Page 50 of Scarlet Wars
“I forgive you for lying James, I do but…there’s more.”
I took in another deep breath, forcing myself to lay it all out there.
“Five months, James. Without a word. After everything…” My voice quivered, and I hated how vulnerable I sounded.
“I’m so sorry about that.” He hesitated, his throat working as if the words were caught there. “But?—”
He closed his lids, and I saw the faint shimmer of rippling light rising from his hands, his haze itching to break free.
James took a deep, steadying breath. “When you left Switzerland with Caden, I was angry and hurt. But most of all, I lost hope. I thought I’d lost you forever, especially after Stephentold us one of us would father the Krait, and you’d be his mother.”
“Alek,” I corrected instinctively, the name falling from my lips like second nature.
James’s eyes snapped open, the sheer intensity of his gaze almost knocking me off balance.
“My son’s name is Alek, not the Krait,” I said firmly. “And, honestly, I don’t even understand how one would earn such a nickname.”
James clenched his fists, his knuckles whitening before he slowly released them. Then, as if unable to hold it in any longer, he blurted out, “My real name is Alexander.”
My mind stalled for a moment, his words echoing in my head before they fully landed. “Your real name is Alexander? Okay… Thank you for telling me. It’s a great name, great ruler in human history, also?—”
“With a K,” he interrupted, cutting off my rambling.
I blinked. Slowly, the weight of his statement began to settle.
No.
No, no, no.
Not again. This wasnothappening again. Not another secret, not another bombshell to shatter the fragile pieces I was barely holding together.
“What are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying.”
I shook my head in disbelief. My chest tightened as if the air itself had turned to stone, and the walls of the room seemed to close in.
I hadn’t even been back for five minutes, and already my world was tilting, spinning with new secrets and fresh lies. Ihatedhow he did that. Always bombing me with new truths, piecing together a puzzle I never agreed to solve.
“You’re the father? We’ll have a son…and we’ll name him after you?”
James nodded. “Yeah. Looks that way. Unless you’d think Colt would ever name his son after me.”
The mention of Caden shook me to my core, flooding me with the sudden, aching realization of how much I missed his steady, comforting presence.
I needed him. Needed his arms around me to anchor me while I processed this news. I needed the soothing cadence of his deep voice, the quiet strength in his warm whiskey eyes—eyes that promised he’d burn the world for me if it meant making everything all right.
But clearly, any confusing feelings I had about Caden needed to be smothered if I were to birth James’s child.
My anger flared up again. “Tell me,Aleksander. How long have you known?”
James’s expression flickered, guilt flashing in it as he glanced away. “Since Switzerland.”
I frowned at him. “But you knew his name before then?”
James shook his head once, his shoulders tense. “No. I only found out when we took the blue portal to the future with Stephen. Which was the first time I saw what happened at the ruins of Cyclos. Before, I’d only seen the part near Sapere, and I only knew him as the ‘Krait.’”
“But you’ve known since Switzerland?”
