Page 272 of Scarlet Wars
I had more questions than my brain could retain! But the most important one…
“Did you have my parents killed?” My voice came out unsteady despite my effort to control it.
Gordon’s eyes widened, genuine shock flashing across his face.
“No, Emma. I did not,” he said, truth ringing clear in his words. “I would never have hurt your mother, would never have wanted you to know that kind of loss. And as I told you before, I’ve been trying to find the people responsible ever since.”
His tone softened, slightly. “But I have failed you, in more ways than one.”
My thoughts spiraled anyway, refusing to settle.
“You loved my mom?” The words slipped out, barely more than a whisper, as if saying them louder might shatter something.
“More than anything.”
“So you forced the Elder to mind-rape her only daughter?”
His expression darkened. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I shook my head, refusing to let him steer this away from where it was going. “Julian told us you were part of his group. The one experimenting, trying to turn humans into magi.”
Gordon scoffed, almost dismissively. “Julius lied. I had more important things to deal with than his madness. The experiments were his obsession, not mine.”
Julius?
“Does that mean you didn’t abduct three babies,” I pressed, “make him force the True Bond on all of them, of which I was the only one to survive?”
Gordon stared at me like I’d grown two heads.
“I don’t understand half of that nonsense,” he said flatly. “Why would I have abducted three babies?”
“Hell if I know,” I bit out. “I’m not the psychopath trying to turn humans into magi. But that’s exactly what Julian told James.”
“Well, Julius lied,” Gordon snapped. “Probably to hide the fact you were my daughter.”
I snorted. “How convenient. He’s dead, so there’s no one left to contradict you.”
His jaw clenched. “I can prove it to you.”
“How?”
Without breaking eye contact, he flicked his wrist, tearing open a cerulean window in reality.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I snarled. “I am not jumping through another blue portal. The future can go screw itself! I’ll make my own godsdamn decisions.”
“It’s not a portal to the future, Emma,” he replied evenly. “I want to show you, my past. Our past.”
I dragged air into my lungs like it might steady me. “Why should I care about any of that?”
“Because you do,” he said quietly. “Because you want answers. And because you deserve them.”
My gaze never left his. “If I do this—if I jump—you release Caden and James from the cave. You cut them down, and they join us here.”
“Emma—”
“That is nonnegotiable,” I cut in. “If there’s still shit to talk about, we can do it with them in the same room. But I will not sit here listening to you ramble on, while the man I lo—” I stopped talking and forced a breath. “While the men I care about are hanging from chains in some godsdamn cell.”
For a long moment, Gordon didn’t move.
