Page 48 of House of Kallan
“We were compelled to act,” Rahael said. “We all feel that. It’s part of our divinity. Watching people suffer isn’t something we can easily turn away from.”
I knew that all too well. It’s why I went into the medical field. There was no way I could just walk down the street and transfer illness, injury, and disease onto people who deserved it more without calling attention to myself. At least in a hospital of some kind, the loud-speaker inside me that insisted I use my talents for good had an outlet.
It was always one reason my current job was both fulfilling and immeasurably difficult. I could help people, yes. But I oftenreached a point where my help could only go so far and then, if I were to truly take away their pain and injuries, I needed another outlet to transfer it to.
That wasn’t always readily accessible. As frustrating as it was, I was at the mercy of the people I had in my area.
“I think one thing that keeps us going is that we are able to liberate monsters that have been in cages and abused for far too long,” Hadrian said. “We, as a supernatural whole, have become far too complacent about not being the ones under their attention. If they’re not looking our way, then we can pretend it’s not happening. It took us nearly losing the brand-new wife of our friends to decide enough was enough.”
“Not even losing our husband had made us act,” Hawthorn said.
“You thought I was dead,” Cobalt said, shrugging. “I don’t at all hold that against you. Why would you risk all your lives if you thought mine was already gone?”
“To avenge you?” Toby suggested.
“No. It still wouldn’t have brought me back had I been dead.”
“But you weren’t,” Hadrian said. “I think it haunts us all that you were alive, and we should have been looking for you.”
Cobalt sighed. He turned his attention to me, and I got the impression this was a conversation they’d had regularly. It was never resolved.
“You got the banshee back, though,” I said. “And with her came your husband and a whole army of prisoners.”
The room at large nodded.
“To be honest, that entire ordeal made two things very apparent. That Silence thinks they’re invincible and that they’re completely oblivious,” Hawthorn said.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“If they’d have been paying attention, they would have known from a previous attack on the Daemon family, that Ady was not just mated to a wraith but also a nightmare. You don’t take a mate from a nightmare unless you want to trigger thepossible end of the world. It was because of Bastian’s hold on Ryker and Ryker’s trust in Bastian alone that the world still stands,” Hawthorn said. “However, I find it hard to believe that they didn’t know about this mating, which leads me to believe that they truly thought they could resist the attack from a nightmare.”
“I’m going to be the devil’s advocate here,” I said. “Nightmares are almost nonexistent now. Maybe they had a reason to believe that.”
“Fair,” Hadrian said.
“I suppose the fact that so many of the most powerful species have succumbed to extinction at Silence’s hands could have assured them they’d be able to take what they wanted without feeling it,” Hawthorn said.
“Because the monster world is unorganized and unpoliced,” Hadrian said. “If there had been an actual government, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“You say that, but remember that atrocities like this have happened throughout the human worldbytheir governments. The most obvious and recognizable case in point was the Holocaust, when the government wanted to exterminate an entire people. Thegovernment. There’s every chance that if we had a government, they might have completely supported Silence as much as opposed them.”
“What if Silence’s initial goal was to become the governing body?” Aden asked, effectively making the entire room turn to look at where he was curled up in Rahael’s lap with a book in hand. It was closed on his chest because he was listening, but I loved that he always had a book.
“What do you mean?” Hawthorn asked.
“Well, you said that you don’t have a governing body in the supernatural world. What if whoever is at the head of Silence wanted to create a government? Or, you know, dictatorship, patriarchy. Whatever.” He waved his hand. “But what if that’s what they tried first and there was too much opposition? Maybehe’s not a very strong monster and those in his way were? What if he decided that the way to the top was to get rid of everyone who got in their way? And maybe the success at that got to their head, and he thought that maybe they’d just keep going.”
“That’s horrifying,” Toby said.
“And what if it goes further than that and they actually created ORKA?” Aden asked.
“Wait. You think there’s a connection between ORKA and Silence?” I asked, completely dumbfounded. By the way they looked at me, I was in for a very wild afternoon.
Tatum
“Okay,let’s really dive in here,” Toby said, adjusting himself to face me better. “Maybe we start from the beginning?”
“There’s a beginning?” I asked, almost laughing.
