Chapter 23

Chapter

Twenty-Three

GAIUS

" A re you all right, Seleste?"

She smiled at him as he rode up next to her and Arielle to check on them, but she was far from exhibiting her usual perky demeanour. Gaius barely caught the dismissive, demanding gesture of Arielle's hand cutting through the air, warning him to knock it off before Seleste answered.

"I'm tired, that's all. Thank you for asking, Gaius."

What in Hades did Arielle sense that he didn't? He almost snorted. The answer was just about everything .

"How are you faring?" Seleste turned his question back on him and his stomach soured. "You faced a great deal about your family last night. About yourself."

That was an understatement, to say the least. Arielle had suspected he carried some vestige of magic when he'd discerned the blood clot with his naked eye, but he'd dismissed it. It had been a fluke—some result of Seleste and Sorscha's magic. When all the information about his grandfather and his mother was laid at his feet…

He'd known his mother was a mage, but his grandfather being in league with some secret society begun by Morgana? That was where he drew the line.

"Not all mages pass on magic to their children," he finally said in answer.

Arielle sighed. "Gaius, you clearly have traces?—"

"Please," he said through gritted teeth. "I don't want—" He blew out his frustration through his nose. He didn't want to snap at Arielle. "I'm not ready."

Seleste cleared her throat daintily. "Your grandfather was not a bad man, Gaius. I believe he tried to stop some of the dark things the society was dabbling in, just as Asa's mother, Nadja, did."

Gaius squinted up at her where she sat on the wagon bench. "How do you know that?"

Seleste took her time in answering, her brown eye as clouded with memory as her unseeing one. Eventually, she licked her lips and spoke softly, as if the words pained her.

"A very long time ago, I saw some of the things your father was working on with the others in Société de Guerre ."

Gaius watched her shoulders rise and fall with a deep inhale and exhale.

"I didn't know what it meant back then, or that it could possibly be relevant to our current situation until I learned the names of your and Asa's mothers. I suspected it then, and I am certain now, that Achilles Zivai and Nadja Rashad were the ones who put a stop to much of the evil in Société de Guerre . They are the very ones who set many things in motion with their actions, to lead us to this day."