to mentor me. She made me see things from a different perspective.”
“She taught you how to dismember a person with a knife?” Runa asked.
“She hired someone who did. Have you killed anyone before?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry you had to do that today.”
If I hadn’t taken her with me, she wouldn’t have killed Conway. But she would have to kill sooner or later. Maybe it was better this way. I had a feeling that whoever targeted her family wouldn’t let go, not now, after their murder was confirmed.
“Have you killed anyone?” Runa asked.
“Physically, no. But what I do is much worse. Victoria Tremaine is my grandmother. When she requires the contents of your brain, she grasps your mind, wrenches it open, and takes whatever she wants. All your secrets, all of your hopes, your fantasies, your guilt over things you did years ago and tried your best to hide and forget, she sees it and rummages through it. Nevada has the same talent. I saw her interrogate a man once. He was a hardened mercenary and after she was done, he curled into a ball and cried like a child.”
“Your magic is different.”
I shrugged. “I don’t use brute force. I entice, I seduce, but the end result is the same. I suppress your will. You’ll tell me everything, and you will be happy to do it. It’s the deepest violation of a person. I try not to do it unless I absolutely have to.”
“But you’ve had to,” Runa guessed.
“Yes. My mom is a veteran, and she once told me that nobody gets out of a war with their hands clean. We’ve been at war for the past three years.”
“You do realize how fundamentally fucked up this is.” Runa crossed her arms on her chest. “I feel like I lived my whole life with my eyes closed.”
“Your mother took very good care of all of you. Runa, it doesn’t have to be like this for you. I have no choice because of our circumstances, but there are plenty of Houses who don’t often come into conflicts with each other.”
“But why does it have to be you?”
“Because it’s my turn. Nevada is married. She has her own threats and problems to deal with and I can’t expect her to drop everything and run here to save us. My mother doesn’t have the kind of magic that can protect us. Grandma Frida is past seventy. Here I am with all this power and I let everyone take care of me for most of my life, because it was too hard and scary and because I didn’t want the guilt of hurting people. It wasn’t fair. So, when Nevada decided to take a step back, I decided it was my turn to take care of everyone and do the ugly things nobody wants to do.”
She shook her head.
“I’m the oldest ranking Prime in House Baylor,” I told her. “It’s my job to keep us fed, clothed, and safe. I still want to run away, Runa. But if someone tries to hurt my family, I’ll kill them. It will cost me a great deal, but I’ll do it.”
Runa stared at me. “This is what being the Head of the House does to you.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered it anyway. “Yes.”
“I don’t feel bad about killing Conway,” she said. “I should. I took a life. But I don’t.”
“Guilt usually hits me late at night,” I said.
“How do you deal with it?”
I pushed the box toward her. “I keep a stash of chocolate in my room.”
“Does it help?”
“It does a little.”
She opened the box. “Neuhaus truffles?”
“Mhm. Bern found some information on your mother’s backup server. We have to go back to the conference room.”
Runa’s eyes widened. “Am I going to need these?”
“Yes.”
Chapter 5
“Most people tend to back up specific files or folders.” Bern set his laptop in front of Runa. “Your mother went a step further. She backed up the entire hard drive. For all intents and purposes, this is an exact copy of her computer. The last session happened on the day she died.”
I picked up my tablet. “We were able to view her activity log. She moved three files out of documents to the desktop. Here they are: Will, Financial Summary, and Bills and Utilities.”
Runa clicked on the financial summary and scanned the contents. Bern and I had already looked at the file. It listed House Etterson’s investments, the amounts current as of last Sunday. A short note at the bottom identified a financial adviser, Dennis