Page 200 of On Wings of Blood

She gave me a dirty look, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and handed the empty vial back. “There. I did it. Now let’s get the bullshit over with. What’s your deep, dark secret, Blake?”

I slipped the vial back inside the pocket of my coat. “Aenia. She’s not my sister. Not really.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “What?”

I walked past her, moving to stand at the edge of the grove, looking down at the churning sea below.

“My brother Marcus... You saw him that first day, up on the dais with my uncle.” I turned to look back at her and she nodded. “Right. Well, he’s the kind of highblood you’d hate. If he ever comes near you, you should run in the opposite direction. He loves the hunt.”

I wasn’t sure if she would understand what I meant.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for her reaction to this next part. “What I mean by that is, he loves to kill. He doesn’tuse thralls. He prefers to hunt and then to feed. He slaughtered Aenia’s real family. He left her to die. She was barely two years old. I found her, bleeding out.” I paused, swallowing hard. “I turned her.”

Pendragon had walked up beside me. I could feel her by my shoulder. Now she stiffened. “You turned her? What does that mean?”

“I mean I made her,” I said bluntly. “Made her like us. She was a blightborn. I made her a highblood.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Though not everyone would see it that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s another name for those like Aenia. Foulbloods they’re called. Blightborn who have been turned.” I turned to look down at her. “Most of the time, they’re hunted down and killed."

“But she was only a child,” Pendragon whispered. “Would they have really done that?”

I shrugged. “Who knows. What matters is I botched it. I was too young to know what I was really doing. Too young to have even attempted it. My mother found me with Aenia. I begged her for help.” I cleared my throat, finding it suddenly thick with emotion. “She helped me hide what I’d done. She took Aenia and went away for a while. When she returned, she claimed Aenia as her own child to protect me.”

Pendragon was staring up at me. I couldn’t tell if it was disgust in her eyes or something else. “You let everyone believe she was your sister, this entire time?”

“Marcus probably suspects. He’s an idiot but he’s not quite that dense. And I’m fairly sure my uncle knows.” Viktor used it as something to hold over me. It gave him more power to control me. “But if anyone else knew the truth, they could kill Aenia and be well within their rights. Or me.”

“Why you?”

“Because I broke the law, Pendragon. I’d be called before a tribunal. My uncle would probably get involved but he wouldn’t be able to shield me, not entirely.” Even if he actually wanted to and I had my doubts. “Representatives from all of the four houses would each select a judge. They could decide to execute me.”

I stepped away from her and sat back down on the stone bench, clasping my hands together. “I was too young to know how stupid what I’d done was. I thought I was saving her.”

To my surprise, she came over and sat down on the bench. Though not right next to me. In fact, she sat as far away as was possible without falling off the bench.

“But you did,” she said slowly. “Save her, I mean.”

“It would probably have been kinder to leave her to die.” I sighed. “She’s alive now, yes. But look at how she’s living. She’s losing her mind. You saw how she is. She’s becoming feral. Wild. It’s always a risk when you turn someone. She’s a danger to herself and to others.”

Pendragon looked at me, her eyes narrowing. “I’m glad you see it that way. Where is she now? What did you do with her?”

I scowled. I’d known this was coming but I wasn’t about to be interrogated. “She’s somewhere safe. Where she’s not a danger to anyone.”

She stared at me. “And what about Marcus?”

“Marcus?”

“You said that he killed Aenia’s family. What would a tribunal have to say about that?”

I didn’t reply.

She threw her head back and gave a bitter laugh. “I thought so. It’s so fucked up. At Bloodwing, blightborn are treated almost like equals. I think you really fool us into thinking you see us that way half the time. But we’re not. We’ll never be, will we? Nothing would happen to your brother for killing Aenia’s family, would it? What he did probably isn’t even against the law. Tell me, Blake. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“You’re not,” I said, frowning. “But such unrestrained violence is looked down upon these days. Most highbloods exercise far more control than Marcus. There’s a system. Most of us follow it. My uncle encourages restraint.” I said the words as if by rote. But I knew the system could crumble apart at any moment. That the balance we had right now was precarious. Maybe Viktor even wanted it to fall.

“We need blightborns,” I said, trying to hide my real thoughts. “Most highbloods know that. You fulfill roles that we need.”

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