Defy the Dawn (Midnight Breed #14) - Lara Adrian Page 0,17
took her own life. And so my father stole me away. He hid me with people he trusted on the outside, then he stepped out of my life to protect me and to give me freedoms I’d never have inside the realm. My grandmother put a price on his head. It took her guards twenty-five years to find him, but they did.”
Brynne didn’t know what to say. Torn between amazement and abhorrence for what she’d just heard, she stood mutely, aching for what Jordana—and her doomed parents—had gone through. “And Zael helped, you say?”
Jordana nodded. “When Selene’s guards came to Boston and killed my father, Zael took me someplace safe. He even battled some of his former comrades to protect me. Without him, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Jordana’s fondness for Zael was obvious. Given what he’d apparently done on the young woman’s behalf, her affection was understandable. But Jordana seemed to be describing a different man than the one Zael presented to the outside world.
To Brynne as well.
This Zael was a courageous man. A noble one, the kind who would risk everything to protect the child of a dead friend from an enemy with cold, far-reaching power. Jordana had described a hero—not the first word that leaped to Brynne’s mind when she thought of him.
She didn’t know what to do with this new information.
She also didn’t know what to do with the softening of her regard for the man she so desperately wanted to despise.
“Our lives would all be emptier if you weren’t part of them,” Tavia said as she tenderly squeezed Jordana’s hand.
“It’s true,” Carys agreed. “And we also wouldn’t have the Atlantean crystal your father hid away from Selene all these years.”
The odd reference pulled Brynne out of her unwanted musings about Zale and that troubling kiss they’d shared.
“What do you mean, a crystal? What are you talking about, Carys?”
“Ah, that is a whole other story,” Tavia said. “We’ll explain everything to you, Brynne, but let’s do it over breakfast. You’ve had a very long night and I’m sure you must be starving.”
CHAPTER 8
“Have you thought any more about what I asked of you the last time you were here?”
Had he thought about it? Zael grunted at Lucan’s question. “You asked me to consider betraying my people, Commander Thorne. I assure you, it’s been foremost in my mind ever since.”
The two of them had left the conference room to talk alone, and because Lucan had something to show Zael, he’d said. They strode the labyrinth of corridors that snaked past smaller meeting rooms, training facilities, and Gideon’s high tech lair of computers and communications equipment where the eccentric Breed male was already deeply engrossed in his work on half a dozen touch-screen monitors filled with scrolling code.
“I haven’t asked you to betray anyone, Zael. What I asked was for your trust. For your confidence as the Order attempts to learn all it can about your queen and her intentions.”
“Selene hasn’t been my queen for a very long time.”
“You served her for centuries as one of her legion,” Lucan reminded him.
“Yes. And more than a hundred years ago, I left the realm a fugitive. For as long as I’m alive, to Selene I’m merely one more defector with a price on his head.” Just like his comrade, Cassianus, and the small number of other Atlanteans who’d escaped to begin again in a new place, without fear of a volatile ruler.
“But your loyalty is still intact?” There was weight in Lucan’s question, and its implication.
Zael answered honestly. “I don’t serve Selene, but I can’t condemn her completely. She was good once, but she’s a vengeful, powerful woman. Her heart iced over when Atlantis was destroyed by your Ancient ancestors.”
“That’s a damned long time to hold a grudge.”
“She’s immortal, Lucan. Her heart may never thaw. It went even colder after her only child was dead and her sole heir was stolen away.”
“Along with the crystal Cass took at the same time,” Lucan added.
“Yes, along with the crystal.” Which was now in the Order’s hands. Not that Zael had actually seen the treasure to verify that fact.
As crucial as their newfound alliance was, Lucan Thorne had been reluctant to let Zael anywhere near the crystal Jordana had received from her father and entrusted to the Order. For that, Zael had to respect the Breed male.
The crystal was one of five that the realm once possessed. They were each a source of immense power and versatile uses. Put into the wrong hands—the