Page 31 of Lies That Bleed
“I would like to keep this private,” he told the man as I walked to the door, Zuri following me.
“Of course, my liege,” the coroner said, and I grabbed the handle of the door.
“I know that keeping secrets can be a burden. So what does a secret like this cost to you?” my father asked him and I left the room.
Zuri stepped in front of me, showing me the way out of the building and to the motorized car. My father was going to pay the coroner to keep my secret. That meant it was a big deal. Of course it was a big deal! Ijust woke up in a body bag! My mind raced with all of these thoughts.
Zuri stood by the door of the long black car, motor still running with my father’s driver at the front. Was Zuri simply showing me the way as a kindness? Or making sure I didn’t run?
I slipped into the backseat and saw that the partition had been raised so that our driver, Verik, could not listen to or see me.
My father came outside a few moments later and slid across from me, with Zuri leaping on the seat next to him as the driver took off.
My father peered at me with concern. “Tell me everything. Leave nothing out.”
It was the worst thing he could ever ask of me. It made me wonder what he knew and how much to say. Had Kohen or anyone else seen my dead body? Had they seen me bond with the firebird? Had they told him? A lie could get me in trouble. When I was seven, my father told me that Zuri could smell a lie. I didn’t know if he’d said it to scare his daughter into telling the truth or if it was in fact the truth. But I didn’t want to find out.
“I was in The Wilds, nearly going on day three,” I told him, “Then I happened upon an egg.”
He frowned. “An egg?”
I nodded. “A large golden one. Then… I saw her… a Talanagi.”
My father’s sharp intake of breath confirmed my suspicion. He had no idea that’s what I’d bonded with.
He leaned forward, as if to sharpen his hearing, and Zuri just stared at me, unmoving from where she’d perched.
I breathed the next two words in fear: “A firebird.” Telling my father the truth was inevitable. Liana would show up and reveal it anyway.
My father’s gaze narrowed slightly, but otherwise there was no way to tell how he was feeling.
“Go on,” was all he said.
“I’m not stupid!” I told him animatedly. “I tried to run. I knew that there was no way I was going to survive a bonding with a Talanagi. So I gave her my back… intending to sprint away from her… and she drew my blood.”
My father nodded. “But you did survive, didn’t you?”
There was tension in the car. I wasn’t sure what to say, or what he wanted me to say.
He smiled then, a rare emotion on him. “My daughter bonded to a Talanagi. We need to celebrate.”
I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Yeah… holy crap, I can’t believe it.”
“Where is she?” He peered outside, eyeing the skies as if expecting Liana to be flying circles above us.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know… there was an explosion of fire and then I woke up in a body bag.”
He nodded. “So you can escapedeath?”
“I don’t think so. Just this once I think,” I hedged.
He raised one eyebrow. “You bonded her, right? That means you should know things. Are you immortal, Aisling?”
My heart picked up a notch. I hated how I always felt like I was walking on ice with this man. My own father. He didn’t know when to stop being emperor and just be Dad.
“My creature is,” I said, my gaze flicking to Zuri. She probablycouldsmell a lie and I didn’t want to give my dad a reason not to trust me right now. “But I had to fight to be… reborn?” I used the word, unsure if it was the right one. “And she gave me the sense that I could have died and stayed dead had I not been strong and fought. I doubt I could do it again.” Fighting the fire beast had been tiring, and I was speaking the truth. I wanted to tell him that the Talanagi we’d found had been just across the Luska border, but I feared it was an irresponsible act he’d never let me live down. So for now I kept it to myself.
My father relaxed a little then and nodded. “The Talanagi are very powerful. And now I have two at my command.”
