Chapter 27
Tehvan
The silence stretched for one heartbeat. Two. Then Thorn exploded.
The first punch came so hard and fast it broke skin and maybe a molar, snapping Tehvan’s head sideways into a portrait of their father.
Glass and blood in his mouth, sweet with the taste of shock, Tehvan barely had time to register a second fist driving into his ribs.
Something cracked, but he spat the blood out and straightened, refusing to give Thorn the satisfaction of seeing him stumble.
Too slow. Thorn bulldozed him back, both hands clutching Tehvan’s collar, and the world spun before his back hit the mortared stone hard enough to make the sconces rattle.
"You lying bastard!" Thorn's voice was a roar, spittle flying from his lips. "All these years—ALL THESE YEARS—you let me think she was dead!" His grip tightened, nails nearly puncturing the fabric. "I mourned her. I blamed myself. I blamed you. And she's been alive?!"
Tehvan's head rang from the impact, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't fight back. He met Thorn's wild gaze steadily. "Yes."
The simple admission seemed to drain some of the violence from Thorn, replaced by something more dangerous—a quiet seething fury. He released Tehvan's collar but didn't step back, his breathing ragged.
"Where?" The word came out as a whisper, but it carried the weight of a death sentence. "Where is she?"
"Not until you agree—"
Thorn's hand shot out, fingers wrapping around Tehvan's throat. "I will kill you slowly. I will hunt down your precious Elora and make her suffer in ways that would make Gerard look merciful. I will tear apart everything you've ever cared about." His grip tightened incrementally. "WHERE IS FLORA?"
Tehvan's vision began to darken at the edges, but he forced out the words through his constricted windpipe. "She... chose this. She begged me..."
Thorn's grip loosened just enough for Tehvan to breathe. "What?"
"She came to me the night before the incident," Tehvan gasped, massaging his throat as Abernathy stepped back. "Terrified. Broken. She said she couldn't be what you wanted her to be. Said the pressure, the expectations—they were killing her from the inside."
"Lies."
"She asked me to help her disappear. To make it look like an accident.
" Tehvan straightened, finding his footing again.
"I refused, but she was so desperate, Abernathy.
She would have run with or without my help.
She said she wasn't smart enough, wasn't strong enough.
That she'd never be the legacy you deserved and couldn't bear to disappoint you. "
Thorn's face contorted, a mix of rage and something that might have been grief. "She was mine. My legacy. My—"
"She was fourteen years old and convinced she could never measure up to your brilliance. When did you last tell her she was enough as she was?"
For a moment, Abernathy looked genuinely stricken. Then the mask slammed back into place, harder than before. "So you helped her run. And then what? Replaced her with another girl to mock me?"
Tehvan's shoulders sagged slightly. "I never meant it as mockery. I just... I wanted a daughter. One who wanted me back." His voice grew quieter. "You were right about that. Elora was in a way a replacement. But not to spite you—to fill the hole Florence left when she chose to leave."
"Chose," Thorn spat. "As if a child can make such choices."
"She's not a child anymore, Abernathy. She's twenty-seven now. A woman. She's made her own life."
"Without me." The words came out broken, and for a moment, Thorn looked every one of his years. "She's lived thirteen years without me. Without my guidance. Without our family. She is a Thorn."
Tehvan watched his brother's face, seeing the crack in his armor. He needed something to solidify the lie. He needed proof. The ring on his finger pulsed and with it an idea he prayed he wouldn’t regret.
He slipped his only connection to Elora off his finger.
The metal was warm, almost burning against his palm. Thorn's eyes tracked the movement.
"I've been monitoring Florence all these years. Making sure she was safe. Alive."
He held the ring out between them, and Thorn's gaze fixed on it with an intensity that was almost frightening. The steady pulse was visible even in the dim light, a soft glow that matched the rhythm of a distant heart.
"She's alive," Tehvan repeated. "And she can still be everything you wanted her to be. You always said bloodlines mattered most. Legacy. The continuation of the Thorn family methods." He took a step closer, the ring still extended. "She was supposed to be your prodigy. You can have that back."
Abernathy's hand trembled as he reached for the ring, then stopped just short of touching it. "Thirteen years is a lot to undo in a person."
"People can be... reshaped. Rewired. You've perfected those techniques over the years.
" Tehvan's voice was carefully neutral. The thought of handing Florence over to him, damning her to what should have always been her true legacy felt like the ultimate betrayal.
He swallowed hard, reminding himself Thorn would never actually get his hands on her.
He just needed to believe that he could.
"She's still your blood. Still has your gifts.
