Page 72 of A Tempest of Intrigue
“What if she doesn’t want to go back? What if she fights your decision? What if she goes against you and tells Ivan who she is?”
“She knows Ivan would kill her if he learned the truth; he wouldn’t allow any competition for his throne.”
“And what if she fights you? What will you do then?”
“She’d be an idiot to do so. Without me, she has no power or protection in this realm, but if she chooses to be a fool, then I’ll kill her like I killed the others.”
Despite my determination to remain aloof and to annoy him, his words sent a shock through me. “Whatothers?”
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Ryker
“You don’t thinkLeo only left one bastard child behind, do you?” my father taunted.
I pondered his words as I debated how to respond. “I understand why he came to you about Bria, butwhywould he tell you about other children?”
“You’re sofuckingnaïve, Ryker. How did I ever have a son who is sostupidregarding political intrigue? Ofcoursehe didn’t tell me about them, but I’m not an idiot. If the man was foolish enough to beget one bastard with a whore, then he’d do so with others too. I hunted those others down.”
Uneasiness churned in my gut. I was not going to like what he had to say. “How?”
“It took some doing, and a fair amount of carisle, but I had some men uncover all they could about Leo’s past proclivities. In doing so, I discovered more than a few of his offspring. Most were grown, but a couple were still children. Since they couldn’t be useful to me, I had them killed.”
I didn’t know why this astounded me. I knew how far my father would go to gain control of the realm and how depraved he was, but the possibility of him hunting down Leo’s bastards and slaughtering them never occurred to me.
And then I recalled something else. “The orphanage fire in Cartha.”
“So, you’ve heard about that too.”
“There were rumors that men in black were seen running away from it.”
“Those incompetent idiots,” he muttered. “I had them all killed.”
They were most likely the last residents of his dungeon. “Not everyone died in that fire.”
“Those fools were incompetent, but I can assure you Leo’s bastard sondiddie in it. They cut off his head before the fire started. The flames helped cover that.”
“Childrendied in that blaze.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ryker, stop being such an emotional pussy. To gain power, one must be willing to do whatever it takes… including stomping on those far lesser than them.”
Iloathedthis man. I stepped toward him before catching myself and moving away. There was a reason I couldn’t kill him now, but I was having difficulty remembering what it was.
My father’s smirk only grew. He knew what I was thinking and that I wouldn’t act on those impulses.
“If it makes you feel better, Leo’s son wasn’t a child,” he said. “He helped run the orphanage. He grew up there and decided to stay on once he became an adult.”
I didn’t know what to make of any of this. Leo had let his son be raised in an orphanage? Did he know about the boy?
He must have known his son was there if my father uncovered him. I’d loved and looked up to Leo, but I was so disappointed in him.
“Did that man know he was Leo’s son?” I asked.
“I don’t think so. Unlike Bria, Leo had nothing to do with the boy after creating him.”
I glanced past him to the rolling fields and sun-kissed lake. Since Ianto had told us about the orphanage fire, I hadn’t known who burned it or why, but I should have suspected my father. If anyone was going to ruthlessly slaughter men, women, and children, it would be my father.
“I will have that female lightning bearer, Ryker,” he said. “And youwillbring her to me.”
