Chapter 414


    Lanie


    didat physically st agger back, but everythme made me tweeted and turned white Lity howled Red


    consumed my vision as my vampire and wolf selvs fought for control, and there was more inside me


    too parts of me I never felt before Didn’t know how to


    New elements of myself were trvale to rise and take ves


    Ste raised a hand toward me. She didn’t say anything, but instantly, I felt the relief of being settled


    back inside myself. Me, Lanie, Luna and mate to Xander, Mason, and Zane Mother to Ste, ina,


    and baac


    Granddaughter to Mchi S ervant to the Moon Goddess,


    “Thank you,” I said to my daughter


    She nodded. ‘It’s shocking news, I know”


    “Gabri,” Mchi said with a snarl. She will have to be killed of course”


    “No,” Ste replied in her same calm voice. She has h o idea that she is the one providing the High


    Council with their information.”


    I couldn’t stay sitting. I had to move. I paced the floor at half double speed and for my muscles


    responding with a groan. Not at the effort of moving that much faster than normal, but with the restraint


    of


    stopping myself from buzzing around the room like an angry wasp.


    “If she’s a spy, how can she not know that about herself?” Lasked, spinning to a stop on one heel to


    face


    Ste.


    “She’s not a spy, exactly. But they are using her.”


    Ste touched her fingertips to her temple again, this time only for a second or so.


    “She hasn’t been around as much. She’s been suspicious of me. Things have been different with bec


    said to Mchi. “I should have known something like this!”


    Ste shook her head. “How could you have? All you’ve been told since we got here was boW SONID


    Brightsky is.”


    Mchi’s expression twisted. “And it is. Or at least, it has been at least until you all arrived. Stingiga


    spy, no less!”


    “I told you, she’s not a spy. She’s a victim of the High Council’s intrigues as much as anyone they le


    eve used for their own gain. Perhaps more, because, unlike her husband, Gabri did not choose


    “Stolia looked at Mchi, then at me. No Fiora joy came out of her this time. Only a calm and steady


    tooling of truth. ‘Gabri has found friends and a life here in the enve. That’s a good thing for her.


    Something she


    1/2


    Chapter 414


    and frankly, deserved.”


    I paused before answering. “How much do you know about your grandfather, Orion, and what he did?”


    Ste smiled gently. “I know everything I need to know about everything, Mother.”


    “So you’ve pointed out,” Mchi said. “But what your mother wants to know is, exactly what do you


    know,


    so she doesn’t have to find a way to be nice about telling you that your father’s father was a viin.”


    “I know of his betrayal,” Ste told me. “I also know what you have not yet learned, and that’s about his


    deal with the High Council.”


    1-


    “I know about him and his ns for the hybrids,” I began, but Ste shook her head.


    “Orion Constantine worked toward his own interests for a long time before any of what you know about


    him came to pass. He offered what did not belong to him in his pursuit of power,” she said. “He gave


    them his


    wife.”


    I paced again, more slowly this time. I wracked my brain trying to recall anything Xander’s mother had


    ever told me about the High Council, its ns, Orion’s part in them, and also her own. It all felt as


    though it


    had happened to me so long ago. I was having a hard time recalling even how long we’d been at


    Brightsky.


    Weeks? Months? Surely, we could not even have been here for a year yet.


    “Time passes differently here,” my daughter said aloud, although she had to be reacting to the


    onught


    of my increasingly louder thoughts.


    Mchi whipped his head to stare at her. “What are you telling her that for?”


    “Because she deserves to understand everything, and I’m doing my best to put it all together,” Ste


    retorted in a harsh tone unlike her previous cool calm.


    To me, she said, “I don’t mean it’s like time travel or anything like that. It’s just that here in the enve,


    separated from the outside world, it’s easy to drift along without a solid knowledge of the passing of


    time. You shouldn’t feel badly about it, Mother. It’s the same for everyone here, but for us in particr.”


    “No bills to pay, no real responsibilities, every need of desire catered to,” I said with a look at my


    grandfather. “The privilege of being the king’s granddaughter, right? Keep us content but stu pid?”


    “That’s ridiculous,” Mchi said. “If anything, all I’ve done since you got here was try to help you


    be better. And how am I repaid? You brought a snake into my henhouse! What choice have you


    given me, Lanie, but to throw you all out at once?”


    1


    2/2N?velDrama.Org exclusive content.