Still has the potential you saw in her."
"And if I take this," Thorn said slowly, his gaze never leaving the ring, "you and Elora disappear? Forever?"
"You'll never see us again. We'll be gone from the Empire, beyond your reach. But Florence… Flora..." Tehvan let the implication hang. "Flora comes home."
Abernathy's breathing had steadied, his calculating mind already working. The wild fury was being channeled, focused into something more dangerous—purpose. "How do I know you're not lying? That this isn't some elaborate trick?"
"I’ll show you the memory of what truly happened that night. You can see it for yourself. She wasn’t in the fire, it was just a cover up."
Abernathy stared at the ring for a long moment, the steady pulse hypnotic in the silence.
When he finally looked up, his eyes held a different kind of hunger, anticipation.
He reached out and took the ring from Tehvan's palm.
The moment it touched his skin, his eyes closed, and something like relief passed over his features.
"My Flora," he whispered. "My legacy."
When he opened his eyes again, they were clear and cold and utterly focused. "Where?"
"That's my only leverage, brother. I can't give you her location until I'm certain you'll uphold your end."
Thorn's grip tightened on the ring, enclosing it in his palm. "I could extract it from you. Alchemy has ways of making even the most stubborn minds cooperative."
"You could try." Tehvan shrugged. "But I used alchemy to lock that knowledge away years ago.
Only my willing mind can retrieve it. You could spend months experimenting with truth potions, trying to find a way to override the lock.
" He paused, letting that sink in. "But we both know you don't have months.
Every day Elora is out there on her own is another day all your hard work could fall into the wrong hands. "
Thorn's jaw worked silently, the muscle jumping as he ground his teeth. Tehvan could practically see the calculations running behind his eyes—weighing options, considering alternatives.
"Here's what's going to happen," Tehvan continued, pressing his advantage. "You're going to allow me to find Elora. We'll board a ship together and leave the Empire. She'll return the recipe she stole from you. Once we're both secured and safely away, only then will I tell you where Florence is."
"Unacceptable." But there was less conviction in Thorn's voice than before.
"Think about it, Abernathy. You could spend weeks trying to track her down without my help.
You don't have her DNA for blood tracking spells.
Mine wouldn't be precise enough—too many genetic degrees of separation.
You don't know what name she's using, what she looks like now, whether she's even in The Empire.
" Tehvan took a step closer, applying just the right amount of pressure to make Thorn squirm.
"I'm offering you a guaranteed path to your legacy.
All it costs you is letting go of your revenge. "
His brother was silent for a long moment, his free hand drumming against his thigh in a rapid, agitated rhythm. "Fine. But I have conditions."
Tehvan waited.
"Do you know where Elora is now?"
"No." The lie came easily, smoothly. Tehvan had practiced it so many times he almost believed it himself.
"Though if I had to guess she would head for Kilfaire.
Less imperial eyes compared to the capital.
" He paused, as if considering. "There's a scholar summit in Kilfaire next week.
It would give me a legitimate reason to leave the Institute. "
Thorn's eyes narrowed. "You're not going alone."
Tehvan had expected this. "Of course not.
You'll want to supervise. Make sure I don't simply disappear with her.
" He kept his voice level, hiding the spike of anxiety at the thought of Thorn in the same city as Elora.
"Though I have a condition of my own," Tehvan said carefully.
"No mercenary contracts. No bounties posted in either city. "
"Absolutely not." Thorn's response was immediate. "If she surfaces in Aszona while we're in Kilfaire, I need eyes there."
"Then you risk losing Flora forever," Tehvan said simply. "Because if Elora dies, you'll never learn where your niece is."
Thorn's grip on the ring tightened, and for a moment Tehvan thought he might refuse. Then his shoulders sagged slightly. "I’ll compromise. The contract will specify that she must be taken alive. Any group that kills her forfeits the bounty and answers to me personally."
Tehvan's stomach turn, but he nodded anyway. "Then we understand each other."
"We leave for Kilfaire tomorrow," Thorn said, slipping the ring onto his own finger, and closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath as Elora’s heartbeat pulsed in time with his.
"And Tehvan? If this is some elaborate deception, if you're planning to double-cross me.
.." He opened his eyes, the cold stone gray of a man who meant every threat stared at Tehvan.
"I'll make you watch as I take Elora apart piece by piece. "
Tehvan forced himself to nod calmly, even as every instinct screamed at him to run. He had seven days to reach Kilfaire, find Elora, and somehow get them both safely away from the Empire—all while keeping Thorn from discovering the truth.