Page 108 of Married to the Devil

“Hi?” Mom asks, and anger is now center stage.

I clear my throat and take Katarina’s seat across from her. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

“How would I have found out? I finally reach a place with reception only to receive an email congratulating me on yourwedding.” Her voice is high, and she purses her lips for a moment as if to calm herself.

I frown, momentarily derailed from the emotion by the detail. “An email? From whom?”

The disbelief on her face would be comical any other time.

“It’s important,” I press.

She narrows her eyes as if to lecture me on what details are actually important, but the surge of her annoyance gives way to exasperation, and she waves her hand with a shrug. “One of the Council members. Mc-something or another. I don’t know him.”

Fuck. When Moon warned that a faction of the Council would try to sow dissention, I did not expect it to come from this direction.

“I thought it was a joke. My daughter would never get married without telling me, to a territory leader no less, and close the business she’d worked so hard on. Not while knowing the dangers of that.” Her cheeks flush with anger. “She’d never send me away for her to do that. That’s not how I raised you.”

I sink lower in my chair, but she’s not done.

“And then Carl told me he worked for Stoneheart—” she breaks off and a shattered expression flashes over her face before she reels it in. “I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

Why didn’t Carl warn Silas that she’d come home early?

“The marriage wasn’t a part of the plan. I sent you away to keep you safe,” I clarify.

“Because you meddled where you shouldn’t have. Kalos told me.”

Gee, thanks for throwing me under the bus.“I saved my friend and her mate.”

“He’s a dragon! He didn’t need your sacrifice.”

I shrug because she’s not going to see my side of things in this. I did something risky, and that goes against everything she taught me.

“I didn’t want this for you,” she says. “I wanted you to be able to live without fear?—”

“But I wasn’t,” I break in. “I’ve forever been in his shadow, waiting for the day that someone took notice of me. This way I was able to dictate my fate and get back at what he did to you!”

Mom holds up a pointed finger. “This isn’t about me. This is your own wounded pride. Your revenge was for you.

“It wasn’t just revenge. Kat?—”

“It didn’t have to be you!”

“Yes, it did.” My words snap without meaning too. “I was the only one it could be, and despite whatever you think of my revenge, I couldn’t sit aside and do nothing. Lorenzo had to be held accountable.”

She shakes her head and mutters. “You and your love of justice.”

It’s a break in the tension between us because it harkens back to arguments I’d made even as a child. But the moment doesn’t last.

Mom’s worry bleeds through. “You’ve shoved yourself back into danger. And for what? Have they convinced you they need an heir yet? Do you really think Frank is going to let the likes of you succeed him? He’ll kill you as soon as your guard is dropped.”

I’m a little too stunned by the heir comment to have an immediate rebuttal, but that doesn’t stop her.

“These people are vipers. You’ve never had to deal with politics.” Mom shakes her head and corrects herself. “Ariel isn’t mean spirited, but she’s not to be trusted. The territory will always come first.”

It’s eerie to have hidden so much from her, but for her to know more about this life than I did when I embarked on this marriage. She could have been a resource if I’d been open with her.

But would she have helped when she’d never support what I’ve done?

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