Page 128 of Vicious Knight

She was also able to see the guy's Knight tattoos.

I never saw those.

I was more terrified than I want to admit because I’ve grown up to be this strong person everyone sees. But I was eight years old. The weakest I’d ever been in my life.

I’d just watched Caspian get taken away. I thought the men were going to kill him, and I knew my family had been taken, too. People around me I’d known from birth were all dead. It was a nightmare.

“Thorne…” Her voice, soft, searching and gentle, seeps into my soul. I want to answer her but all I can do is stare.

Earlier, when I asked her why her music sounded like death, she said it was because of her past. I understand now.

“Those words: valin mortilum dohaliues. I never remembered what they were. I just couldn’t.” My voice sounds hoarse, as if I haven’t spoken for a hundred years.

“Do you know what they mean?”

“No.”

She looks disheartened. “I’ve tried looking them up but I don’t even know what language it is. At one point I thought it was Old Norse, but when Levgen started teaching me how to speak it I knew those words were something else.”

“Maybe it’s something old, or just a language we don’t know.” I try to focus but my mind is all over the place. “Do you remember anything else about that night?”

“That’s all I saw. Remembering that scar-faced man terrified me for years. I’d never seen anyone die before, so when he killed my father’s friend it was awful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you… No one believed my father when he told them about him. No one could identify anyone like him, but I guess the description is too vague. I knew if I saw him again I would know who he was, with the scar or without it. That’s why I wanted to look at the database.”

“I’ve searched it before. He’s not there. My uncle searched too.”

Her shoulders slump. “Oh.” With that simple word I can see just how much she wants to help her father. I would be the same if I were her.

“When the attack happened my uncle searched high and low for that man. He checked everything available to him. That included the Knights’ database. The moment I became a Knight and got access to the database I searched for him, too.”

Ivy looks even more despondent.

“When things don’t add up in our world the answer is always that it was an inside job.” So many things are. “Apart from me, no one else had seen the scar-faced man. There was no mention of him until two years after my family’s attack when your father spoke of seeing him at the palace. That’s the only reason your father was allowed to live.”

Ivy’s breath catches and her pulse leaps against the pale skin of her throat. “That’s why?”

“Yes. My family’s deaths are an anomaly that no one has been able to resolve. With all our resources, the Knights have had to file their deaths away as a mystery.” I take a measured breath. “My uncle is an asshole but he wanted justice for his brother’s murder. He was willing to keep anything that would help get that, so when he thought your father was linked to the plot he kept him alive at the Hallows. He hoped that one day something else would come up and your father would be able to identify him. But nothing else has.”

“My father didn’t do anything, Thorne. He took his job as seriously as he took being a father to me. I know that in my heart. I might have been young, but I know that.”

I believe her.

I actually believe her. But belief in this situation is nothing without proof. We still need proof, still need answers, still need so much more.

“I will keep that in mind.”

She looks grateful to hear that. This girl will make me do anything for her. I wish I could tell her I believe her just to see that look of gratitude again.

But I’m not there yet. There’s too much pain in my soul. It’s too raw and right now, all we have are words and memories.

I have to figure out what all of this means before I can say anything like that to her.

“I don’t think your father knew the scar-faced man was a Knight. Tonight is the first I’m hearing that. Who else knows?”

“Just my mom.”

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