Born of Shadows (The League Gen 1 #3)(29)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

She wanted to see her mother again. To hear the sound of her voice even if it was criticizing her.

I’m an orphan.

It was a stupid thought really, especially given what was going on and what was at stake. She was a grown woman and yet she felt abandoned and alone in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible.

What am I going to do?

Her life would be forfeit once they found her.

Over and over, she saw images of her mother boasting about how no one would ever be able to defeat her—how she could take down any assassin who dared to look askance at her. That she was the strongest of warriors. But beneath that was the memory of her mother’s happy smile when Desideria had joined the Guard. There for one tiny moment, her mother had been proud of her.

And she’d failed her in the worst sort of way.

Her mother was dead.

This can’t be happening.

Her people were without leadership and she was wanted for her own mother’s murder. Her emotions were so tangled. She was angry, hurting and most of all there was a deep, dark hole inside her that felt like it would swallow her up until she lost herself completely.

Her life would never be the same.

If she lived…

The horror of it all washed over her in a tidal wave of pain. She couldn’t breathe as panic set in.

What am I going to do? How would she survive?

As if he understood her rising panic, Caillen pulled her against him and held her close. Normally, she’d shove him away for intruding on her personal space, but right now she appreciated the comfort.

No, she needed it. The sound of his heart under her cheek… the sensation of being cocooned by his warmth. He gave her strength even while her entire world was spinning out of control.

Glancing up, she saw the same look of grief-stricken shock on his face that she felt. “What happened?” he asked Fain.

“Your father was executed in his room. They found his body right after you’d left—when they’d gone in to tell him what had happened to you. I don’t know what their evidence against you is, but there’s a standing League contract out on both of youlives. And we are talking major bill-kill.”

She winced at a term that meant the bounty on their heads was so steep that most people would sell their own body parts for it.

Never had she felt more lost. How could she prove her innocence? No doubt her mother’s Guard would kill her the moment they saw her again. It would be expected.

Yes, she could demand a trial which would pit her in a death match against her aunt or her sister. But she had no doubt her mother’s killers would terminate her before she had a chance to clear her name. They wouldn’t allow her a chance to prove her innocence.

And even if she was found innocent, it wouldn’t change the outcome. As a Guard member on duty at the time of her mother’s death, she’d be held accountable. The only person who could pardon her would be the next queen.

Narcissa.

Yeah…

I’m so dead.

Caillen tightened his arms around her as he spoke to Fain. “Darling told me my father was all right when I spoke to him.”

Fain leaned back against the seat. “Darling didn’t want you to panic. According to him, your father had his throat slit and Princess Pain’s mother was left in little bloody chunks all over her bed.”

The bile rose in her throat at those unexpected cold, brutal words. A vivid image of her beautiful mother was blotted out by what he’d described.

It was more than she could take.

Before she could stop herself, she ran to the bathroom barely in time and lost what little contents she had in her stomach. Her spasms were violent and loud as her entire body shook.

Suddenly, Caillen moved in behind her while she was sick. Without a single word, he stayed with her until she was finished. Then he silently flushed.

Weak and spent, she wanted to crawl in a hole and die of embarrassment. She was acting like a child, not the warrior she’d been trained to be. Worse, tears glistened in her eyes while she did her best to not give in to emotions she knew she shouldn’t have.

I won’t cry. I won’t.

Her mother would be disappointed in her if she did and the last thing she wanted was to shame her mother any more. But Caillen wasn’t looking at her like she was an embarrassment or weak. There was compassion and something that might even be respect. But now?

Caillen handed her a cool, damp towel. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “I’m so sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. Believe me, your strength has impressed the hell out of me and that’s something that’s hard to do where I’m concerned.” He brushed a stray strand of her hair back from her forehead. The warmth of his hand on her skin sent a comforting chill through her.

His gaze was kind. His touch gentle. She wanted this moment to last until it drove out all the pain she felt.

Most of all, she wanted him.

That thought terrified her.

Yet, he’d been with her through all of this. Strong. Protective. Comforting. Dependable.

Everything a man should be. Things as a Qillaq she shouldn’t want. Things as a woman she needed.

She swallowed as she pushed those thoughts away. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head to her.

A furious light sparked in his eyes as he returned to where Fain watched them. “You are such an insensitive ass. You know you don’t just blurt out someone’s parents are dead and then describe it.”

Fain wasn’t the least bit contrite. “Why? You didn’t vomit. Besides, I’d kill to have someone give me news that good.” He glanced back to where Desideria was pushing herself to her feet. “By the way, is she going to do that for long? If she is, I say we leave her in the head and flush her out the air lock once we’re launched.”

Caillen tossed a knife at his head which he caught without hesitation.

“What?” Fain was truly baffled by Caillen’s indignation and her sympathy for her mother. “It’s not my fault I forget how sensitive you humans are. Our women don’t cry.”

“Oh trust me, Fain. Any living Andarion female who’s forced to bed down with you weeps hysterically at the mere thought of that horror.”

Fain threw the knife back at him.

Caillen caught it without blinking.

Desideria had barely pulled herself together when another Andarion male entered the shuttle and quickly closed the door behind him. This one she recognized from Caillen’s pictures.

It was Dancer.

Dancer scowled as he felt the tension between them. His gaze went from his brother to her and then to Caillen who still looked like he wanted to shoot Fain. “What’d I miss?”

“Your brother’s an idiot,” Caillen snarled.

“Yeah, I know.”

Fain scoffed at Dancer’s calm acceptance. “You don’t have to agree with him.”

“You don’t have to be an idiot either. But I notice that doesn’t stop you from it. And I’ve seen you actually use your brain, so I know you have one.” Dancer glanced back to Caillen. “So what’d he do?”

