Page 137 of The Sins of Silas

He ignored my words. “What is your full name?” the man continued, changing the topic.

I blinked and then examined my fingernails, doing my best to seem composed. “What’s it to you?”

He grasped the iron bars of the cell, frown deepening. “Your full name,” he said sharply.

I scoffed, my eyes sliding up to meet his, and I gave him a cruel smile. “Lena Daelyra, Supreme of Ames.” I gave a mocking bow, and my smile vanished as I glared at him, my voice going low. “But there's no need to remember. When I get free of here, which Iwill, I promise I’m scorching every last one of you who have enslaved my people. Nothing will be left of you or this place when I’m finished.”

The man's eyebrows rose, and then he mastered his shock as he studied me. A few moments passed.

“No response?” I asked sweetly.

His face became pained. “You…you look so much like her.”

I blinked, my brows scrunching together just as Josie wandered to me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. I turned to meet her swollen eyes.

“Not that he’s entirely innocent, but Waylon has helped us as much as a Faltrunian soldier can. Extra food, warm blankets,things like that. He doesn’t agree with the rest of the soldiers or Dimitri's wicked ways…so he helps us where he can.”

My eyes sprang wide at the name she used. Quickly, I whirled my head back to the soldier on the other side of the bars.

The handsome man with brown hair and green eyes. Green eyes that were the same color as mine.

The man who Mother named her business after.

Waylon.

Waylon.

My body locked up, and I had trouble finding my voice. “I look like who?” I breathed.

The man’s eyes filled with tears, his voice breaking as he said, “Like Minerva.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

LENA

Waylon. My father.

He was just as Mother described: green eyes that matched mine, wavy brown hair cropped close on the sides and longer on top. His skin was a few shades tanner than mine but still lighter than an Otacian-born's skin. And his face…he was clean-shaven, and I could see the very beginning of wrinkles forming—the exhaustion that lay behind an intimidating front.

I was frozen, completely stunned by this revelation, astonished to be standing before a man I had never believed I'd meet.

“Waylon…”

“Waylon Daelyra.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Silas’s head spin to me. Josie had stepped away, back in Tobias's embrace.

My liptrembled as I looked into my father’s eyes. “She loved you very much,” I whispered.

His eyes flared. “Is she—”

“She’s alive,” I said softly. “She’s told me a lot about you.” I frowned, observing his Faltrunian armor. “Why are you here? Mother said your family has always resided in Renrell.”

His jaw clicked. “I couldn’t stand being there anymore without her.” His eyes dropped to the floor. “It was all a horrible reminder of what could have been. What should have been.” He lifted his head. “And you…you’re my…we had…”

I nodded slowly, then gestured to my pointed ears. “She didn’t know if I would be like you…or like her.” I lowered my hand back to my side. “People didn’t take kindly to Mages even back then, and she knew how much you loved your home and your family. Out of fear for what it all could entail, what it would put you through…she left.”

He shook his head in disbelief. Mother didn’t know how Waylon would take to her being a Mage. Most of the humans living in Tovagoth hated us.

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