Page 61 of Soulless Deeds

“Where is she?”

“Nightingale Cemetery.”

A sense of dread festered in my stomach as the vision of a marble sarcophagus raised in my mind. The elegant engraving of a name forever to remain immortalised in the Kelly crypt.Lyssa Kelly.

The dining room table was riddled with documents all in relation to my father, the Sovereign and mymother.

All of it was the generic bullshit that we’d already found over the years, but we all remained there anyway, siphoning through the paperwork with particular attentiveness.

I didn’t necessarily care that I had an identified biological mother. It was more the fact that Aster had valuable information that she’d been withholding.

As Kings, we were already wired to trust no one, to always question those who wanted to get close. Most, if notall, had skeletons they wanted to keep buried. And it seemed like Aster had a whole damn cemetery.

I didn’t like being played like a child, and with those revelations, I felt powerless, which was a foreign emotion in itself, making me angsty.

I turned to Aster, who deposited the last remainder of files on the wooden surface. “Enough stalling, Aster. Give us answers.” She dropped into the seat at the head of the table, lifted a glass of wine with her bandaged hand and took a sip. Her wary stare levelled on each King in turn, then, her features hardened as she gave us our past.

“Your father, Oliver King, was a charismatic, fascinating and ruthless man. When he wanted something, there was no one that could deny his request.” A truth we were all too familiar with, even as children. “The same went for your mother, Lyssa Kelly. When he set eyes on her, his response was immediate and relentless. He wanted Lyssa, and he’d stop at nothing to have her. I fought his request…but I had made one detrimental miscalculation. Lyssa wanted him, too.”

Micah frowned in exasperation. “He was married…and his wife was already pregnant with Chase. Why would Lyssa want him?”

“She wasn’t the only one,” Aster snapped, and my hand twitched.She better watch her fucking tone.“He was open and severely honest with Lyssa, and she accepted him despitethose facts. He sold her on the elitist ideal of enhancing the next generation, going back to the days where Variants were worshipped rather than persecuted for their gifts. I knew he wanted to use his magic super sperm to con her into having a baby who would change the future.”

I crossed my arms. “Can’t fault him there. They did create me,” I said with an obnoxious air. Emerson subtly deflated at my words, which I instantly regretted. Father or not, fuck him for projecting his archaic views onto us, onto her. “So, Dad thought he could play God just because he had an amplifier Variant?”

Aster huffed. “That’s pretty self-explanatory by the women he chose to impregnate… All at the same time. Their Variants were already singular, quite impressive. His efforts did not go unfounded. With their shared DNA, he achieved what he always wanted: the elite of the next generation.” Aster raised her glass in silent cheers to us, the remainder of the King legacy.

I was equally impressed and disgusted, the conflict of emotions not unusual for the way I felt about my father.

“Oliver was a charmer,” Aster said. “Although, I never saw the appeal. Egotistical asshole.” I snorted at the accurate assessment before she continued. “When Lyssa fell pregnant, she moved into the King estate, alongside your mother,” she finished, gaze returning to my older sister.

Micah’s usually composed mask glitched before us as Psycho sat next to her, watching on with concern. “This is the first we’ve heard anything to do with our inception,” Micah said. “Our fathernevertold us anything, and we never dared to ask. We only knew of his wife, Karena King, Chase’s mother, who passed away before we were born.”

Aster’s grip shook as she downed the rest of her wine before clearing her throat. “I never met her in person, but my sister only spoke highly of your mother, Micah. They were all living in some non-monogamous fantasy world where they believed they wereproducing the next generation of Variants that would conquer the world. I’m not sure what delusional shit Oliver was feeding these women, but he kept things strictly under wraps. Lyssa was tight-lipped, cautious in what she disclosed to me. I never understood, but my sister was the happiest she’d ever been, so who was I to determine what constitutes happiness?”

“What happened?”

“Karena happened.” Aster drew in a long breath. “Throughout that year, three babies were born, all approximately three months apart and all girls. Chase, Micah and Spencer respectively. Then, three months later, Oliver brought another baby girl home.”

Aster’s piercing eyes shifted to Emerson, who sat staring at the table, stoic and hardened as if she were frozen. At least I could see her breathing—barely. “Lyssa was ecstatic, alongside your mother, Micah, as Oliver asked them to raise her as their own.”

“Who’s my mother?” Emerson piped, her melodic voice laced with something sinister.

Aster shook her head. “Oliver never disclosed that information, not even to Lyssa.”

“What happened to them?” Tanner asked. I nearly forgot he was there until his calm voice cut through the tension.

A single tear escaped Aster’s eye. A true, legit fucking tear running down her cheek. “After the arrival of the fourth baby, Karena fell off the deep end. She lost her fucking mind. I’ve thought about it a lot over the years. Was it jealousy? Postnatal psychosis? Originally, she was in agreement, and actually supported Oliver in his vision. However, she never made a connection with the other women. If anything she ignored their existence. Did she initially just agree with Oliver in order not to lose him? In the end, we will never know. All we know is what happened after.”

At that point, Aster stood and began pacing, tension building in the lining of her muscles, Fran followed the movement, weighing if he should follow behind or not.

“Karena snapped and murdered Micah’s mother… She would have got the rest of you, too, if it wasn’t for Oliver’s intervention. Then, she went missing and everything imploded after that.” She shivered. “Oliver was…unhinged, hunting night and day to find his errant wife while my sister spiralled, unable to mourn her friend as she had four young babies depending on her.”

“I offered to help, and begged her to come back to me. I had my own power in Vice. I could protect her.” Aster shook her head. “Lyssa refused. She was terrified to leave the King Estate, scared that Karena would be waiting for her to finish what she started.”

“Until one day, she came to visit me. No forewarning, no plans. She’d come on her own, saying she needed to get out of the house, if only for a little bit. When she was returning to the King Estate, Karena was waiting for her.” Aster coughed…then coughed again. “You know the rest.”

“No, we don’t,” I said, so fucking sharp, I was surprised the windows didn’t crack from the impact. I didn’t care. It was our history; we deserved to fucking know our own lives.

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