House of Ravens (20 page)

NONE OF US SAY A WORD.

Ian leans against a wall behind me. Nial
keeps coming back, his hands flitting about, as if he knows there’s
something he should be doing, but there isn’t anything more. Rath
sits across from me. The look of utter disbelief on his face is
astounding.

None of us dare breathe as we watch
Henry.

He lies on a bed in the spare bedroom on the
lower floor of his house. His eyes are closed, his hands lying
gently at his sides. The wound on his chest is closed up; he no
longer bleeds.

With Rath and Nial’s help, we cleaned the
blood from his body, cutting away the clothing he wore. In the
entire time I’ve lived here at the Conrath Estate, I never could
bring myself to throw out his clothes. So it was no problem to run
upstairs into my closet and grab some of his pajamas.

Now, we wait.

Will he wake up?

“
Can you believe it, Rath?”
I whisper. I reach for my father’s hand and take it in mine,
holding his knuckles up to my lips. “We thought he was gone
forever. And here he is.”

Rath doesn’t say anything in return. He only
studies Henry’s face, as if he can will him to wake up.

The hours have been so, so long. Once Henry
seemed somewhat stable, we moved him into a more private room
because the moment we called Rath, everyone else quickly found out
that we had already found Henry. They all returned to the House. I
can currently hear four House members waiting outside the door,
quietly talking. Five more are in the ballroom. Six patrol the
property, and everyone else is scattered about.

Waiting to hear if the rightful leader of
their House will live.

Suddenly, my entire life is up in the
air.

But none of that matters now.

I have my father back.

The sun broke out over the horizon hours
ago, washing Silent Bend in summer light. For a few hours, we
should be safe from attack. From these plots of war.

And I must wait. And be patient.

KATINA BRINGS LUNCH IN
FOR
the four of us around noon. I take a
bite of my sandwich, but it’s tasteless and gets stuck in my
throat. I set it aside. Rath doesn’t touch his food. Nial and Ian
eat quietly, unable to do anything but be there to support Rath and
I.

Finally, at three in the afternoon, Henry’s
right foot twitches.

“
That’s a good sign,” Nial
says, as a small smile cracks on his lips.

Henry’s foot twitches again, and his eyes
flit back and forth quickly beneath his eyelids. His breathing
increases.

“
What’s wrong with him?” I
ask, my brows furrowing.

Nial bends over him with a stethoscope,
pressing it to my father’s chest. He listens for a moment. “He’s
quite alright,” Nial says. “He’s only having a nightm-”

Henry suddenly sits straight up, his hand
clamping around Nial’s throat like a vise. His eyes glow red and
wild, his movements frantic as he scrambles to his knees.

“
Henry!” Rath and I both
yell at the same time, leaping to Nial’s aid.

“
It’s alright. You’re safe.
He’s a friend,” Rath continues.

Henry’s wide, unsure eyes search the room,
confused for a moment. But finally, they flick back to Nial, who
has his hands gripped around Henry’s wrists, and lets him go.

“
I’m so sorry,” he says,
his body instantly calming as he relaxes back against the bed,
blinking, as if clearing a fog from his eyes. “I…”

But he doesn’t finish his sentence. His eyes
slide over to me, and he meets my gaze and just stares.

His jaw, mine. His brows, mine. His cheeks,
my own.

We only share half of our DNA, but it’s so
like looking in a mirror. I look so much like him. I’ve been told
that, over and over, and here he finally is.

The legend.

“
Henry,” I breathe. “You’re
here.”

Emotion rolls through his eyes and he can’t
seem to quite get the words out that he has to say. So he looks
away, and takes in Ian and Nial. “Thank you for your help,” he
says, his voice still rough. “Can I please get some time alone with
my daughter?”

Nial bows, and immediately walks out. Ian
looks to me for reassurance, and when I nod, he leaves.

“
Rath, my brother,” Henry
says, taking Rath’s hand in his. “It has been too long, but I must
ask you to wait a short amount of time longer.”

