Page 65 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“Oh. Well, my mother was… assaulted. She became pregnant with me against her will and apparently decided to run away rather than face my father and her coven with an illegitimate child. I’ve never even been inside a coven, but I doubt they are very protective of one another if she chose destitution over them,” I pointed out.

Sofia was thoughtful as she continued to fold fabric.

“That does not happen among the Imítheos. Our males do not feel such inclinations to harm us,” she clarified.

“I gathered. Does it… What about the Ktínos?” I asked Helena tentatively.

“It is rare, but it does happen,” she answered sadly.

“So you never knew your father?” Sofia asked me as she took the materials from me and began to stack them with those that she’d collected.

“No, and I don’t think I’d want to. He was obviously cruel and entitled if he could hurt someone like that.”

Sofia was quiet, but I could tell that she had become rather pensive.

“You can say what is on your mind,” I told her. I liked Sofia, there was something more genuine about her that was missing with Rhea and the other Imítheos.

“Forgive me for asking such a question but… how do youknowthat she was unwilling?” she asked me.

“What do you mean? She told me so,” I reminded her, reminding myself that she was probably biased since the males of her kind would never hurt someone like that.

Sofia merely looked at me as if she were willing me to understand her point.

“I never knew my father either,” she began to explain when I refused to entertain the idea that my mother could have lied. Not because my mother was an infallible saint, she had been cruel and unkind, but because I was not sure I could handle that kind of shift in my world. “My mother mated with my father in spite of her father’s wishes for her to accept someone of a higher status to increase our family’s prospects. After my birth, my mother and I were taken away from my father, and he died trying to get us back from my grandsire. My mother became a shell of herself after losing her heart’s mate, and I was raised by the very people who destroyed my family,” Sofia told me. “For a long time, I was told what you were told, that my sire was a Ktínos brute who attacked an Imítheos lady. And I hated him unfairly. Now I know the truth about him and… I wish I could have met him. I have made every effort to know everything about him that I can, and I even retook his surname of Ariti. I am ashamed that I held the male who died to protect me in such disregard merely on the word of someone who hated him. He deserved better.”

I was shocked, stunned into silence as I watched her face tensing in a mixture of conviction and uncertainty of whether to press the subject.

“I only want to caution you against casting villains in your mind without adequate proof,” Sofia advised me.

“Wasyour sire Ktínos? You do not smell like a Ktínos, although you do have… You have our people’s bearing,” Helena told Sofia, and I was sure there was no higher compliment she could have uttered.

Sofia bowed her head as if she knew this, accepting the praise rather than being offended as I was sure most other Imítheos would have been.

“My father admired the great honour and courage of your people, and I have been told I… reflect many of his noble qualities. He sought to tear down walls between our two peoples to live in peace.”

“And your mother’s elitist sire disapproved of that. Which was why he urged her not to choose your father,” assumed Helena, and Sofia inclined her head.

“I’ve done what I can to honour his memory. It is why I wanted… to serve you,” Sofia admitted, looking at me. “Very few know of my father’s affiliations or I might not have been allowed to serve here. While I do not wish to dim his memory, my mother says it is more important for me to carry on his work. I can only do that if my origins are kept secret. So I will ensure that you are cared for and respected while you do the work my parents could not see through,” Sofia told me with a slight tremor of her lip.

I was not sure how to properly convey the immensity of my gratitude and awe of her when Imítheos were so impartial to touch. So I opted for inclining my head to her in what I hoped would convey my deepest respect.

“And I am very glad to have you with us.”

There was a rather sudden and loud knock at the door that startled us before either Helena or Sofia could speak. Sofia shook her head as if to clear her thoughts, and then strode for the door to open it, revealing Ares standing in the hallway. Hiswings and tail were shuffling and curling in the way I recognized that signalled agitation.

“Are you going to come inside?” I asked him when he merely stood across the threshold looking into my room.

“I have been told, most fervently by Orion, that I am not to enter your bedchamber again,” Ares reassured me. “But I am here to escort you down to the Rookery.”

“Orion is about as cuddly as a viper on his best days, but that is hardly new to you,” observed Helena with her head tilting in interest as she observed Ares.

“These godsdamned Imítheos seem to think that I have defended them with my life all these centuries just for the opportunity to kill them all myself,” Ares snarled. He shot a sharp and disapproving glance at Sofia, but to her credit, she didn’t even blink before turning to retrieve my cloak.

“Please don’t snap at Sofia. I am really sorry that the other Imítheos gave you a hard time, but she really is here to help,” I informed my guardian sternly.

Ares merely grunted, and I could tell he did not fully believe me as he glanced moodily away down the hall.

“Do we have to walk down or are we flying?” I asked as Sofia helped to arrange my new cloak over the dress that she had helped me put on before the seamstress came. One that had a full back, thankfully.

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