Born of Legend (66 page)

“Matarra?”

Sobering, she met Jullien's gaze. “What are you doing here?”

The sharpness of her tone cut through him like a knife. “It's my graduation night. Do you not remember?”

She tightened her grip on Galene's son. “You're not supposed to be in here.” She stood up with Talyn and cuddled him in her arms. Something she'd never done with Jullien. “Get out! Guards!”

“Matarra? I'm not Eadvard. It's me … Jullien. Don't you remember?”

“My son's dead.
You
killed him.”

Galene took his arm. “You should leave,
Alteske
. You're upsetting her.”

He felt the childish urge to shout that she was his mother, not Talyn's. But he knew it wouldn't do any good. Instead, he allowed Galene to push him out and shut the door in his face.

Jullien turned to find Tylie rushing toward him while his mother continued to shriek from inside the room.

“What did you do now?”

“Nothing.”

Shoving at him, she pinched him on the arm. “You know better than to disturb Cairie. Why can't you leave her alone and let her be happy?”

“I happen to be her son.”

“Then act like it and do something for her, you selfish little bastard.”

His breathing intensified under the hatred in her gaze. “And whose fault is it that I'm bastard-born? I'm not the whore who screwed a human dog.”

Tylie slapped him. “You filthy mongrel! That's your mother you're insulting! Why don't you go sober up for once? You reek of alcohol!”

Wiping the blood from his lips, he watched as she entered his mother's room and left him alone.

His link went off, warning him it was time to leave for his graduation.

Jullien pulled it out and turned the alarm off, then slammed it against the floor and stomped it. There was no need to go. He'd been to enough ceremonies where his family abandoned him and left him to stand alone. He had no desire to attend another one. It was too embarrassing to be the only one there with no family present. To have to make excuses and to see the mockery or pity in the eyes of others.

Screw it.

Disgusted, he headed for the study, intending to grab a bottle of the strongest Tondarion whisky his grandmother had in her cabinet and have his own celebration in his room. But as he reached the foyer, he met Merrell coming through the main palace door.

“What are you doing?” Merrell had demanded.

Disgusted, Jullien held his hands out. Was he totally stupid? Couldn't he tell he was headed for alcohol? “What does it look like?”

Merrell's eyes had flared as he shoved Jullien toward the study that had been his destination. He literally threw him into the room and shoved the doors closed behind them. “Are you out of your mind? You can't go to graduation!”

Jullien's contentious spirit kicked in. If Merrell was so thick he couldn't figure out he'd already abandoned that idea, far be it from him to correct the moron. “You don't order me, asshole!”

Merrell grabbed his collar in an angry fist. “Have you given thought to what would happen if someone were to see you and that hybrid bastard together and realize he was your twin? You can't risk this!”

Rolling his eyes, Jullien shoved Merrell away. “You don't tell me what to do! I'm the tahrs! Not you!”

Merrell caught him in a headlock and twisted him, pinning him to the ground.

Jullien tried to speak, but the way he was held, he couldn't say another word. All he could do was wheeze and choke.

“I'll see you dead before I let you jeopardize our lives!” Merrell injected him.

A few heartbeats later, everything went black.

Ushara came out of the memory, gasping. “His cousin overdosed him on his graduation night?”

Thrāix nodded. “What I didn't show you was his grandmother's reaction to it all. Because he wasn't in the top one percent of his class, she refused to acknowledge it. To quote the bitch,
I don't celebrate mediocre accomplishments.
And the whole reason he wasn't in the top one percent had nothing to do with his abilities, intelligence, or study habits as much as it did with the fact that he was a hybrid prince attending a predominately Andarion school, and overweight, and neither of his parents gave a shit when his teachers attacked him and lowered his grades out of jealousy and spite. He had one teacher who took off an entire grade because he handed the paper to her upside down. He never had anyone champion him, for anything.”

She swallowed hard against the swell of pain inside her. “I knew it was bad. But I had no idea just how isolated he was.”

