Page 99 of Knight’s Absolution

“I don’t understand such feelings.”

She touched his forearm, and he looked down and frowned again. “I know you don’t. I didn’t either. But I always had this ache, right here,” she said, touching her chest where her heart used to beat. “Something was always missing.”

He stared into her eyes as if trying to see inside her, and finally, he nodded. “I think…I think I experienced something like that.”

Was she getting through? Was she actually getting through to him? “He told me for years that you were locked away, that he’d hurt you or kill you if I didn’t do as he said. He lied to me.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I never forgot what he did to our mother. I didn’t need to feel or understand emotions to know that was wrong. I refused to give him my loyalty because of what he did. He manipulated me to ensure I complied.”

His mouth tightened, a tiny chink in that stony mask. “Our mother? What do you think he did?”

Luna stared up at him as pain assaulted her, disbelief. “He killed her, Ronan. You were there beside me when he removed her head in front of us.”

A muscle in his cheek jumped. “No. No, you’re wrong. I have no recollection of that.”

“You were there, Ronan. You stood beside me, you cried out for her as she fell to the floor. That’s why he’s kept us apart, that’s why he wouldn’t let us be together. Together, we would defy him.” She squeezed his forearm. “He is nothing without us. Nothing.”

“I don’t believe it. I’d remember him murdering our mother…”

“You must have blocked it out, seeing her slaughtered that way. You were older. Maybe your bond to her was stronger? Having that severed would have caused you great distress. It did for me. You’ve locked it away, Ronan, to protect yourself, but if you try, if you think really hard, I know you’ll remember.”

He pulled his arm out from under her hand. “The knights, they’ve toyed with you, sister. They’ve taken advantage of your emotions, your weakness.” He took a step back. “You’ve been brainwashed by our enemy.”

Her panic grew. “No, you’ve been manipulated by Azel. This loyalty you feel toward him, he doesn’t deserve it.”

“You’re wrong,” he said, voice low, cold.

She shook as fear sent freezing icicles through her veins. “He locked me away, Ronan. Months without blood, not even food or water. I was skin over bone when Gunner found me. My heart stopped beating, my organs had shut down.” She grabbed his hand and pressed it to her chest. “See. Nothing.”

“Mine doesn’t beat either.”

“He did the same to you?” she rasped.

“He did nothing to me. Our hearts are unnecessary, it’s not unusual for them to stop.”

She’d had no idea that it could happen.

One of many things Azel had kept from her. She looked up at her brother. God, she wasn’t getting through to him. “He made me drink his blood, his toxic blood, and then he used my body for his pleasure. He hurt me. Manipulated me.”

His shoulders stiffened. “You know so little of the ways of our kind, sister. Our bodies are our currency. It’s the accepted price for the blood we drink. It’s the most logical form of payment since our donors feel arousal when we feed from them.”

God, she was going to be sick. “That may have been true, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.”

“Your emotions are skewing things in your mind…”

“Ronan…” she choked, pain slicing through her. “He used you like that as well?”

Her brother looked completely unmoved. “Yes, of course.”

“That’s…it’s not right. No one has the right to take any part of us without us giving it freely. What he did to you, to me, was wrong, Ronan. All of it.”

“You’re confused.”

Warmth ticked down her cheeks. She was goddamn crying again. Had anyone in the history of the world ever cried as much as she did now? “We were children and he took us from our mother. He killed her and made us his playthings. He used us for the power we could give him. He doesn’t care about either of us.”

He stared at her long and hard before he finally spoke. “Logic is beyond you now. The knights have toyed with these emotions you have somehow developed and you are not seeing things as they truly are. Once Sir is back with us, he’ll help you overcome your weakness.”