Page 204 of Ashen Torment

His voice reaches me from behind, tired. I do not turn, I remain as I am, my back to him.

“There were inconsistencies,” he continues. “A hidden contract.”

I breathe more slowly. Then I yield, rolling over slowly until I am on my back again, sinking my head into the pillow to look at him.

“My parents were expected at a charity gala, the carriage overturned. Immediate death. That was what we were told.”

He breaks off, passing his tongue over his lips.

“My mother was...” he hesitates. “A woman who did not go unnoticed. Kindness, humanity. Qualities none of us truly inherited.”

I swallow slowly, his scent is too close. It pricks at the base of my neck.

“My father was the opposite. Inflexible. He had a very precise idea of marriage. It did not contemplate tenderness.”

He pauses.

“But I believe he loved her. In his way.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because you are awake,” he replies, without changing his tone.

I want the answer to a question, but it remains wedged in my throat. I hear him breathing softly.

“Say it,” his voice returns, still veiled with sleep, yet lucid enough to strike.

“Whatever it is,” he insists. “Say it.”

I barely shake my head. I avert my gaze, fixing on an indistinct point beyond his shoulder.

“Who is Lucien?”

I feel him stiffen, a few moments later, he laughs.

I hate him.

I turn away sharply, offering him my back. The sheet slides from my shoulder with a crisp rustle. “Amusing.”

“Forgive me,” he says, a trace of laughter still in his voice. “For a moment, I believed you wished to ask me something different. Something... intimate?”

“Is he not, then?”

“Not in that sense.”

His voice has moved closer, I feel the heat of his breath at the nape of my neck. He does not touch me, but my body reacts as if he did.

“Lucien is my half-brother,” he explains. “My father’s son. Born before the marriage to Elizaveta, my mother.”

“I have never heard the name.”

“He is not officially recognized.” He swallows. “But he exists. He has always existed.”

“Lucien...?”

“Lucien Ravenswood.”

The surname falls between us.