Thrāix took her hand. “I want to show you one more thing.”

“I'm not sure I can take it.”

“Yeah, you can. You need to see this.”

She doubted it until she took his hand and saw herself through Jullien's eyes.

It was the day she'd brought him clothes and taken him for breakfast. There was no way to describe the feelings inside him when he'd opened the door and seen her. An act of random kindness that she hadn't thought very much about—she'd have done it for most anyone. But one that had changed his life and given him his first taste of compassion.

That single morning had changed his entire perspective and outlook—had given him hope.

And made him hopelessly hers, forever.

That succeeded in breaking her completely. Sobbing, she let go and staggered back.

Thrāix didn't take pity on her. “I wanted you to understand what he'll
never
be able to say to you. The depth of emotion mere words won't ever convey. I thought you should know. I didn't have the chance to tell the woman I loved like that what she meant to me, and I've had to live out my life wondering what it would have been like had Julia fully understood what she was to me.”

He swallowed hard. “I know you've been hurt, Ushara. That you're afraid of losing him. Life is never the fairy tale they sold us on when we were kids. More often, it's the nightmare we can never wake from. What they don't tell us when we're little is that the trick is to find the one who will be there in the middle of the night to hold us when we're screaming and tell us that it'll be all right. The one who doesn't shirk or run from our nightmares, but who holds us through them and makes sure we never face them alone. I promise that I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't lose him.”

“Thank you.”

Nodding, he stepped away from her. “When he wakes, he'll be extremely ill. Don't be too concerned. It's normal. He'll have a high fever. Chills. Severe headache. Dizziness. Disoriented. Confusion. Even vomiting. Some motor control might be compromised. Things to watch for are slurred speech and memory loss. Vision problems. Nose bleeds. Numbness in his extremities. If he has any of those, let me know immediately.”

“Okay.” Wiping at her tears, she returned to the room where Jullien had yet to move.

Jory and Trajen scowled at her, but didn't say a word. Rather, they withdrew to give her privacy.

Alone with Jullien, she sat on the bed and pulled the collar back from his neck so that she could gently finger the scars where Merrell and Parisa had injected their venom into him for years. And not carefully. The scars showed their savagery where they'd purposefully stabbed the injectors to cause him as much pain as possible and to make it obvious to everyone that Jullien was using.

A true junkie would have hidden his use and chosen a concealed spot on his body to access his veins. Like everything else in his life, this was done to scar and humiliate him. To hold him up for public ridicule.

Worse? Once his guards had discovered him overdosed on the floor, his grandmother had punished him for it.

As had his father.

She winced as the images Thrāix had shown her played through her mind, along with all the articles she'd read about Jullien. Those that had shown him alone in harsh rehab clinics where they'd sent him to recover and recuperate. Not the cozy, cushy ones most aristocrats were sent to, like the one they'd chosen for his mother.

No, his grandmother and father had sent him to the ones that were barely a step up from prison, where he'd been resented and hated. A target because of his noble birth by both the staff and other patients. Hospitals where he'd sat alone on visitation days in a solitary corner while everyone else spent time with their family and friends.

A weary soul.

“I will never leave you alone again,” she whispered in his ear.

*   *   *

Jullien came awake with a start.

Ushara sat up instantly to let him know that she was still with him. “I'm right here, baby,” she breathed, cupping his face.

Hissing, he placed the heel of his hand to his eye.

“I know. Thrāix said your head would be hurting.” She reached for the water on the table next to the bed. “Sip this slowly. It'll help.”

To her astonishment, he obeyed. “How long have I been out?”

“A few hours.”

“Shouldn't you be headed back for Vas?”

“He'll be fine with my parents and family for a couple of days. He knows we love him and that he can call us if he needs something. Right now, you need me more, and I don't want you here alone.”

Jullien placed her hand on his cheek. The tender expression on his face seared her.