It’s all there in his eyes, how very little
Rath wants to leave Henry’s side after finally being reunited with
him. But he bows his head and slowly leaves the room.

He closes the door behind him, leaving Henry
and I alone.

I look at his face, studying him as he
stares at the door for just a moment.

It’s there, so apparent. He’s terrified of
this moment, too. So many years of anticipation for him. So much
wondering. So many what ifs. And now, we’ve finally arrived.

He looks over at me, and instantly, my eyes
well.

“
I’m so sorry, my darling,”
he breathes.

My walls of self-control burst and I
collapse forward into his chest, my arms clinging to him tight, and
I just begin to sob.

I mourn all the years as a child, having
never known who my father was. All the times I wanted someone who
threatened to break any boy who hurt me. Someone to protect me and
give me advice.

I cry for the ten months of longing I’ve had
here in his House, wanting so very badly to know him.

And these tears are also shed in joy.

That we’re here. He’s here, tangible, in my
arms.

“
I’m so sorry,” he
whispers, over and over as he strokes my hair, holding me tight.
His strong arms pull me in close, promising not to let me
go.

“
I needed you, so many
times,” I cry. They’re angry words. Mournful. Accepting. “I just
can’t believe…” I can’t even talk.

“
I know, my love,” he says.
The promise in his voice, the sincerity, I know he means it when he
calls me his love. I may have never known it, but Henry was indeed
there, so many moments of my life, watching.

When I first came to the Conrath Estate,
Rath gave me a letter that Henry had written to me. It was full of
wishes and regrets.

I wish I had known sooner. I wish we could
have had time together. I wish I could have been there for you.

I have many wishes for what might have
been.

But I am also sorry.

“
I’m so sorry,” he breathes
once more into my hair.

Knowing that I am your father, I know the
fate that I have put upon your shoulders.

“
I know you wanted me to
stay away from all of this,” I finally find the words to speak.
“But I couldn’t. I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t.”

He leans back from me, his hands on my upper
arms to get a look at me. “You do not have anything at all to be
sorry for,” he says, brushing a lock of hair behind my ear. “I was
a fool, and I put an unfair burden upon your shoulders by asking
what I did of you. I knew Cyrus would never leave you alone, but I
suppose it was my own foolish hopefulness, thinking I could will it
to stay apart from you for a very long time.”

“
You’re not disappointed?”
I ask, wiping tears from my face, wanting so very badly for him to
say no.

“
I have not been able to
watch you this entire time,” he says as he takes my hands in his.
“But I have seen you go through an incredible transformation since
you arrived. Through ups and downs, trial and error, you’ve grown
into your birthright. Elijah would have been proud of
you.”

Tears pool in my eyes once again, though
they do not fall this time. “I’m so sorry he was taken from
you.”

He nods, though the pain of losing his
brother is so far in the past that it does not reach his eyes as I
expect it to. “When you live as long as I have, you are bound to
lose those you love at some point.”

My heart, which has been racing and tripping
over itself this entire time, finally begins to calm somewhat. I
feel all the nerves in me begin to relax. “I can never get a
straight answer out of Rath, so I have to finally ask. When were
you actually born?”

Henry gives a little, soundless chuckle,
more like the expulsion of air, and a thin-lipped smile. “Are you
sure you want to know?”

“
Of course!” I say,
shifting on the bed, so that I’m sitting directly in front of him.
“I want to know everything.”

He lets out a sigh, once more taking my
hands in his. “Ah well, the truth is that I do not know exactly
what year it was. Though, I remember when I was a child, Charles IV
was crowned King over Bohemia, where I was born, so sometime before
1346, according to the history books.”

My mouth falls open just slightly, my mind
instantly attempting to do the math. That makes Henry at least 670
years old.

“
I…” I stutter. “I suppose
I shouldn’t be too shocked. I’ve met much older Royals.”

I mean, I met Dorian and Malachi. Even
Raheem is over 900 years old.