Fain gestured toward them. “I just told them their parents were dead and she threw up.

“Ah, krik, Fain…” He broke off into Andarion and for several seconds the two of them argued back and forth while gesturing wildly.

Caillen whistled to get their attention. “You two can play a round of Insult My Gene Pool later. Right now, we need to focus on getting us out of here.”

Fain snorted. “Not so easy, brother. Anyone leaving here will be scanned for hijackers. I don’t think you understand that there’s a ten-million-credit bounty on each of your heads. For that kind of money, you’re lucky I’m not handing you in.”

Caillen was stunned by an amount that was usually reserved for traitors, pedophiles and rogue assassins… and now two royal members of the council. “Ten million credits?”

“Each,” Fain reiterated.

“Shit. For that, I’m tempted to hand myself in.”

Dancer, who normally only went by his last name Hauk, because face it, Dancer sucked, was a smaller version of his older brother. But no less fierce. Aside from their difference in height and build, it would be hard to tell them apart. “Don’t be so hasty, Cai. Alive, you’re only worth three.”

Now that was just cold and wrong. But it also told him that they were being framed by someone who wanted to make damn sure the truth never came out. “Are you kidding?”

Hauk shook his head.

“Who issued the bounty?” Caillen asked.

“The League,” Hauk said snidely. “They’re forcing each of your planets to cough up the money.”

Great. So much for hoping the one leading the investigation would help him find the truth. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. All the League would want was closure and if they had to kill two innocent people for it, they really couldn’t care less. “Did anyone defend us?”

Hauk shook his head again. “Threw you to the wolves.” He flipped on a monitor and did a quick search to show Caillen the cold, harsh truth. News article after news article had them convicted. Everyone they’d interviewed said they weren’t surprised by either of their actions.

Even Desideria’s two sisters.

You have Darling and Maris. No one had interviewed them and they hadn’t betrayed him, but then given the severity of the crime they were charging them with that was probably for the best. Had they stepped forward at this point to defend them, they would probably be charged as accessories.

Which meant he might have other allies he didn’t know about. He held that thought tight.

Until he watched as his uncle showed up on a vidclip to speak to the news agencies from the Arimanda. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear the man actually looked grief stricken while he addressed the vultures who’d come to cash in on his pain. “It is with a sad heart that I’m forced to step into a place I never thought I’d occupy. My brother was a great emperor and I know I’m a shallow substitution. We are still reeling from the actions of my nephew. I can’t understand how anyone could be so ruthless and unfeeling, especially toward their own father who loved them so much. I tried to tell Evzen that no one can tame a wild animal. True to the generosity of his spirit, he refused to believe it and he let the love of his son guide him to suicide. I don’t know what madness infected the prince, but I can assure all of you that he will be held accountable for his actions and I will not rest until he’s behind bars where he belongs and is executed for this heinous crime.”

Love you too, you old bastard.

Caillen shut the browser off. Last thing he wanted to see was any more allegations directed toward him. “Why do they think I did it?”

Hauk pulled up another clip. This was security footage on board the ship. And there in his father’s room, standing over his body, was a man who looked so much like him that even he doubted his innocence.

Holy…

Hauk nodded as his expression mirrored the sick horror Caillen felt. “You want to live. We’ve got to find this a**hole and expose him as the killer or whoever doctored the footage. Nyk, Syn, Shahara and Jayne are already on it.”

“What about my mother?” Desideria’s features were pale from her grief. She was still beautiful, but she looked so tired that all he wanted to do was make this better for her.

If only he could.

“That’s where it’s really odd,” Fain said, directing their attention back to the monitor and a new clip that was filled with static. “There’s no footage from your mother’s room, Princess. Someone tampered with the camera. But two members of her Guard swear they saw you running out of there right before her body was discovered and that they pursued you only to find you fighting with Caillen. At first, they claim they thought he was attacking you. Then when you two turned on them to fight and then escaped together, they realized you were working as a team to kill your parents.”

She gaped at how preposterous that was. “I’m sorry, but that’s the dumbest story ever conceived. Are you telling me anyone is stupid enough to believe it?”

Hauk scoffed. “Two words. League bureaucrats. Thinking waved bye-bye to them a long time ago.”

He had a point.

“I can’t believe this,” she said, wanting to hunt down her mother’s Guard and carve her initials into their useless brains.

Caillen reviewed some of the data that Fain was still calling up.

Desideria moved to stand so close to him that her breath fell against his skin, tickling his flesh and making him wish he had a spare moment so that she could do that to his entire body. “They can’t honestly believe this.”

Caillen met her gaze, wishing he could be so naive. But he knew better. “Greed akes people stupid. Always. It stands to reason in their world that we would kill our parents to inherit their positions. Face it, it’s a common enough occurrence. Why should anyone doubt it?”

Hauk nodded in agreement. “Darling said that you’d already been suspicious of your uncle.”

“I was.”

Fain gave him an arch stare. “Was?”

Caillen took over the search as he reviewed the news reports about his father’s death. “Something’s not adding up to me.” It was too easy a jump to his uncle.

Wasn’t it?

But then he’d seen people do far worse for a lot less. He didn’t want to believe that the brother his father had loved and trusted would be so cold.

However, that was as cliché as kids killing parents for inheritance. His uncle made sense.

Fain scoffed at his doubt. “What are you? Trisani now? You want to give me the winning lottery numbers while you’re on a roll?”

He ignored Fain’s sarcasm as he rethought his earlier conviction. “I’m telling you, something’s wrong. How did both get killed on a ship with that kind of security? And so close to us leaving? At basically the same time?”