When she reached for his hand, the expression on her face, the pleading, guileless beg to see their side of the situation, was scarier than anything he’d witnessed in prison.
“Don’t touch me,” he snarled.
Her brows lifted and she placed her hand back at the base of her throat.
“Yourmahmen,” he said, “she knew the plan, then.”
“Yes.”
“Hell of an acting job. And no doubt she repeated it in front of the servants of this household. So there were witnesses.”
Now it was his turn to walk around, and as he peered in through the dining room, he remembered the way things had been.
He looked over his shoulder. “How did you end up living here, though. After it was all over? If you did this to preserve the bloodline, and you’re alive and well, how does that work? I know theglymerais a cutthroat kind of place, but surely killing your own sister or daughter to survive socially is extreme even for them.”
When she looked down at the carpet, he cursed under his breath as he figured it out. “You all told people it was your sister I was mating, theexhile dhoble. And that’s why yourmahmenchose me. I had no family and an elderly aunt who was dying. I was from the Old Country with no contacts here. That was why the mating ceremony was only your immediatefamily.” He thought of that birthday party and laughed harshly. “That’s why we never had anyone to this house, why there were never any gatherings, and of course the servants were too loyal to talk. You probably imprisoned your sister in the fucking basement for the year it took for both of you to go into your fertile period, and then when the time came, you executed the plan perfectly and swapped places.”
Cordelhia stood before him, looking helpless. “You have no idea what it’s like to be ostracized. No one to speak to you, nowhere to go—”
“I was inprison. For two hundred years. Spare me your version of suffering.”
“We have suffered, too.” She gestured about her. “This estate was attacked by thelessers. We hid for three nights after they slaughtered our servants and ransacked us—”
“Yes, this shit looks sooooo messy. Wow.”
Her regal head lifted. “Your language. Please.”
“By all means, do correct me on that. Because you’ve gotten so many other things dead right.”
She cleared her throat. “However did you find release?”
Like this was a formal gathering and she was inquiring about plans for the festival season.
“I escaped.” As she recoiled, Kane shook his head. How did she think prison worked? “You ruined my life.”
“We did not intend to. And I am honestly sorry.”
The strangest thing was, he believed that. He believed, down in her soul, she was sorry. She just had absolutely no frame of reference for the implications of what she and her bloodline had done.
“Mymahmenis dead,” she said. “My brother, too. He died in the raids. He was defending his property. I live here alone. I never mated.”
No, you never did, he thought. Even when she’d been with him, she hadn’t really been ashellan.
“I have to go,” he heard himself say.
“Kane…”
“Shut up, Cordelhia. Just stop talking.”
“But of course,” she retorted in an icy tone. “Allow me to escort you—”
“No,” he said roughly. “I’ll see myself out.”
He had a thought he would go to the front door, and do it properly. But that was a misfire of the old ways.
Kane went back to the French door she had opened upon seeing him standing outside her house. As he reached for the handle, he glanced back.
“They’re all gone, then,” he heard himself say. “Your family? What of your brother’s young?”