She folded her hands carefully in her lap and tried to make herself as small as possible. She didn’t need anyone noticing her. If she wasn’t sitting next to him, she would have been able to disappear. She was good at it, blending in with her surroundings until she faded away and everyone forgot she’d been present in the first place. She wanted time alone to think about what had been said and what it all meant.
“Why sadly?” Skyler asked. “It is a great honor to be given such a gift.”
Afanasiv inclined his head. “Yes, it is an honor, and one I felt I didn’t deserve. I did manage to escape, but there was no skin on my bones, and I am not altogether certain I was entirely sane. Lilith was furious that she didn’t get the child she wanted. She punished me by making me watch over and over the tortures my mother went through while I was being tortured. I could take the physical torture, but strangely, when I shouldn’t have been able to feel anything, it was the mental torture that got to me.”
“Why do you persist in blaming yourself for not upholding your honor?”
“Where was the honor in what I did?” Afanasiv asked. “Was it honorable to trade deceit for the life of my mother? Was it honorable to deceive Lilith simply because she is an enemy? Was it honorable to return and spend the entire time deceiving her and plotting my escape?”
“Afanasiv, do you think it would have been better to allow her to torture your mother and then your father to death in front of you?” Ivory asked. “I think you ask too much of yourself. Clearly you have a personal code of honor. All of your brethren have one. The Dragonseekers have one.”
“That is true,” Afanasiv agreed. “There is honesty included in that code.”
Skyler smiled at Afanasiv as she leaned toward him. “But then you were strictly honest, weren’t you? You and your father went over the contract very carefully before you signed it. Lilith wrote it up. She’s the one who was dishonest, deliberately deviating from it in order to try to persuade you to give her what she wanted. You stuck to the exact wording of the contract. There was no dishonesty.”
“I had no intentions of ever giving her what she wanted,” he pointed out.
“You couldn’t give her what she wanted,” Dimitri said. “Your father knew that and so did you. Lilith wrote out a contract, and you negotiated until you were able to put in writing something that would work for you. During that time, your mother was being hideously tortured. Lilith wasn’t being fair even then. She deliberately did her best to distract you. She was the one without honor. If you ask me, Siv, you were down there so long and she tortured you so much that you became disoriented and started questioning yourself and your integrity because she was questioning it.”
Afanasiv rubbed his temples again. Vasilisa could feel pain poundingthrough his head. It manifested itself in a strange rhythm, a knocking, as if someone were trying to invade his mind, but his shields were too strong to allow them in. Still, they persisted, trying to wear him down. Had they been alone, she might have tried to help him, but not in a roomful of people she didn’t know. Not when she felt too shocked and numb to be able to sort through everything she had heard.
After the blow of knowing her aunt had betrayed them and knowing many of the people they had spent their lives helping were turning on them, this felt like one too many hits. Vasilisa wanted to be alone. As soon as she could, she was going to excuse herself, go back to the palace and lock herself in her room for a long time. First, she would let her wolf run so she would be numb and exhausted.
“Dimitri speaks the truth, Afanasiv,” Petru said. “You did not break the code of honor.”
Nicu nodded. “There was no breaking the code.”
Benedek agreed. “Absolutely, there was no breaking the code. You upheld the code of honor better than most could have done, Afanasiv.”
Razvan and Ivory nodded their heads. “Without a doubt.”
“You will have to worry about one thing for certain, I fear,” Dimitri said. “Lilith is possessive and vengeful. She doesn’t like to be thwarted. You have something to lose now, where before she couldn’t get to you. Now you have a cherished lifemate. You and Vasilisa prevented her from getting the royal blood. Specifically, Vasilisa’s blood. Why do you think hers was the most important of all?”
That should have scared Vasilisa, but it didn’t. Vasilisa wasn’t the ultimate goal. She was a means for Lilith to get to Afanasiv. She wasn’t the true prize.
“Why would she need to be a daughter of Mother Earth when she commands the underworld?” she asked. “The two aren’t compatible. The underworld is all about twisting and mutating nature, and Mother Earth is all about growing and nurturing.”
“Lilith doesn’t exactly command the underworld,” Afanasiv countered. “Lucifer does. He allows Lilith her little rebellions because itamuses him. If she goes too far, he reins her in very fast. She doesn’t like being under his thumb, but she knows better than to try to take over. She isn’t powerful enough.”
“Does she think having Dragonseeker blood would give her more power?” Razvan asked Ivory. “Would it?”
Ivory frowned as she considered the possibility. “It would aid her. Being a daughter of the earth would certainly give her far more power and aid her in ways she probably hasn’t even considered. A combination of the two, the blood and becoming accepted by the earth, might give her what she needs.”
“If she could also control the beast behind the gate, if she had all three powers,” Vasilisa mused aloud, “she might be able to wrest complete control from Lucifer.”
“I don’t understand what that means,” Ivory said. “What gate? What beast?”
Vasilisa had never made such a mistake before in her life. Not to her brothers and not to anyone else. The color rose under her skin. She shook her head. “It is nothing. You’re right about her trying to find a way to take the power from Lucifer.”
“That’s a big gamble. If she failed, she would be punished for a thousand years or more,” Ivory said.
Vasilisa was grateful Ivory didn’t insist on an explanation. She shouldn’t have engaged, just stayed out of the conversation altogether. The things Afanasiv had disclosed had thrown her. She just needed time. Inwardly, she shored up her defenses and kept chanting that mantra over and over in her head.
“She has Xavier and Xaviero with her. Two high mages with enough spells to cover just about anything she would need. Who could counter that combination? She just has to keep them happy and on her side,” Razvan said.
“Xavier wanted the blood of the royals,” Nicu said. “He has some scheme up his sleeve as usual. I would venture to say that it is Barnabas who’s planting subversive ideas in the Sacred Circle’s collectiveconsciousness. He is known for persuading people with his voice. If he is here, we will have to find him and remove him. No matter what you do, he will continue to turn your people against you and your brothers.” He spoke to Vasilisa directly.
She nodded her head. There was a gentle flow, a probing, as Afanasiv started to say something to her, but she had deliberately raised her shields, barricading her mind against him. She was unsure of her thoughts and didn’t want to say, do or even think something she couldn’t take back.