He gaped at me for a moment before giving a slow shake of his head. “You might truly be insane,” he said, muttering something about an asylum being a more appropriate place for me to visit.
“Fine,” I said coolly, folding my arms over my chest. “I don’t need your help. I’m sure my father’s journals detail exactly how to enter the city. Through the Lacunae Caves, right?”
Casimir glared at me. He likely suspected I was bluffing about traversing the caves alone, but?—
A sliver of doubt interrupted the surety in his gaze, and I knew I had him.
“If I were to even consider bringing you to the Isle, there wouldbe conditions,” he warned. “And Ethervale is one thing—but there’s no way in hell I’d let you set foot in the Ivory Court.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let me?”
“You know what I mean.”
I shrugged. “I will accept your conditions, so long as they are reasonable.” I suppressed the urge to revel in my victory.
“Then… alright,” he gritted out.
“Alright, what?” I wanted to hear him say it. To make a promise he couldn’t easily renege on.
He spoke through clenched teeth. “I’ll take you to Ethervale.”
“You will?”
“Gods help me, I must be mad,” he muttered, raking a hand through his hair. “Before you agree, there’s something else you should know.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “No secrets, no lies, right?” He grimaced as if what he was about to say would cause us both pain. “It was my mother who betrayed Katerina.”
I stared at him in numb confusion.
“Your mother?” I repeated. “But?—”
“Lucretia Wrayburn is my mother,” he said, his eyes darkening. “I didn’t know about your father. We never crossed paths. I was living in exile by the time he began his duties as emissary. I’d heard my mother was doing her own reconnaissance mission, most likely trying to restore the Queen’s trust in her following the fallout from the rebellion.” His expression was contorted by shame and disgust. “But I can only guess as to her motives in regard to Katerina, but knowing her, they must’ve been self-interested at best, and nefarious at worst.”
A dull ache formed at my temples as I processed this new information. Casimir’s mother had betrayed my father. It was hard to comprehend that they’d known each other long before I was even born. Like snow falling on the hillside, it was just another betrayal to pile on the growing mountain of treachery. My father’s secret life, the revelation that the woman who had raisedme with a disapproving eye was not my biological mother, and then learning I was half-Daemon. And now, discovering that the person who betrayed my parents was Casimir’s own mother. It was too much to bear.
“I understand if this…changes things for you,” Casimir added gruffly.
I took in the downturn of his mouth, the cold look of self-loathing in his eyes as he glared off into space, and shook my head. “It isn’t your fault,” I insisted. “You didn’t know. You weren’t even there.”
“Still, I’d understand if you felt betrayed by proxy.” His expression was steely as he turned to meet my gaze. “After all, Lucretia is the reason you never met your biological mother.”
It was true, but beneath my shock and dismay were other, more burning questions. Why did Nymara Pax assign my father as emissary in the first place, and why did the council name him Keeper? How had he managed to escape Ethervale once Lucretia betrayed them? What did it mean for Casimir and I that his own mother was the reason my birth mother and I had been separated for over twenty years?
What did it say about me that I had fallen for a Daemon, just like my father?
I don’t ever want to be unbound from you.
I wanted to ask Casimir if he’d meant those pretty words he’d spoken at the Jewel Ball, but my feelings would have to wait.
Sitting in the light streaming in through the window of the loft, I was struck with the full weight of my past and future, unfurling before me. I wanted to meet my biological mother, Katerina. Even if she was no longer living, I had to find out. And my best chance of doing that was to go to Ethervale. I knew the journey would be treacherous. I knew that Ethervale was “no place for mortals,” to use Casimir’s words, but I wasn’t mortal. I was a half-Daemon. A freakish hybrid. Entering the city of Daemons would place us both at great risk, but what choice did we have? I wasn’t about to sit by and watch him waste away under the Necro Hex.
“If you’re serious about taking me to Ethervale, I want you to make a vow. A magically binding vow,” I added, so that there would be no ambiguity as to what I was asking for.
Casimir’s eyes were locked onto mine, his lips curved into an expression of disapproval. “Why do we have to make a bargain?”
“Because I’m afraid you’ll change your mind.”
There was a tense pause, and then?—
“Not a bloodbargain. I won’t put either one of us in that position again.” His eyes flared with anger as they rested on the fresh rune burned into my arm.