Page 87 of The Girl Who Fell Through Time
“You—you were there when this happened?” Selene tries to imagine it. Dorian would have been what—sixteen? Seventeen? She can’t imagine witnessing such a thing at such a young age.
Dorian nods. “I begged the assassin to stop, and so did my father. He appealed to the boy, made him put down the weapon… and he did. He told my father everything he knew. Which, admittedly, wasn’t much, but it was enough for my father to draw the connection between Drakefell and Ashvold.”
“What… what happened next?”
“My father adopted the assassin.”
“Your father…” Selene thinks for a moment, almost certain Dorian is joking. “Your father adopted the man who tried to kill him?”
“Soren’s hardly a man. He was only thirteen at the time, and, to be fair, he didn’t exactly try very hard.”
“Soren?” Selene screeches. “Soren—Soren tried to kill your father?Sorenwas an assassin?”
“Well, technically, you only become an assassin when you complete your first solo assassination, so he’s merely a slightly murderous acolyte…”
Selene sways slightly in her seat. She’s glad she was told to sit down. It makes a degree of sense. Why Soren seems to slide out of the shadows, how he moves so carefully, like he’s balancing on a knife. The way he always seems ready for battle.
It even explains why he’s so attached to Dorian, and, presumably, Gideon—once upon a time. They’d saved him from whatever was waiting for him in Ashvold. They’d spared him when they could have had him killed.
They should have taken him before King Alden and had him confess. Soren would likely have been executed. Maybe the King would have believed him about the Duke… or maybe he wouldn’t. The word of one assassin would not count as proof.
“And… after that?” Selene asks. She’s still dazed, still trying to wrap her head around all that she’s been told, but she needs to know the rest.
“Together, the three of us started investigating Drakefell, discovering more of his plans. We knew he wasn’t acting alone, that he’d asked others for their support, but… we didn’t know who. We eventually discovered his interest in the Ashvold mountains. It looked like he was trying to open a pass there, before realising such an endeavour would likely take him years.”
But not if he went through the mines.
Selene isn’t sure she should voice this. Would the Selene that she’s supposed to be put this all together? Did she even know about the empty mines a year ago?
Her head hurts. “And then?” she manages.
Dorian sighs. He looks pale, tired, exhausted—like this is the part of the story he wants to avoid. “Then my father succumbed to a second assassination attempt.”
Selene sucks in a breath. “I thought… your father died of illness.”
“My father was poisoned,” Dorian clarifies. “Fortunately, Drakefell didn’t seem to think I posed much of a threat, and he’s left me alone.”
“Until now.”
“Yes, until now.”
“You’ve been staying away from society to hide from him.”
Dorian nods. “I make myself invisible so that no one tries to make me disappear.”
The words hit Selene lit a punch to the chest. She recalls the coffin of Gideon Nightbloom, dressed in flowers. She imagines it’s Dorian’s instead.
He is not allowed to disappear. No matter how angry, or how shocked she is—she cannot allow that.
Disappear, disappear…why does that word stick with her?
Dorian carries on. “Soren and I have been investigating the Duke and his allies ever since,” he explains. “Ariella and Rookwood know what we do, but not the specifics. There’s a limit to the ways they can help us. We know Drakefell is working with at least two other lords—maybe more. Lord Fairmont is one of them.”
“Which is why he was so lenient on the boy caught poaching.”
Dorian nods.
Selene doesn’t know whether to be impressed or horrified. The idea that Dorian has been doing all of this since he waslittle more than a child, that he’s been plotting and planning all this time, is unreal.
