Page 95 of The Blood that Binds Us

“And you thought running away,abandoning your son,was better than the life I could have provided you? That’s beneath you, Sera, even for one ofthem,” he spits back at her.

She ignores his comment but shifts her attention to Sin. “Son, I wanted to take you with me so badly. Leaving you was the worst part—it’s why it took me so long to leave at all. But I knew if I took you, if I let him think they killed both of us, your father would have never stopped coming for them. You had to stay to give your father a reason to use caution. Please understand that, Singard.”

“Oh—save your breath, Sera,” Dusaro chastises.

I dare another glance to Sin whose face remains expressionless, stoic as he stares at his mother, considering her words and processing this new truth. Legion was birthed in response to the kingdom’s prejudices against transcendents. Prejudices that greatly accelerated when it was believed they were responsible for Sera’s death. How many people did Sin and his father slay in response to a betrayal that never happened?

“You killed him, didn’t you, husband? Did you ever tell our son that?” Sera asks with forced humor in her tone. “That Ephraim wasn’t as obsessed with the extinction of my people as you? But you… you were so foolishly blind with rage, you needed to get him out of the way so you could manipulate the crown to do your own bidding? Blaming the assassination on Legion—tsk, tsk, now that’s beneathyou,Dusaro. My only regret is not seeing your face when Adelphia denied you at the Rite.”

Dusaro scoffs and jabs a finger towards her chest, now taking a few steps of his own towards her. “Ephraim was killed by the rebellion,” he barks.

“I am the rebellion!” Sera roars back.

Wrath colors Dusaro’s face a deep shade of red, while Sin’s bronzed face blanches as he makes sense of her words. I fight back the urge to grab his hand, to give him a tiny squeeze to remind him he’s not in this alone. But the Black Art made it perfectly clear he needs my comforts no longer when he broke his promise to me, so I pin my hands firmly at my sides.

“What have you done?” Dusaro whispers, rage lowering his voice to a deep, controlled tone.

“What have I done?I spent the last decade and a half building an army. Seeking out those that will fight alongside us, fight for the land we are rightfully owed. We deserve to be free, to run without consequence. Did you really think that little show in the city was a victory? That was adistraction—a necessary sacrifice Cathal and I agreed to long ago, to give us time to slip some of our own inside your keep. And you all were so desperate to lap up Legion blood you ran right at them. They are no longer your concern—I am.” Sera is small, but she is a beacon of strength as she addresses the two most powerful men in the realm without an ounce of fear. She is also minutes from having her throat ripped out as her words click in my mind. Legion didn’t show up with Cosmina in tow because they never had her.

This bitch did. My eyes zero in on her pulse ticking away in her neck.

“What exactly are you asking of us?” Sin finally speaks, his throat bobbing as he struggles to keep the seal on his emotions in check.

Her face softens again at his voice, and she directs her full attention to her son now. “To release transcendents from your restrictions, your prejudices, your lies. Grant us land to form our own place in Aegidale, to self-govern as we please. We keep to our business and you to yours. We have ideas for treaty lines and trade routes and—”

“That is rich, Sera,” Dusaro cuts her off, his light chuckling crescendoing to a deep laughter, and he claps out his amusement.

“If you deny us this, it will mean war. Not the carrying on you’ve done with Legion over the years—realwar. Singard, nothing would cause me greater pain than watching you meet your end early, and certainly not next to him on the battlefield,” she says, jerking her chin to motion towards Dusaro. “But I will not protect someone who kills my kind for the sake of running their blood through their hands, even if they are my kin.”

My kind.

She doesn’t know. His mother doesn’t know Sin inherited her transcendence after she left.

“I grew up believing you were murdered in cold blood,” Sin says. “I made decisions—I did unspeakable things,Mother—because I believed that.” His mask slips as he addresses the woman that left him to be raised by Dusaro. Fled to protect shifters while inadvertently abandoning her own transcendent child to be brought up by the man who hates them most. Every life Sin reaped in her name was a lie. As if he wasn’t already struggling to tame that darkness within himself, this truth erases any sense of morality he may have found in his choices.

“I didn’t have another option,” she responds calmly, but the corners of her eyes fold into creases.

“You could have just left! Youchoseto manipulate us. To let me think my own mother was brutally killed.”

“What choice did I have? You were so young then, Singard, you don’t remember. It wasn’t safe. Even with your father there to protect me, he was only one person. If Ephraim discovered we were lying beneath his nose, he would have killed both of us for treason. And worse, he wouldn’t have taken a chance to see if you inherited the gift. I chose life. Not just for me, but for you. And I’d do it all over again because that’s what a mother does—she protects her child!” A tear springs from her eye, and she quickly wipes it away.

“You invade my home, kill my guards,set fire to my castle,and you dare make demands of me?” Sin’s hands ball into fists as fury rolls off him in waves thick enough to choke the life from anyone standing too close. And yet, all I want to do is run to him. Throw my arms around his waist and tell him that he is loved.

I dig my feet into the ground.

“We needed the advantage. You wouldn’t have listened to us any other way. I did what I had to do,” Sera speaks calmly, steeling her spine.

“I ripped people apart in your name. I will do it again,” Sin warns, his voice as cold and promising as death itself.

He’s taken countless lives in exchange for the loss of his mother’s, and now, he vows to reap the souls from their bodies because shelives.

Sera shifts her attention to where I lurk behind them. “I heard rumor there was a bloodwitch in your ranks.”

A guttural growl rumbles in Sin’s chest.

“Wren, is it? My name is Seraphine. A friend of mine informed me you might be interested in joining us, and I certainly wouldn’t refuse someone with your power.”

Now it is my throat that releases a warning growl. “Give me my sister, and I’ll consider not drinking the blood of your friends from yourskull.”

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