Page 184 of Love & Heart Braking

“Thank you,” I said to the sphinx behind them, eager to get off the subject of eating hearts.

Xix shifted his focus to me. The gen one winked, then walked away.

“Man of few words,” Soleil grunted.

Gug watched him go. “Sphinxes have to be. When they speak words, then those words come to be. That is why they take care to leave their words open to interpretation.”

What a burden to carry. I wouldn’t wish to possess that power for the world.

We watched the process before us in silence.

“Fenton and Lerome should’ve been here to see this,” Soleil said.

Sadness had already crept into my mind too. “They should have. At least their lives weren’t in vain.”

I’d never forget Lerome’s “what can you do” smile before Acribus incinerated him. I’d never forget Fenton’s wide, glassy eyes staring at me in the murky moats of the Dethnels’ estate either.

“For Fenton and Lerome,” Devereaux said.

The rest of us echoed his words.

The sun was setting over the smoking towers of the Cinereses’ estate as I took Devereaux’s hand. I smiled up at my berserker and at the future I could see when I looked into his eyes. “Come with me?” To the others, I said, “We’ll be back soon.”

Devereaux didn’t ask any questions as I led him to the tower I’d only climbed once before. We wound higher and higher, all the way to the top, and I pushed inside Mistress Cineres’s office.

“I need to find my father’s letter,” I explained.

“I understand.” He took my hand in his.

I rested a hand on his chest. “Somewhere in all of this mess are the answers to what happened to your father, I know it.”

Devereaux’s throat worked. In a hoarse voice, he said, “I think I already know the answers deep down. He figured out what they were doing with Shade. They killed him for it.”

“Can we prove it?”

“Maybe we can press some of those arrested for information,” he said. “But if I don’t ever get exact answers, then at least my mind is easier for knowing that the people who killed him met the end they deserved.”

“You did it, Dev,” I whispered. “Your father would be so proud.” His mother would be so proud—and relieved to have his quest for answers and justice at an end.

Devereaux swallowed hard. “I believe he would be. I feel… at peace. More at peace than I ever thought I could be.” He trailed his fingers down my arm and lifted my hand to his mouth, kissing the back. “Largely, that’s due to you being in my life. Thank you.”

I sniffed as tears threatened again. “You’re welcome. I love you.”

“And I you, sweetheart. How about we look for that letter?”

The search was nearly over before it began.

Mistress Cineres had hidden the letter in a place where someone truly assured of their power and safety would hide it. In the top drawer of her desk.

My hands shook as I pulled out the aged letter that was over ten years old. The looping handwriting wasn’t familiar to me, per se, yet I could tell it was my father’s script.

I could almost feel him on this paper.

“Maligni touched that envelope a while back,” Devereaux inhaled. “That’s definitely it.

I eased out the age-damaged sheet of paper within. It had no wax seal to break. I read aloud, “‘My little heart, I write to you knowing that this letter will never reach your mother before I unite with her in death. I will place this letter inside an old tome of our goddess’s power in the hope it might one day reach you by the grace of Venus. I am so sorry, my precious child, that there are people in the world like the daemon who has taken me hostage. I’m so very sorry that you be left without a father and without a mother too. To lose your parents so young… Young Cerys, I am filled with the worry on your behalf that our deaths might taint the view you have of the world. Your heart is beautiful, so filled with joy, and I cannot leave while thinking that might ever change. That my departure from this world might cause it. Promise me to always believe in the hearts of others, sweet girl. Believe that there is good in the world. For me. For to walk through existence expecting the worst of people will only bring you heartache and misery.’”

My hands shook as I lost my hold on tears at last. They splashed onto the page, and Devereaux rested a hand on my shoulder.

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