Page 32 of Cursed Heirs

“He was toying with you.”

“What?”

“You are new to battle. Do you honestly believe that you could have come out on top if Constantine had been battling youto the full extent of his abilities? This is a being who the whole ofExemplarstruggles to defeat, Alena. You are new to all of this, to accepting our world, and to dealing with high-level threats.”

“You’re saying I just got lucky? Is that it?”

“In essence. Worse than that, you used your powers in front of him. He knows what you’re capable of now and that puts you in a very dangerous position. You can’t give it all away up front with a calculated being like him. He’ll use it all to his advantage.”

“You’re just trying to scare me so I walk away from it all without any more protests.”

“Youwillbe walking away regardless,” she said in that firm and non-negotiable tone.

“You don’t understand, Ididbeat him back. And even more than that, he came for the four of us, we’re special to him. That means I can use that to our advantage.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You haven’t even heard me out. Mom, we can save Xavier, return his magic to him. We can bring Saryan Hart back. A lot of things, if we’d just go the diplomatic route instead, if we just work the situation to our benefit.”

I’d never seen her so shocked before. “You’re talking about making a deal with the devil incarnate, Alena. Not only is that a violation ofExemplar’slaws, but it is beyond foolish and it will be your end. Constantine is age-old. He’s calculative and he’ll manipulate you to the point where you won’t receive your end of the bargain, but you’ll instead find yourself giving him everything he wants and then some. A deal cannot be struck with the likes of him. Diplomacy has failed enough times with him for it to now be off the table forevermore.”

“So, you haven’t even tried that to get Orpheus’ father back then?”

“No,” she said simply, and completely unapologetically.

This was theworkversion of her. The unbendable and entirely uncompromising Abigail Rose.

“Has any progress been made at all?”

“We’re following protocol. We’ll find him in due time.”

Due time?Not good enough. “So you’re not holding back resources then?”

“What?”

“Because the kidnapping victim is Saryan Hart?”

“Of course not. My personal distaste for the man has no bearing on my professional life and decisions.”

“Didn’t it during theCataclysm?”

“Excuse me?”

“What you did to him, Mom… that didn’t need to happen, things didn’t need to go that way. You ruined him.”

“I see Orpheus has been very talkative.”

“He hated you. I demanded to know why. And once I did, I could see his point.”

“It’s more complicated than you can imagine. You saw things through the eyes of a father who loves his son dearly.”

“I saw into his memory.”

She started. “He allowed you access inside his mind?”

“Yes.”

“The four of you are closer than my watch was able to determine. That’s… given how stoic and guarded Orpheus is… it’s staggering. He’s expressing a great depth toward you. Such trust. Love, really.”

---