“Oh. Where were you?” I ask.
He shifts his gaze to the side and shrugs. “I had something to take care of.”
“Humph,” I say rudely and then flop back down on the bed. After several long, meaningful moments, I stand up and walk over to the window. I reach out and fiddle with the curtain.
“Aefre,” CK says to me. “You only fiddle when you have something to tell me that you think I don’t want to hear.”
I snatch my hand away, cursing myself for having a tell. Mind you, he is so astute he could find a tell in a stone gargoyle.
“You don’t want to hear this,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I don’t want to tell you until I know for certain, but I am done keeping secrets from you.” I turn back around to face him. “If we are going to work this time, we have to tell each other everything.”
“Everything?” he asks with an arched eyebrow.
“You have something to hide?” I demand straight away.
“No, do you?” he challenges me.
“Yes,” I say, completely caught out. “I do.” I have quite a bit I am still hiding from him, although it seems Sebastian and I are no longer quite so stuffed into the back of the closet. “I had a visitor earlier,” I state.
I wait for him to ask who but, of course, he just stares at me, waiting for me to continue. I hate it when he does that. I like active participants in my conversations, makes me feel less guilty for some reason. Oh well, I like shock value as much as the next girl. “It was my brother, Dracul,” I say with my hands on my hips.
I don’t think I surprise him that often, but he sure is now!
“I beg your pardon?” he splutters.
“You heard me,” I say nonchalantly. I know I am being pissy, but I am nervous about how the rest of this is going to go.
“Yes,” he says formally, stiffening his back. “Would you care to lose the attitude and tell me why your dead Dragon brother came to visit you?”
“He’s not dead,” I say. “He is quite alive and secretly living out his life in the Dragon Realms. But really, he is not the real issue here.”
“Hm,” CK says and then waits.
Damn him.
“He came to tell me something, something that my head is having a hard time believing, but that my heart knows is true.”
He remains silent and still. He isn’t even breathing.
“The child that I had with Remiel lives, CK. My daughter survived the birth and while I was informed that my son had died, all of the Dragons were sworn to secrecy about what really happened,” I say, quietly fuming.
“Your daughter?” he croaks and sits heavily on the bed.
I go to him and kneel at his feet. I take his hands and he grips my fingers painfully tight.
“Your daughter,” he repeats softly. “You have had the true heir.”
“Seems so,” I say just as softly. “She is being raised by him and my mother,” I add in disgust.
His eyes find mine and he cups my face in his hands. “You must go for her,” he says.
“Really?” I ask before I can stop myself.
He smiles sadly. “Of course, my sweet. You cannot leave her there to be corrupted by those two. You would never forgive yourself.”
Oh. I should have known it wouldn’t be about her, but about me. But I push it anyway because I am me. “You will care for her? You will raise her with me?”
“Oh, sweet Aefre. How little you think of me,” he says with a sad smile.