Page 79 of Devoted

“What I’ve always wanted.” My father’s tone was detached. “You. Back home. By my side. Where you rightfully belong.”

Deception. Even without Truthtelling abilities, I would bet everything that came out of this bastard’s mouth was a lie.

“I thought you wanted me dead because I was an embarrassment to my heritage?” I threw his words back in his face. “Now, you want me to wear the crown. What’s the matter? Can’t make up your mind?”

“That was anger speaking before. This is logic.”

“Riiight.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you say.”

“You’re no good to me dead. I realize that now,” he snapped, as if the truth offended him. “Soon enough, your allies will be mindless slaves. I’m here to offer you a future. Join me in Rome. Serve at my side, like you were meant to. Together, we’ll rule the Bellamorte Dynasty.”

Yeah, fat fucking chance, stronzo. Like always, my father was driven by his own selfish motives, which were not having his wayward son by his side. And why not just turn me into one of those mindless slaves and control me like everyone else? No, whatever his game, he was after something else.

A chill ran through me.

Something bigger.

He eyed the stark, wood chairs, then pinched his lips together in distaste. No, Father didn’t do uncomfortable.

“Romulus is at your side,” I pointed out, curious to see how he’d respond. “Like he’s always been. You don’t need me.”

“Rom is loyal,” he agreed, pacing to the other side of the room, clasping his hands behind his back before turning back to face me. Behind my father’s flat expression, greed glittered. “But I need my son. You’re of my blood. There are things you bring to the table Romulus lacks. Powers he could never dream of. Had I known your secret, I never would have let you go.”

Powers. Secret.

Fuck. Losing control for those few critical seconds while we were locked in the circle had been a mistake. I’d panicked, intent on protecting Emberline, and instead, I’d revealed something my father could—and would—use against me.

Use against all of us.

Had I known your secret. I turned that phrase over in my head, fury building until I ached from holding it all inside. Like this curse was the only thing that gave me worth.

“You’ll never see that part of me again,” I said flatly. “And neither will anyone else.”

My father looked pointedly at the bedroom. “Tell that to your lover. She’s in your bed. But have you told her who you really are? Does she know what you’re hiding, or should I say… what’s hiding inside you?”

Anger flared, and the walls around us shifted, from pale sandstone to cold granite, flecked with black mica, the stone of the Blackwood Castle outside of Rome, a place I so despised, I hadn’t thought about in decades. I grit my teeth and turned everything back to before, the memory of that awful place slipping through me like oil.

“Homesick, son?” His smile sharpened. “You could have visited. I would have welcomed you with open arms.”

“Get to the fucking point,” I snapped, “or this all goes away. Tick tock, you’d best talk fast, Cesare, because I am out of patience.”

His expression darkened as he wrestled his temper back under control. The process took longer than I remembered, and I tried not to enjoy his struggle as much as I did, but damn, it was good to have the upper hand for once.

“After your departure, I never thought I’d see you again.” He pasted an appropriately somber expression on his face. “All those years, I thought you were dead.”

“That was the whole point.”

“Then you came to Rome. Imagine my surprise when I realized the Draconi soldier sent to investigate my supposed crimes was my own son. I wondered if you’d somehow been… reincarnated. I told myself that was, of course, impossible. That there must be another explanation.”

I kept my face blank, hands loose, breaths even as he threw my greatest miscalculation back in my face.

I still couldn’t say what drove me to go to Rome.

Curiosity, perhaps. Pride, most definitely.

The chance to bring my father—the male I despised with every cell in my body—down for his crimes. I’d left empty-handed, and my father had discovered his long-dead son was alive.

I’d been living under his shadow ever since.