Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
He’d even managed to convince himself, in his dark and undecided moments, that he was doing the Brotherhood a favor. He wasn’t betraying them. He was delivering the enemy to them, and for a noble reason.
To protect his sister.
But as Allhan arrived at the door to the residence he’d been welcomed into, he thought about the differences between him and his hosts. On his side, things were complicated and duplicitous and dangerous. On their side, their charity was simple and profound and clear.
They had seen that he was all alone and had taken him in.
He had repaid their kindness by spying on them.
In the disparity between the two sides of the sad equation, he was revealed as a monster. A monster who had fooled himself into believing that he was just like everybody else, merely in a tight spot that was not of his own making.
Except he had killed his own father, for godsakes.
As he turned the door handle and pushed, he needed time to think, time to plan a way to get out of all this—
Vishous was sitting over on the sofa, an ashtray balanced on his black-leather-clad thigh, a stream of smoke exhaling in front of his face so that he was obscured briefly. Doc Jane was in the armchair next to him, her legs tucked under her seat as Allhan used to be able to do, her blue scrubs unmarked by blood, a pair of banana-yellow Crocs kicked off on the floor in front of her. Both of them had their eyes down, and in unison, they looked up at him.
Doc Jane had a professionally pleasant expression on her face.
Vishous looked like he’d eaten something that hadn’t agreed with him. Which was the Brother’s way of trying to smile.
In all the time Allhan had spent with them, he had never, ever known them to use the living room as anything other than a dumping ground for duffle bags and footwear.
Oh, God, they know everything, Allhan thought.
This is really happening.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The domed Constellation Room was a place Denne rarely went. It had always made her feel uncomfortable, like she was an imposter in a sacred temple, and as she entered in front of her parents, her eyes went to the white circle in the center. She had never sat in that special designation, even though she was allowed to as the heir to the throne, and for the first time, she walked over to it, stopping just outside of the demarcation.
“Dennesha,” her father said.
She pinned a smile on her face and turned around. “Uh-oh, my government name. What’s wrong?”
Even though she assumed this was about t’On and birth charts and shit she didn’t want to think about, maybe she’d luck out and they were just going to confront her about the human she’d murdered.
You know, something lighter and less troublesome to deal with.
Although knowing her luck, they’d cover the dead guy first and then hit her with her destiny as a chaser.
Her mother, the Queen, moved across the floor like she was floating, no discernible footsteps happening, the shimmering golden robe like sunlight on water at the height of the summer. And for a moment, Denne went back to her pretrans years, when she would sneak away from her tutor and swim in the ponds inside the Territory.
Such freedom in the safe rebellion she’d exercised back then, always returning to the palace before anyone noticed, thrilled and damp with her little secret.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Catra said as she looked at her mate.
When iAm just thinned his lips and nodded, her mother took a deep breath like she was about to launch a monologue that’d make War and Peace look like a pamphlet.
“t’On came to see me tonight at the restaurant,” Denne interjected before they got on a roll. “In a suit, which was a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him out of ceremonial robing so it was good to find out he actually has legs. I was starting to worry he’d never have that soccer-player-second-act males always seem to go for.”
In the dim light, her father’s black eyes gleamed. “What did he tell you?”
“Just that the shooting stars from last night meant something about him and me, and the Territory. I was closing up so I didn’t pay a lot of attention.”
Ratting the guy out for showing her the chart didn’t seem right, somehow. But she couldn’t bear to play pretend while her parents dragged out the truth she already knew.
“There was a prophecy,” Catra said softly, “that was revealed on the night of your transition. We should have presented the chart to you back then.”
“But we didn’t want you to be pressured.” iAm cursed under his breath, that stare softening with apology. “We both thought it was important for you to live your own life. Find your own way.”