Page 47 of Only Rogue Actions
I studied the Erzton lord.“Protocol?That’s a nice way of saying you’re going to see how Lady Battis reacts.That will tell you everything you need to know about what she and the other leaders of House Battis really knew about Roderick and the training facility.”
A sly smile curved Aldrich’s lips.“Something like that.”
Admiration filled me.The Erzton lord played noble games as well as anyone I’d ever met.Even with Jeffrey in House Collier custody, it was smart—and devious—of Lord Aldrich to use a condolence call to slyly gather more information.
Verona, Siya, and Rigel nodded, but more disgust twisted Asterin’s face.She spun away from the fireplace, wrenched a door open, and left the library.
“I’ll go check on her,” Verona murmured.
“No,” I said.“Let me.”
The lady glanced at me in surprise, but she nodded.
I touched Vesper’s elbow.“I’ll meet you back in our suite.”
Vesper also nodded, and I left the library.
I found Asterin on a walkway that connected the main castle to the guest wing.Her elbows were resting on the railing, and she was slumped forward, like the stone was the only thing holding her upright.I stepped up beside Asterin and mimicked her stance.
The earlier snow had moved out, and above us, the Frozon moon was shining brightly in the night sky, along with a smattering of stars.The silvery moon- and starlight streamed in through the clear energy shield that covered the estate and gilded the petals of the blue-moon peonies in the large topiary garden at the heart of the grounds.
“Did my mother send you to check on me?”Asterin muttered.
“No, I volunteered.”
She huffed.“Why?Did Siya not want to come and brag about how she’d been right about Roderick all along?”
“Once upon a time, I was involved with a woman named Francesca,” I said, changing the subject.“She was wonderful.Smart, witty, fun, beautiful.I thought I had finally found a bit of happiness after years of just surviving and going through the motions of life after my parents’ deaths.”
Asterin eyed me warily.“What happened?”
“I found a bottle of perfume in Francesca’s things.Only it wasn’t perfume—it was a chembond.”
Unlike skinbonds, which were designed to heal cut skin, broken bones, and the like, chembonds were used to connect two people for a short period of time.Chembonds had a variety of academic and military uses, but they were mainly used as aphrodisiacs, especially at nightclubs and other places where people were looking to feel a little less lonely, if only for a few hours.
Asterin blanched.“She was dosing you with a chembond to make you fall for her?”
I nodded.A knot of emotion clogged my throat, and my inner monster snarled.Even after all these years, cold rage still flooded my veins like an ocean of ice every time I thought about how Francesca had fooled me.
Asterin winced.“I’m so sorry, Kyrion.That must have been awful.”
I cleared my throat.“It was awful.What Francesca did was horrible, of course, but to me, the worst part was howstupidI felt afterward.For not realizing what she was really doing and that she cared much more about the Caldaren fortune than she ever did about me.”
Sympathy creased Asterin’s face, and some of the tension trickled out of her body.She let out a weary sigh and stared out over the garden again.“When the House Battis Hammers attacked me and Siya in the control room, I thought it was a giant misunderstanding.Or that Jeffrey was the one giving the orders.But then Jeffrey started talking to Roderick in the maze, and I realized Roderick was in charge and that he was going to kill me and Siya and you and Vesper just because he wanted to—just fora bit of sport, as he called it.”
Asterin shook her head, tears gleaming in her eyes.“How could I have been sowrongabout him?”
“It’s easy to be wrong about people.Especially people like Francesca and Roderick who only show you what they want you to see and nothing of their true selves.You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Asterin barked out a harsh laugh.“It feels like I dideverythingwrong, at least when it came to Roderick.”
“It’s not wrong to believe in people.Someday someone will come along who will deserve your trust, who willearnit,” I replied in a serious voice.“Don’t let the Francescas and the Rodericks of the galaxy take that possibility away from you.Because that’s when they truly win.”
Asterin gave me a smile, but the thin, wan expression didn’t reach her eyes, and hurt rippled off her and twinged my telempathy.She turned and stared back out over the garden again.I didn’t say anything else.I just stood there with her until the moon finally disappeared behind some clouds.
Eventually,Asterinmutteredthatshe was tired and going inside, but she made no move to actually leave the walkway.I bade her good night and left my friend to her brooding.
Words were all well and good, but it would take Asterin a while to recover from Roderick’s betrayal.Not just his plan to kill us tonight but all the other ways and times he had betrayed her over the years without her even realizing it.Asterin would probably examine everything Roderick had ever said and done in a new light, just as I had when I’d realized Francesca was drugging me.
