Page 126 of Love & Heart Braking

She steepled her fingers. They were long and wrinkled. Our alliance data had put her at around five hundred years old. Having less than a quarter of one century under my belt, I felt grossly underprepared for a battle of tongues with the eldest Cineres.

“I had hoped that my little gift would put us on better terms,” she said.

“Thanks for the book. What I could read of it was very interesting, including the stuff on the metal arrow at the back. As I’m sure you can imagine, many things have been lost to my line with the near extinction we find ourselves in. The arrow included.”

She didn’t budge her bird-like focus. “Your kind was always going to meet extinction. The weak are not meant to survive.”

“There must not be a need to research me if my type is weak.”

The top bird stared over her hands. “I did not say you are worthless. The weak still serve a purpose.”

Woohoo, go us. “I have been serving that purpose. I do not possess anti-love magic. If that magic still exists, then there are none strong enough to wield it, or they exist outside of Nepos.”

She smiled. “But you are the strongest.”

“Why does everyone think that? How could you possibly know?”

Mistress Cineres opened her top drawer and pulled out a small stack of pages. “Did you notice the missing entries from the tome I gifted you?”

“No.”

That didn’t seem to surprise her. Maybe because she viewed me as weak and inferior. “These pages were also contained within. A record of the original heart maester families and those that followed them. It wasn’t unusual for the various families to marry each other, much like my type, but only one family formed connections with all fifteen original heart maester families via marriage.”

Let me guess. “Mine?”

Her lips curved. “Yours. Your family possessed the last heart master in fact, long after the rest had faded to heart elementals. Only three generations ago in fact, when other families were already producing generation three offspring. You are the strongest descendant of Venus’s power, Cerys Concordia.” She replaced the papers in her desk drawer.

I pressed back against my chair as red fire filled her eyes. Austin had mentioned that phoenix fire varied in strength. If Smolder’s had hurt so much, I could just imagine what her grandmother’s burny juju could do.

“Do not toy with me, young heart elemental,” she said in a voice that chilled me to the bone. “We are aware of what you can do. Resisting us will not work in your favor.”

I couldn’t budge on this.

The healing elemental was already wondering about where my love magic really came from, that it couldn’t just be in my blood. Meanwhile, I was beginning to wonder if my confidence that they’d never find anything would prove untrue. The thought of them harnessing anti-love repulsed me to the core. I would die rather than let them have it. “I’m sorry you see it that way, Mistress Cineres. I have no magic of the kind. Despite what you believe, I learned about anti-love last Thursday.”

Her glacial eyes glittered. “You have made your choice, Miss Concordia.”

Unease stirred in my gut, but I worked to keep it from my face. “There’s no choice to make on this count. Hopefully as tests proceed, you will see that I speak truth. Is there anything else before I leave for the night?”

“That is enough for now, I think.” She picked up her quill. “I shall only add that there are more gifts where that tome came from, Miss Concordia.”

“More information on Venus’s line?” I couldn’t help asking.

She smiled at the letter she was writing. “In a sense. The information I have is of a more personal nature. The daemon we have was the original owner of that tome I gave you. He inherited it from his father amongst other things. Which is how Maligni Ammatus knew there was a Concordia in Nepos. Imagine our excitement when he told us about you?”

Maligni started all this?

And I could guess why she was telling me. Mistress Cineres knew I was part of freeing him. She wanted me to call her out on the “daemon we have” line. Either that or she was plain ol’ rubbing his past actions in my face.

I’d saved the son of the daemon who killed my father.

Who’d also set the twelve on my path.

And you know what? I was still okay with the choice I’d made. Who could say what I’d do and say to protect Soleil and Devereaux.

“What else did he have?” I asked.

She kept scratching away with the sharp tip of her quill. “You will find, young descendant, that there are great reward for those who work with me.” She finished writing and scattered sand over the ink before shaking it off. She heated the wax with a touch of one finger, then sealed the letter.

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