Until he opened his eyes. There was a strange light behind them. Dazed and haunted.

“Jullien?”

He started to get up, then cursed and stumbled. “Trajen!” His shout rumbled through the room. “Jory!”

“Baby, you need to get back in bed.”

He wasn't listening. Instead, he was trying to get to the door.

Luckily, Thrāix, Jory, and Trajen didn't dawdle in their rush to join them.

They stared at him in flabbergasted awe.

Trajen gaped. “What are you doing, Andarion?”

“Eriadne's going after Shara's brother. We have to get to Axl. Now!”

Ushara felt her stomach hit the floor. “What?”

Jullien tightened his grip on her hand. “That's what the bitch meant. She's got The League coming down on your brother. We have to warn him, or they're going to kill him.”

 

C
HAPTER
25

“What the hell did you create?”

Ushara drew up short as she entered the room with Trajen, Jory, and Thrāix.

Thrāix glared at Trajen for that accusation. “I did
nothing
you didn't ask me to do. You know what I know. Everyone responds differently to it. He's a hybrid being. His brain isn't wired like anyone else's.”

Terror and panic mixed inside her over their fury. “What happened? Is Jullien in danger?”

“No,” Jory said quickly. “Definitely not in danger. At least we don't think so.”

Trajen let out a tired sigh as he turned to face her with pinched features. “Sit down, Ushara.”

“Why?”

Thrāix helped her to a chair. “Because we've accidentally made your husband Trisani.”

Yeah, okay, she needed to sit. “W-w-what?”

Trajen nodded. “Somehow he's got more powers than just the ability to communicate with machines.”

“We're not sure what all he can do yet.” Thrāix rubbed at his chin. “I've never heard of this happening. With anyone … ever.”

Jory made a sound of supreme disgust. “Man, why couldn't it have been me? I never catch the great breaks like this.”

“Not sure this is that great a break.” Thrāix exchanged a brutal grimace with Trajen. “These powers are their own form of hell at times.”

“Especially if you're not born with them.” Trajen kept trying to signal her brother. “I can't get through to Axl. I've sent word to every ship we have near him … but there's no way we can reach him in less than a week.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I already called Dimitri and told him. But he's too far away to get to him, or Kirill, either, for that matter. No one can reach him in time to warn him. Eriadne picked her target well.”

“She always did.”

Ushara wanted to scream in frustration. “What are we going to do?”

Jory sighed. “I've got the word out to me sister and me Sep brothers and Ryn Cruel. He said he'd contact The Sentella and Wassies. With luck, one of them can get to Axl before The League does.”

Thrāix scowled. “What's that sound?”

“It's a ship starting. Dear gods, tell me he isn't…” Trajen ran for the bay.

Ushara ran after him, along with the others. She had the same bad feeling about Jullien that they did. And as she got to the bay, she cursed at the visual confirmation of Jullien's stubborn stupidity. “What's he thinking? He can't make it any faster than we can.”

Trajen cursed. “I don't know.”

Jory ran for his ship.

Trajen turned to Thrāix. “Got a ship I can borrow?”

“Follow me.”

Ushara ran after them. But as soon as she got on board, she realized the same thing Jory did.

Jullien had them locked out. Nothing could launch.

“I'm going to kill him.” Ushara grabbed her link and immediately hailed her husband.

Instead of answering, she got a prerecorded message.

“I know you'll be mad. I would annihilate me in your place. But I'm to blame for this, and I can't sit by and let them kill your brother to get back at me when he's innocent in this. You won't grieve any less for Axl than you would for me. And this way, no one else in your family will be hurt, except for Vasili. For that alone, I am eternally sorry. You know I wouldn't hurt the two of you for anything if I could find any other solution. But this is the best one I can think of. Tell Vas that I love him. That I'll always love him. That I'm depending on him to take care of you and the girls for me. There's no one else I would trust with your safety. I love you, Shara. Please understand and forgive me. This really is the only way to make things right.”