Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Kerrigan felt a frantic pull down her bond. She was momentarily confused. She had only ever felt love down the bond that led to Fordham. But in that moment, she felt nothing but abject panic.
Her eyes skipped to the left, where Fordham and Wynter stood. He pointed to Bastian and then Wynter and then back to Bastian. Next to Ford, Wynter gestured to Bastian. Kerrigan shook her head, as if she didn’t understand.
But she did.
She just didn’t want to.
Because what they were suggesting was too much to take in. Way too much to even begin to comprehend. She had known that there were Red Masks in the Society. She had even known that one of the council members was the Father. Helly had been investigating her fellows while Kerrigan went after the Collector to try to get proof.
There was a flaw with this plan. They had both assumed that Bastian was in the clear. He was her mentor for her apprenticeship. He had been on her side since the beginning. He was the one to push for her to join the Society and spoke for her at every turn to help her get ahead. He had even trained her against magical artifacts.
There was no way that he was the Father.
And yet … Wynter’s magic didn’t lie.
If she was gesturing to Bastian after seeing the Father use his powers and their auras matched, there was only one explanation.
Bastian was the Father.
50
THE FATHER
“No!” ripped out of Kerrigan before she could think better of it.
The word echoed across the celebrating arena. Everyone turned to look at her. She shook with fury and betrayal and hurt. She didn’t understand how this could be possible.
How she had been so deceived …
Bastian had been one of the few people that she could rely on. One of the few people she put her trust into. He would never be as close to her as Helly, but Kerrigan had confided her thoughts and fears to him on more than one occasion.
She hadn’t seen the signs.
Now that she thought back on their interactions, she could see the beginning of what was coming. The covetous look in his eyes when she’d mentioned the Ring of Endings. The way he had asked her very specific questions about the Collector. His stark interest in her attending Red Masks rallies. When he had congratulated her on her speech earlier that week and said that the Society would “get what is coming to them.” She’d thought it strange, and now, she saw it for what it really was. Every little interaction had added up to him being a monster.
“You have no right to that position,” Kerrigan snarled.
Bastian’s smile was predatory. “I have already sworn an oath to the Society, Kerrigan. I will uphold my duty.”
“Does your duty include killing innocent humans and half-Fae?” She took a step toward him with fury laced in her features. “Are you going to stand there and pretend that you’re not the Father of the Red Masks?”
A gasp went up throughout the crowd.
Tieran spoke into her mind. What are you doing? This cannot be true.
But she couldn’t speak to her dragon. She could look at no one but the great deceiver before her.
It was a bold accusation with no proof. She just had Wynter’s word, but in that moment, Kerrigan trusted her. She knew it was true. She knew it the moment Bastian smiled at her. They had all walked right into his trap.
“Mistress Kerrigan,” Zoh said with a shake of his head. “Such unfounded statements will not be tolerated, even by council members.”
“You selected me because I’m not afraid to tell the truth. And the truth is that Bastian is the Father of the Red Masks.” She turned to face Bastian in challenge. “Deny it.”
Zoh opened his mouth again to speak, but Bastian held his hand up. “Enough.”
“But, Bastian …”
Bastian ignored him. He met her expression, and something shifted in that look. Something cold and calculating. Then, he reached into the folds of his robes and removed a mask that Kerrigan had seen in her nightmares.
“I do not deny it,” Bastian proclaimed.
He put the red mask on his face and raised both hands into the air. Red fireworks jumped from his hands, sending the sparks high into the night sky. They exploded like warning flares. A signal.
Her world exploded.
Kerrigan screamed as a blast rocked the stage, and she was thrown from her feet. Her ears rang, and she recognized the side effects of a blanc magical artifact attack. She was too late to do anything to counter the effects. She was supposed to have put up a magical shield against it, made from air, before it ever got to this moment. But they were supposed to be singular devices. Only bad to the person it was directly thrown at and maybe the people standing right next to them.