Page 74 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

Ivan nodded. “Yes. We know that Kirill is Marius. We still need to identify the one who calls himself Sulla, and who knows how many others there are.”

I turned to Kenzi. “The woman who trained you,” I asked. “Madam Therese. She has a cane as well. Did you ever hear her called by another name?”

Kenzi took a deep breath and thought about it for a moment. “Maybe. I didn’t recognize it as a name, though. Agricola or something. Thought it was some kind of salad mix.”

“That’s arugula.” Dima laughed. Kenzi punched him in the arm and muttered at him to shut it. Laughing, my enforcer rubbed at his arm, pretending to be hurt.

“Well, they sure are a narcissistic bunch.” Andrei snorted. “Caesar, I’m assuming, is after the great Julius Caesar. Funnily enough, Sulla was a large influence on Caesar’s reign as dictator of Rome. I’d imagine whoever this Sulla is, they know one another outside of the circuit they are running.”

“We know the Dollhouse is a separate entity from the Chameleon Agency,” Dima mused. “It’s been around longer. So, the question is, did Kirill start the Chameleon Agency first and become a member of the Dollhouse, or was it the other way around?”

“Does it matter?” Ivan wondered.

Andrei nodded. “Your grandfather used to talk about a secret society that called themselves thePotestas Omnis. Which translates to—”

“Power Over All,” I murmured. Andrei’s lips tilted into a proud smile as his gaze swept to me.

“That’s a horrible name for a secret society.” Kenzi scrunched her nose. “Might as well call themselves Impotus Omnis.”

Ivan snorted a laugh while Dima cackled loudly and fist bumped her.

Children.

But it was good to see them laughing through hard and uncertain times.

“As I was saying before I was unjustly interrupted,” Andrei winked at Kenzi to soften his words, “what if my brother inherited the position after proving himself? When did this Chameleon Agency pop up?”

“The FBI has been tracking them for several years. Interpol even longer,” Ivan informed us. “From what I dug up as Agent Archer, the earliest account goes back to the mid-1980s in St. Petersburg.”

“Around the time my father banished Kirill and the war began.”

Ivan nodded. “According to the Interpol database, there was a significant uptick in missing and solicited women during that time. Some of the solicited women they found, usually dead with their throats cut, bore the mark of a Chameleon. That’s why they started calling it the Chameleon Agency. The name stuck.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t choose a snake,” Andrei snarled. “Better suited, if you ask me.”

“Snakes can’t hide in plain sight.” I coughed, clearing my throat at the thought of what a true chameleon the man was. “Chameleons were made to blend into every environment around them. A mirror effect.”

“And I let him.” Andrei leaned his head back and huffed out a frustrated breath.

“Everyone did,” Ivan placated his father.Our father. It was hard to see the man before me and call him father when the man I had always known to be him was lying dead just a few feet away. Was this how Ava felt when she discovered the truth about Elias?

“He didn’t fool you.” Andrei placed his hand on his son’s shoulder and leaned in until their foreheads were touching. “Forgive me, my son, for being so blind.”

Ivan closed his eyes and breathed. The breath was slow as he let years of anger and resentment toward his father fade away. “I will always forgive you,Papa. All that matters is that we are here now.”

“Yes, we are.” Andrei smiled and then fully embraced Ivan. “And I will never let someone create distance between us again. I swear it to you.” Ivan nodded, and I could see him struggling to hold back the tears of relief and joy that clung to his eyes like droplets of water on the leaves after a rainstorm.

Everything was washed anew.

Clean.

A fresh beginning.

But who knew what would come next.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Did you or did you not lie to me, Red?”

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