Page 300 of Scarlet Wars
She sighed and ran a thumb across my knuckles.
“Then take the damn thing out, Maurice. If you’re so scared, remove the block.”
I nodded faintly, like it was a thought I’d already gone over a thousand times.
“I will. I just… Not now. Not with all these eyes on her. Something’s off. These Radicals… The way they’ve been targeting her. It’s too precise. It’s not random.” I shook my head. “I think Stephen’s involved somehow.”
Maria blinked once, then creased her brow. “I don’t believe that. But he’s your friend. If you’re worried, simply ask him.”
I let out a humorless breath. “I don’t trust him anymore. Not with her. That’s why I didn’t tell him about her being my daughter. He’s got his own ideas, his own agenda. Trying to push her toward James like some kind of matchmaker.”
Maria snorted and rolled onto her back, her hair spilling across the sheets like ink.
“Wow. A father who doesn’t want his daughter in a romantic relationship. Shocking.”
“This isn’t that,” I replied coldly. “The boy’s not worthy oftrainingher. He hasn’t finished the first half of hisfirstcycle. He can’t even manage his own emotions yet. And now he’s the one leading a maga who carries translation laced withtwo hazes, both holding the knowledge and weight of overfifty cycles? While she’s being hunted byRadicals?”
I shook my head slowly, the fire behind his eyes burning through the quiet. “It’s reckless. And it’s a mistake.”
Maria paused, watching him carefully. “Why don’t you tell her she’s your daughter? Train her yourself?”
I squeezed her hand, a rare softness passing through my chest. “Because I could never do that to her. Or her mother.”
Maria went still. “You still love Lucia.”
It wasn’t a question. And even if it had been, she already knew the answer. So I didn’t give one, just like all the times before.
“We’ll have many cycles to find our way back to each other,” I mumbled back quietly. “There’s no need to rush it now.”
Whoosh.
Another clip. Another timeline.
The room was dimmer this time. Intimate. Private. The moonlight returned, spilling over stone floors and high ceilings.
“You killed Bill Ferrars?” Maria hissed. “Emma’s boss?”
I stood with my back to her; arms folded behind me like a general waiting for war. “Only way to wipe out any roads that would lead to me, or her. The Radicals are looking for her, and I’m not taking any risks.”
Maria shot to her feet, eyes blazing. “What if someone suspectsher?”
I didn’t flinch. “She was retrieved over two months ago. No one will.”
Maria took a step forward. “And if they do?”
I turned at last, my eyes glinting with cold intent.
“Then we blame the Radicals.”
Anotherwhoosh.
But this one didn’t land cleanly. The edges of the vision wavered—flickering like static—as if Maurice didn’t want me seeing what came next.
The haze finally settled, and I found myself inside a different room, darker, colder. The air heavy with old blood and fresh betrayal.
I was already mid-rant.
“Those people at Coastal weren’t yours,” I spat at a man I didn’t recognize, broad-shouldered, eyes like black ice. “They were Caden Colt’s men, on a mission for Stephen Stone.”
