“Ruthless.” Vernon smirked. “The witch-
blood in your veins ran true after all.”
She couldn’t stand it. To be in this room
with him. To breathe the same air as the man
who had smiled while her father had been
executed, smiled while he locked her in that
tower for ten years. Smiled while he’d
touched Kaltain, done far worse perhaps, then
tried to sell Elide to Erawan for breeding.
“Why?” she asked.
It was the only question she could really
think of, that really mattered. “Why do any of
it?”
“Since my breaths are limited,” Vernon
said, “I suppose it makes no difference what I
tell you.” A small smile curled his lips.
“Because I could,” her uncle said. Lorcan
growled. “Because my brother, your father,
was an insufferable brute, whose only
qualification to rule was the order of our birth.
lily
(lily)
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