Page 91 of Only Cold Depths
I closed the folder and shoved it back toward Beatrice. “Let me guess. This isn’t a trust fund so much as it is a bribe for me to disappear and keep my mouth shut about being Wendell’s daughter.”
Beatrice shook her head. “No. Wendell loved you as soon as he learned about you. The credits are yours to do with as you please. Callus Holloway is still hunting you, and he won’t stop until either you or Kyrion is brought back to Corios. You need that money to escape from him and all the bounty hunters.”
“And if there wasn’t a bounty?” I challenged. “Would we still be having this conversation? Or would you still be pretending I don’t exist?”
Beatrice shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. You may not believe me, but when Liesl claimed you had died . . . well, it was a burden I carried every day until I learned you were alive. Always wondering if my own selfishness led to the death of my granddaughter. If things would have been different, if only I had brought you to House Zimmer where you belonged.”
Her face remained smooth, her voice steady, but regret rippled off her, and more needles of sympathy and commiseration pricked my heart. At this point, my chest felt like a blasted pincushion.
“Ever since I realized you were still alive, I’ve been paralyzed with fear,” Beatrice continued. “Fear that you would find out the truth. That Nerezza would sell the story to the gossipcasts. That Holloway would discover our connection and kill Wendell and Zane to draw you out. So much bloodyfear.” She snarled out the last word.
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point, and all those awful things could still happen simply because I existed. “And now?”
Determination blazed in Beatrice’s pale eyes. “I am tired of being at other people’s mercy—or lack thereof. I willnotfear Nerezza or Holloway or anyone else in the galaxy.” Her face softened. “And I will not fear you any longer either, Vesper. You are my blood, which is a fact I’ve hidden for far too long. I hope you can forgive me someday. Or if you can’t forgive me, that you can at least forgive Wendell. He desperately wants to be part of your life.”
A sad smile played across my grandmother’s lips. “I always thought Wendell’s tender heart was a weakness, especially when he got involved with Nerezza.” She sighed. “But now I think it is far better to have a tender, hopeful heart than an old, bitter, jaded one like mine.”
I understood everything she was saying, everything she had done, but her explanation and reasoning didn’t lessen the sting of her ruthless actions. Beatrice had been playing a game of Regal chess with Nerezza, and she’d sacrificed me, an unknowing pawn, so she could remain a queen and hold on to her own power. In that way, my grandmother and my mother wereexactlyalike.
Well, I was through letting them hurt me, andIwould not fear Beatrice and Nerezza. Never again.
I had started to tell Beatrice exactly where she could shove her apology and her hush money when her empty teacup rattled on its saucer. For a moment, I wondered if we were having an earthquake or a rockslide, but in the distance, a faint buzzing sounded, quickly growing closer and louder.
Beatrice and I both surged to our feet. What was that noise? Where was it coming from?
Suddenly, a large transport zoomed up out of the enormous chasm at the edge of the estate. The transport quickly dropped down, as though it was going to crash into the energy shield that protected the grounds, but then the air shimmered, and the shield evaporated like fog. Shock pulsed through me. Why had the defenses gone down?
A flicker of movement caught my eye, and I glanced up. Leland was standing on a terrace higher up on the main castle, clutching his tablet. The chief of staff’s dark gaze met mine, and even from this distance, his sly satisfaction punched into my chest like a spear.
Leland was my father’s business partner, and he lost everything too, Asterin’s voice whispered through my mind, quickly followed by Leland’s words at the marriage mart.Although some Houses fall farther and faster than others. Even as the people in them rise and rise again.
More shock pulsed through me. Leland had apparently decided to rise again by betraying the Colliers and disabling the estate’s defensive shield. I’d been so busy worrying about Esmina and Pollux that I hadn’t spotted the rotten, jealous heart already lurking inside House Collier.
Leland’s lips drew back into a thin smile, his teeth glinting like white razors in the sunlight. He saluted me with his tablet, then disappeared into the castle.
The transport zipped over and landed on the lawn next to the central topiary garden. A door on the side slid back, and mercenaries clad in black polyplastic armor rushed out of the vehicle like scorpions spewing out of a nest. Each merc was wearing a helmet and carrying a blaster or a large hand cannon, and a sick sense of déjà vu swept over me. This attack was eerily similar to the one at the mineral exchange yesterday.
The mercenaries moved forward, their weapons up and ready to fire as they established a protective ring around the transport. One of the men waved his hand in an all-clear sign, and two more people got off the transport—Esmina and Pollux.
Esmina was clad in a long red cloak, while Pollux was wearing the same black polyplastic armor as the other mercenaries. He was also clutching a large hand cannon, and two war hammers dangled from his belt as usual.
A chill swept through my body, and I stood there, frozen in place, completely in the open, and utterly exposed.
Esmina looked up, and her gaze locked with mine, despite the distance between us. A smile curved her lips, and she dropped her gaze back down to the mercenaries gathered around her.
“Spread out!” she yelled, her voice drifting up to me. “Find him! Now! Along with the secondary target!”
She jerked her head, and she and Pollux strode across the lawn and plunged into the garden. The other mercenaries quickly followed them. Surprise shot through me. Instead of trying to capture me like they had in the shipping yard, Esmina and Pollux were moving in the opposite direction. For once, I wasn’t their target. Why not? What had changed?
“Where are they going?” Beatrice asked. “What do they want?”
Him.The word pounded into my brain. Esmina had saidFindhim, which meant the mercenaries were searching for a man, but who? And why would they go into the garden? If the mercenaries were here to kill Aldrich, then they should have stormed into the main castle. But instead, Esmina and Pollux had gone in the other direction as if their target was someone in the guest wing . . .
“Wendell,” I whispered, another chill sweeping through my body.
If Esmina and Pollux wanted someone to help fix the Techwave cannon, Wendell would be an excellent choice, since he was a well-known and respected spelltech. My stomach dropped. I still didn’t know how I felt about my father, but I didn’t want the mercenaries to capture him.
“What?” Beatrice asked in a sharp voice. “What did you say?”
