Seven
Seven
HIM
I head downstairs to talk to Mother, needing to ask her a question before I meet with Aleric. I find her in the kitchen, sitting at the counter, her hands pressed to the wood as she hums. She’s talking to it – or rather, to her. To the monster who died and whose ashes have been magically mixed into the twisted knots of the zebrano – an old companion of hers called Olivia.
She looks up as I enter the kitchen. She slides her hands across the counter in a farewell, then stands as I reach her.
“You can’t trust him,” she says.
“You trusted him to save Khalid,” I counter, referencing a call she made to him three months ago. For how much she claims to hate the vampire, he was the first one she thought of to help her.
“I have something he wants,” she says tightly. “You do not.”
“I have the resources to save his Family.”