Henry smiles, nodding. “I’ve lived a long
life. Others still have lived far longer.”

And it’s the lifetime that waits before me.
It’s impossible to imagine. How the world has changed within my
father’s lifetime.

The room grows quiet once again, and my
thoughts grow somber and wondering. My eyes fall from Henry’s, to
our hands, held together.

“
You should ask the
question you’re most curious about,” he says quietly.

I nod, though it’s hard to form the words
because I’m not entirely sure I want to know the answer. But it’s
one I have to learn.

“
Why did you leave? And why
didn’t you come back?”

Henry runs his thumb over my knuckles. I
study his hands, expecting wrinkles, old age, and wear. But they’re
still youthful. Smooth, but like any other man’s hands. My father
stopped aging long ago.

“
My work put me in danger,”
he finally says. “What I discovered down in my lab—somehow Cyrus
got wind of rumors and I knew he would come after me. Soon. And,
what I am working on is too important.”

So Cyrus wasn’t just
messing with me with his parting words.
If
a measly Bitten hadn’t ended him, I would have killed the
traitorous bastard myself.
“What is it?” I
ask, my brows furrowing, imagining the lab down below the ballroom
floor.

Henry shakes his head. “I will tell you
everything soon. But other parts of the timeline are more important
in this moment.”

It’s hard to accept. I want to rip every
single answer to every single question I’ve had from him, in a big,
dumping slew of secrets. But I nod in agreement, for the
moment.

“
I knew he would come after
me soon,” Henry continues. “So when that Bitten came after me, I
let everyone believe I was dead. Seeing Rath’s pain and letting him
bury me wasn’t easy, but I knew it was necessary. But now there was
not only the problem of keeping my discoveries safe, but there was
the problem of these Bitten with an incredible Debt and their
rising numbers.”

The look in his eyes darkens, growing deeper
by the moment. In them I see the capability of the violence I
witnessed in my apartment, and again, in the house on the edge of
town. “This war has been brewing since before you arrived in Silent
Bend, Alivia. The Bitten and their bitterness to our kind is
growing. I could not come to you because, for the last ten months,
I’ve been tracking their cells down, putting an end to as many of
them as I can.”

I nod. Accepting this isn’t easy. “How many
have you taken out?” I whisper.

Henry’s eyes rise to meet mine, and they
have a dim, red glow igniting in them. “One hundred seventy-nine
thus far, including those I killed last night.”

I shake my head, a breath escaping my chest.
“That’s in addition to all the ones we’ve killed so far. That’s…” I
shake my head. It’s all so incredible, in the worst way. “Do you
know who’s leading them?”

“
No,” Henry says with a
sharp edge to his voice. He swings his legs off the side of the
bed, rising to his feet to anxiously pace the floor. A little smile
crooks on my lips at this. I do the exact same thing. “I’ve never
heard of such careful, patient tactics. They’re amassing numbers,
but keeping everything so secretive and disguised.”

“
Henry, if these are the
numbers that we’ve discovered, there has to be masses more.” The
horror is rising in my chest. “Unless we’re taking them out as
they’re being created, which seems unlikely. This is going to be a
bloody war when it comes to that.”

“
How many House members are
you up to?” he asks as he pauses and looks over at me.

“
Nineteen if you count
Rath,” I say. “And one more who is only here to help with this
fight.”

“
If the Bitten come at us
all at once, it won’t be enough,” he says, shaking his
head.

And a light goes off in the
back of my head. “When I was taken to
Roter Himmel
, I think I made an
ally. Noriko, of the House of Himura. She said she would come to
our aid if it came to actual war.”

Something sparks in Henry’s eyes. One
eyebrow rises in shock. “The House of Himura is the fourth largest
House in the world.”

“
She said it’s the third,”
I correct him.

“
You should get in touch
with her—now,” he says. “This thing could boil over any minute.
It’s picked up incredible momentum in just the last
week.”