Page 32 of Lies That Bleed
“Two?” I acted surprised.
His gaze narrowed. “Kohen Badshah? He carried your dead body out of the woods. He bonded to a dragon.”
Kohen brought my body back? That was typically something left for the cleanup crew.
“Incredible.” I tried to act surprised again.
“How did he know where to find your body? Were you both hunting Talanagi together?” my father asked.
My stomach clenched and I burst out in laughter. “Father, don’t be ridiculous. But Alek and I did suspect that Kohen was tracking us in The Wilds the entire time.” I hoped it sounded believable. It was half true.
He smiled, nodding. “I knew my daughter wouldn’t do that to me.” He reached out and grasped my hand. A rare show of affection. “She wouldn’t align with my sworn enemy.”
I cleared my throat. “Kohen is in your Imperial Fleet now though, right, Father?”No longer an enemywas what I was trying to drive home. Spending the last three days with Kohen had completely changed my mind towards him, towards all of the Imbrians if I was being honest.
My father sighed. “For now.”
For now.
“I’m sure he will be loyal to his emperor,” I said.
My father raised an eyebrow. “Are you? Then you have much more to learn before you are ready to take over for me.”
I lowered my head. “Yes, Father.”
We drove home the rest of the way in silence.
Chapter
Ten
The second we walked in the door, Elaine was there with wide eyes and pursed lips. Her eyes were red-rimmed like she’d been crying.
I smiled when I saw her, and she rushed over to me. “You stupid child! You took twenty years off my life.” She pulled me into a quick hug and then all but shoved me away, looking angry.
I laughed. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Aisling!” three voices said in unison.
“They don’t know,” Elaine mouthed to me, and I spun to see the triplets descend on me.
My sisters all had identical black bob haircuts with bangs, and wore matching purple overalls with white tops. They were in a phase where they wanted to dress the same and try to trick people into knowing which was which.
“Oh my stars, her hair looks so cool,” Victory said.
“We need to dye half of ours immediately,” Virtue agreed.
“Yessss,” Valor echoed.
“No one is dyeing their hair,” my father said. “I’m going to get some work done. Celebration dinner is at eighteen hundred hours,” he said, and then left the room.
Celebration dinner? That was unexpected and nice.
“Is it true you bonded with a Talanagi and almost died?” Valor asked.
“Yeah, Father said you were in the hospital hooked up to machines and weren’t going to make it,” Virtue said.
Victory simply walked over and fell into my arms. She was the sweet, affectionate one. The others had let the puberty hormones take control and had gone feral.
