Page 239 of Ashen Torment

“Hmm.”

“From what I know,” I continue, “they are the ones who handle the matters that must leave no trace. Men who vanish. Warnings that no one dares ignore. Hands that support the Vasiliev family when the stakes become... elevated.”

Lucien swallows.

“Oskar chose them one by one, and took them raw and made them useful. He bent them, marked them. They would throw themselves into the fire if he ordered it.”

“You speak as if you were almost... envious, brother.”

I bring a hand to my mouth, barely covering the smile that does not reach my eyes.

“Envious of what?”

He settles into his chair. “Of that kind of control. Of obedience.”

My hand slides away from my face, my fingers remain suspended for an instant, then close.

“If I had wanted it, Lucien, I would be with them.”

He turns his gaze away; his eyes slide toward the carpet, then to the window.

“That man is not... normal,” he says finally. “I remember how he clung to you, those few times he set foot here.”

“Oskar?”

He nods.

“He must have come three times in all, if we count the time after my mother’s death.”

He brings his gaze back to me.

“They were enough. More than enough.”

He leans forward slightly.

“He would stand there, in silence. Watching everything with those impassive eyes. And...”

“And?”

“He looked at me the way one looks at a cockroach.”

“Oskar looks at everyone that way.”

“Not you.”

I shrug my shoulders.

Lucien breathes in deeply. “I want no further involvement with them, Dorian.”

“It will not be necessary.”

I take the glass, swirling it slightly. “He has already provided what we were looking for.”

Lucien’s shoulders drop, the tension leaves his face.

“Good.”

“Now you seem the jealous one, brother.”