Page 33 of Fractured Souls
Zander flipped through the pages of my book until he found a section about the pureblood siren families. Four family trees, the pages folding out from the binding of the book, revealed the sirens’ lineage.
My gaze ran over each tree until I reached the bottom, only to be disappointed. The dwindling numbers as the trees were supposed to grow made it very clear just how many deaths occurred before they were old enough to carry on their lines.
“What were the families like?” I asked, feeling a draw towards them more than the other siren information. My siren, much to her credit, was somehow ignoring our men and sitting studiously with her glasses on at a desk—way more attentive than I had been before.
“They had their faults,” Zander said softly, “but they cared about their kind, and that was the important part. They were the main defenders of the sirens from the Elven realm and outside forces, both politically and militaristically. When the attacks got particularly bad, one of the families removed the population from the kingdom, going to the middle lands. But as you can see, it didn’t help in the long run.”
No, it hadn’t helped. It hadn’t helped at all.
My fingers ran over one of the family names.Eveningmellow.
The name was pretty, and as I looked over the pages dedicated to their family, I couldn’t help but smile at their crest, an evening sky with a brilliant sword in the center. It was like they were attempting to be ‘mellow’ as their name suggested but instead came off as showing off, especially compared to the others.
“The Eveningmellow family was largely responsible for the political dealings between the sirens and the other elves—a very drastic contrast to the Darklace family.”
Well, that was a name.
“Darklace?” I arched a brow, skipping over thePalmspriteandCatwishfamily trees. The odd names gave me pause, but it was easy to determine that one of them was focused on agriculture, based on the wheat in their crest, and the other was medicinal in nature, their crest featuring herbs and some other tools. When my eyes fell on the Darklace crest, it became clear what they were about.
“They were the militia focused family,” he explained, running his fingers up my spine. I leaned against him, Draven easing me onto the bench between them.Well that was nice of him.“The protectors of sirens.”
“No pressure,” I murmured in amusement.
“For them, it wasn’t. It came naturally.” Zander turned a few pages, finally landing on an illustration. “They had many children and were one of the last pureblood families alive, until their final family member was killed with her parents when she was only four.”
My ears were buzzing, though, Zander’s words barely registering as I stared at a portrait of the Darklace family. Two adults stood proudly with a young girl—who looked exactly like my brother and me.
“Zander…”
Silence permeated the space between us.
“I see it,” he finally grunted. “That’s impossible though. Beryl Darklace was killed hundreds of years ago.”
Beryl, who could have been my twin. She was only around four in the portrait, but she looked like a younger version of myself, down to the blue-tipped hair.
“You said she was killed?” I murmured.
“Yes, during a raid.”
“And they buried her body?”
His eyes widened. “I mean, I’ve never seen it, but there is a place for her in the family crypt—at least from the logs I’ve read.”
I looked back down at the page as the others gathered, Zander catching them up. Cash’s words about finding my family rang in my head, and I had to wonder…What if Beryl hadn’t died? What if instead she’d gone into hiding?
I had nothing to support that, but… “We should go there. To her crypt.”
“It would answer your question for sure,” Zander agreed.
“If the body isn’t decomposed, which it should be by now,” Rhett pointed out.
“That’s not why it would answer the question—the only people who can enter the crypt are bloodline members.”
Oh shit.
“They didn’t want anyone getting in there because all of their texts and gathered knowledge are in there, libraries’ worth. Sealed away with their dead,” Zander explained, his eyes lighting up. “If you were related, it would be the perfect place to find information on what type of threats they faced before. I wish I had experience to share, but I was in captivity on and off for years. Something like this could have happened in one of those centuries and it’s possible I wouldn’t have known…although I would be surprised to not have sensed something like that.”
That was so damn depressing. I reached over and squeezed his hand.
