was a dangerous thought. If he believed that would the rest of Fennina too? And what would that mean for our safety?
“What does that mean?” I snapped, then took a deep breath. I didn’t believe Wade was trying to offend me, but he was getting my hackles up.
“Easy,” he cooed, patting my hand tucked in the crook of his arm. “I mean no offense. I’ve known Yunez for many years, and even before he shared with me, what I’m sure is not the entirety of the situation, I knew he was destined for great things.” The side of his mouth lifted. “Not surprising, since he’s the male version of the Mazza.”
“Mannos aren’t relegated to the same rules as Mazza,” I repeated what Yunez had explained to me what seemed like forever ago. “Almost the entire population inside the castle are Mannos. If what you say is true, then there’d be years and years of infighting with all the Mannos trying to gain the top spot.”
“You mistake me. Not because he’s a Manno. You can’t deny that there is something…tangible about Yunez that is absent in most all the other Mannos. Your Rand has some of the same qualities as Yunez, more so than the others, but not as strong. It makes sense to me that Yunez would be spearheading this effort to save the world. But you think life will go back to the way it is now once everything comes to light?” He smiled sadly, a furrow deepening between his eyes. “You haven’t been a part of our society very long, and I thank the gods your parents were able to hide you somehow. But everything is about to change. And when it does, our society will not be able to just fall back into old habits. With Yunez leading the charge, our people will demand more of him. If I’m right, they’ll demand everything.
“You’ll need to prepare, Isolde. Because they won’t just demand it of him. If what I think will happen comes to pass, they’ll demand everything of you. Of your Lusty Legion.
“You’ll be the leaders of our combined realms.”
Yeah,the ground pretty much dropped out beneath my feet. How the hell was I continuously getting hit with these revelations?
Seriously?
First, I never thought about my parents. And that also added an element of guilt to my shock. Then, Wade rode in and told me that he knew them.
Like, why hadn’t I thought about them more after I found out I wasn’t human?
Then, this? Now that he’d put it out in the universe, I knew—knew—others would have these same thoughts.
Where was my Zien powers of sight to help me out? Where were Yunez’s? Or had he seen this particular problem? Maybe he had and he just saw it as a problem for our future selves.
Though, that didn’t seem like Yunez’s style.
“Isolde, are you okay?” Wade’s brow creased in concern.
I started blinking rapidly. After he dropped his bomb, I had just stared at him, eyes burning, until he broke me out of my moment.
“Sorry. I think you knocked my brain offline. I’m back now.”
He stared, then laughed, tossing his head back. “Okay, you are definitely Ishana’s child. She had that same strange sense of humor. I wish I would have gotten to know her more when we were young.” His laugh softened until he just grinned at me.
My heart jumped into my throat. Did I have her sense of humor? Was that something that was genetic over learned?
“I suppose you want to know more about your parents?” He patted my hand again and we resumed walking.
A guard in the distance nodded when I made eye contact with him. I returned the gesture and he grinned. Wow, these men, it took so little to make them happy. Or maybe they just liked to be seen.
“Whatever you have to tell me, I’d love to listen. I was adopted as a baby, and my adoptive parents didn’t have any information on my birth parents.” If they had, they never shared it.
“I would love to, you know this—”
“Wade!” A frantic voice called in the distance. “Wade!”
We spun around, waiting for a body to appear with the voice. Within seconds, a young man with white blond hair appeared. He raced toward us, a grimace painted over his face resembling pain, or panic. Maybe both.
“Wade,” he stopped a few feet away, wiping the sweat from his forehead, then shaking his hands like he couldn’t not move.
He was one of the guards who had walked in with Wade that first night, but he meant something to Wade. More than a guard.
Wade released me and stepped closer to the man, cupping his shoulders and dipping down to look in his eyes. “What’s wrong, Isa?”
