Page 97 of The Duplicity of Thieves

“This is different. It’s personal.”

“How so?”

“People keep taking from me. Taking and taking and fucking taking. I wanted to take for once.”

“What did he take?”

“I told you I wasn’t from the capital. He betrayed our clan. He endangered my people, and now they’re going home to the Republic. They’re not coming back.”

“You’re a Rem,” he realizes.

“I am.”

“That explains it.” He chuckles. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. I suppose it’s because you don’t have an accent. You don’t look it either. The pub, Ody’s. The one that got angry when I asked around. Owned by a man named Stafford. That’s why he got mad isn’t it?”

“You met Staff?” If it had been under better circumstances, I would be willing to bet Stafford would have teased me about it.

“I forgot he handed you the note that night. I was distracted,” he grins. “He was disturbed when I asked about you. He knows people are trying to kill you, doesn’t he?” Aedon guesses.

“The night I met you is the night Kate was murdered. He moved us here.”

“Does he know you just married me? I can’t imagine he would have been happy about it.”

“Stafford isn’t my dad. He’s an…associate. But no, he doesn’t,” I admit. “I’m not sure he would care.”

“I doubt that. The Remnant hate me, and they hate my father even more,” he says.

“Why?” This is bad news. I never thought to ask enough about him. I’ve been stuck in my head. I hadn't thought about how my own unwillingness to cooperate was also reflected by him.

No matter what he says I would still marry him. It was always going to happen. Gaia could strike me down, and I would still be in this exact spot.

“You really haven’t figured it out?” I shake my head no quickly. “Hades is enemy number one. As his protege, I’m enemy number two.”

I start laughing. Of course. Of course, Aedon is next in line to take the throne. Of course, he’s Hades’ adopted son. Of course, my people hate him. Of course, of course, of course. “Well, fuck.”

“Indeed,” he agrees. “Hades will have a field day when he finds out my wife is Remnant.”

“Well, he hates my people. I can’t imagine he’ll be pleased.”

He looks at me quizzically. “Hades holds no ill will toward the Remnant. He wants unity.” I sit up straight with annoyance, my foot slipping from his grasp. He yanks it back, throwing me back to the floor. “Do you know why they hate Hades?” he gently asks.

“He burned us because of Magic, stole our land, and declared himself king,” I state plainly.

“No, he didn’t do any of that, but he can’t exactly walk in and explain over a cup of tea. Your people would never entertain that. Hades doesn’t want to fight them, but to understand them. Like you said, they don’t talk, and no one knows where the Republic is located. What were you in the museum to steal that day? Was it the box?”

“Excuse me?”

He smirks. “Don’t pretend you abide by the law, little devil. Not even thirty minutes ago you came here covered in another man’s blood.”

“I was bored and given a ticket. That’s all.” By Stafford who clearly had ulterior motives. Did he think I would take the box without someone asking me? He’s been so concerned with the Grimoire, which I do have, that I haven’t really given the box much thought in that regard.

“Why would someone want to kill you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from before I drowned. The Lethe is the Pool of Forgetting. No one who touches it remembers. It’s cursed.”

He nods in thought. “You must possess something. That’s why someone wants to kill you.”

Yeah, the fucking Grimoire, and probably the knowledge to open Pandora’s Box.

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