"About the old man knowing who I really was all these years and not saying anything to me about it. About him collecting all that information about my family. "
The spider rune scars on my palms started itching, the way they always did when I thought about my dead, lost family. A small circle with eight thin lines radiating out of it. The symbol for patience. I rubbed first one scar with my fingers, then the other, trying to ease the burning sensation.
Didn't help. Never did.
"Fletcher loved ferreting out people's secrets. Compiling information, dossiers on them. It made him a good assassin and an even better handler," I said. "I just never thought he'd do it to me. "
"You're angry at him. "
"Hell, yeah, I'm angry," I snapped. My toes pushed off the floor, and the recliner rocked back. "Fletcher spends years putting that folder together and then leaves it with Jo-Jo Deveraux instead of giving it to me. Why? What's the point?"
I was angry, of course, but more than that, I felt betrayed.
Like Fletcher Lane had regarded me as nothing more than a mark to gather intel on. Like I wasn't the daughter he'd claimed me to be. Like he hadn't ever really loved me the way that I'd loved him. Or at least trusted me enough to tell me what he was doing.
And I was angry at myself too, because I'd had no clue what the old man had been up to, that he'd been out gathering information on me and my murdered family.
I'd never even dreamed that Fletcher would do such a thing - at least not to me. Or maybe I just hadn't wanted to consider the possibility. Either way, all that I had left now were questions and more questions.
"Maybe he was planning to give it to you," Finn said.
"Before he died. "
Another image flashed before my eyes. Fletcher Lane, lying in a pool of his own blood at the Pork Pit, the skin flayed and ripped from his body. His face and chest and arms and hands a ruined mess of raw flesh and bones.
I shook my head, trying to banish the memory. Didn't work. Never did.
"I just don't understand what he expected me to do with the information. Take my revenge on the Fire elemental? It's been years, and I still don't know who she was or why she killed my family. I didn't even see the elemental before one of her goons caught and blindfolded me. Just heard her laughing while she tortured me. For all I know, the bitch could be dead by now. "
"She was strong enough to kill your mother and sister, two powerful Ice elementals in their own right, and melt that silverstone spider rune into your palms. I doubt she's dead. People like that don't go quietly," Finn said. "Besides, it was only seventeen years ago. Most elementals live to be well over a hundred. "
A cold smile curved my lips. "Can't blame a gal for dreaming, can you?"
I stared at the folder, and my smile flipped into a frown. "I just don't understand why Fletcher did it. I was there. I lived through it. Nothing in that file tells me anything I don't already know. "
"Except that your sister's alive," Finn said in a soft voice.
Bria. Blond hair. Big, blue eyes. A child's soft, sweet, innocent face. A delicate primrose rune hanging from the chain around her neck. She'd been eight the last time I'd seen her, the night I found her blood in the hiding place where I'd left her. The night I thought she'd died.
"Fat lot of good it does me to know she's alive, since I can't find her. That picture could have been taken anywhere, and Fletcher wasn't kind enough to scribble a location on the back of it. " Emotion tightened my throat, and I had to force out my next words. "I don't - I don't even know if I want to find her. "
"Why not?" Finn asked. "She's your sister. "
"She was my sister," I replied in a husky voice. "I have no idea what she's like now. If she remembers me, if she'd even want to see me. Hell, she probably thinks I'm dead, just like I thought she was. Then there's the small fact of what I've been doing with my life. Call me crazy, but I doubt anyone would want an assassin for a big sister. "
Finn was silent a moment. Then he raised his head and stared at me with his bright green eyes - eyes that were so similar to Fletcher's it made my heart crack. "You might not have been his biological daughter, but Dad loved you just as much as he did me. You said it yourself. He loved knowing other people's secrets. He probably started digging at first just to see who you really were and whether or not he could trust you. "
"And then?"
Finn shrugged. "And then you became his daughter, his protege, and he loved you. Maybe Dad wanted to find the Fire elemental for you. Maybe he realized Bria hadn't died that night. Maybe he wanted to make up for everything that had been done to you and your family. "
I'd wondered those same things myself. Because that's exactly the kind of man Fletcher Lane had been. Live and let live, had been his motto. After all, assassins didn't have a lot of moral high ground to stand on and cast stones and aspersions down at others. But if you fucked with somebody Fletcher Lane cared about, you might as well cut out your own heart with a rusty spoon - before he did it for you. The old man had taught me to be the same way. Loyalty, love, whatever you wanted to call it, it was the only thing as important as survival - and the only thing truly worth dying for. Which is why I'd hunted down Alexis James, the Air elemental bitch who'd killed Fletcher and had Finn tortured, even though I'd almost died in the process.
I rubbed my palm over my forehead. The silverstone metal in my skin felt as hard and cold as my heart. "I don't know what Fletcher wanted me to do. Now I'll never know. "
"You'll figure it out," Finn said. "And I'll help you. "
Spoken like a true brother, blood or not. I smiled at him. "I know you will - "