Page 96 of The Midnight Order

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My breathing is erratic, and my heart is shattering. “What was the child’s last name?”

I brace for impact, but it doesn’t help when he says, “Tenebris.”

My knees buckle, and I realize I’ve been holding my breath.

Lowell captures me, brushing his lips against my ear. “Silver Tenebris, I presume?”

Chapter 25

Silver

As long asI’ve been aware, I’ve had the last name Dormund—Silver Dormund, niece of Soliel Dormund, the previous two living heirs in the tragic Dormund family. And while I know the family line was tragic, I never knew what ended it.

Everything has always been fuzzy.

For years, I worried I had some illness. I overextended my insurance and paid out of pocket for scans, but nothing was ever wrong with me.

All the tests always came back inconclusive.

Tenebris.

The name rings through my head like a fucking gong.

I’m not a Dormund.

I’m a Tenebris.

I’m not a human.

I’m a vampire.

“I’ve been waiting my entire life to meet you,” Lowell says softly. “Even before there was the curse, there was this ache in me that longed for a familiar. Someone who could understand me, who I am, and where I came from.”

“I don’t know who I am or where I came from, so I don’t know how much solace I can offer you.”

He cups my face, and the meaning of the gesture sinks through me. The warmth that’s absent from his touch is still grazing my soul. “We will get your memories back. Asher knows someone skilled at removing glamours, and then we’ll move forward with activating your gene.”

“Glamour?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Someone took your memories and made you a hostage in your own body. You would’ve lived centuries as a thirty-year-old, confused human who wasn’t a human at all. It was cruel.”

“Someone did this to me?” Of course, it makes perfect sense now that he’s saying it. They’ve mentioned multiple times that they can take my memories and drop me back into my world as if nothing happened.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you were dealing with the news that you’re a vampire?

My mind is too loud, and I shake my head to rid the thoughts roaring through it.

“Someone did, and we’re not only going to get your memories back, but we’re going to find out who did it and why.”

His assured tone causes my back to straighten with confidence.

And then his face changes, a mournful, glum disposition filling his red eyes. “I’m so sorry about Soliel. I miss her every day. I didn’t mean to?—”

I shake my head. I’m not ready to hear the details.

It’s too fresh.