She inhaled. “He told you, the sonovabitch.”
“It doesn’t matter who told me. I know.”
She struggled with it for a few moments and raised her chin, her face defiant. “He doesn’t deserve it!”
“What?”
“He left me and James. He abandoned us when we needed him and when James ran away, he helped him hide from me.”
“Maybe it had something to do with the way my father was born.”
She clenched her teeth.
“Grandmother, you implanted an embryo into a woman who couldn’t consent to it and forced her to carry it to term. She was catatonic! I don’t even know what that is. Is it rape, is it a kidnapping, is it human trafficking . . . ? You did something so horrible, there isn’t a name for it.”
“You are alive because of what I did!”
“Well, I can’t exactly help that, can I?”
She clenched her fists. “Do you know what my family was like?”
“You never told me.” I knew. I had done my homework.
“I was the youngest of seven children. I was beloved, Catalina. I was the baby with parents who adored me, five older brothers and an older sister, and in the span of three years, all of them were ripped away from me.”
My great-grandmother had had difficulty carrying a child to term. It ran in that side of the family. She’d had one failed pregnancy after another, until her first husband demanded a divorce. She ended up marrying for a second time. Her new husband was a widower with six children, whom she’d loved like they were her own. When she gave birth to baby Victoria, it was a huge and joyous surprise. Victoria was the baby of the family. She was wrapped in love and affection until her family was destroyed.
My grandmother’s voice was raw. “I was twelve years old when I had to kill for the first time. My sister sacrificed herself so I could live. I saw her die in front of me. House warfare took everything away from me. My parents. My siblings. My health. My happiness, my security, everything!”
The circle flashed with rapid pulses of white, reacting to her magic. I took a step back.
“All I ever wanted was to resurrect a little bit of that warmth. I wanted a baby, Catalina! A child I could love and raise. A family! Is that such a horrible thing? Yes, I wanted him to carry on our House name, because it would mean we won, but most of all I wanted him to be happy and safe. I had to sacrifice so much to bring your father into this world, and yes, I committed an atrocity, but I have been punished for it in the worst way possible. My son ran away from me. I loved him so much. I tried to make him strong because he had no magic. He was defenseless and I couldn’t bear to lose him like I lost everyone else. But he hated me for it, and he ran away, just like Linus. I was all alone, always looking for him, always hoping for a tiny crumb of a hint that he was alive somewhere. I never saw him marry. I never got to hold you or your sisters when you were babies. That was the only thing I wanted, and I didn’t get it. I will never get to hug my son again. He died without me by his side, and his daughters hate me. I know what you call me behind my back. You call me Evil Grandmother.”
Tears wet her eyes. Oh, dear God, what do I do now?
“You think Linus is this sweet old man, but the things he has done would make you wake up at night screaming. He’s worse than me! Somehow, he can swim through a lake of sewage and come out smelling like roses, and I ended up as this wretched witch whom everyone despises . . .”
The connecting door swung open, revealing Linus. He was slumped over, holding on to an IV stand to keep himself upright.
“Vicki,” he said. “Baby . . .”
“Don’t you call me that, you horrible shithead!”
My mouth refused to close. Was this even happening? What was happening? What . . .
“We had a deal,” Victoria said, her voice bitter.
“I never meant to hurt you,” he started.
“Spare me your bullshit! You knew what I was doing.”
“I never thought you’d go through with it,” he said.
Somewhere off to the side my brain processed the fact that Linus was awake and dispassionately noted that he was deflecting the responsibility off himself.
“Well, I did,” Victoria snarled. “I spent years trying to atone for it. I took care of her family, I relocated them, I hid them, I supported them, I saved her sister from being kidnapped. I have done everything they’ve asked of me in that contract. None of it wipes the sin off my soul, I know, but I’ve tried. But how did you treat me, Linus? How did you treat your son?”
“Your granddaughters love you,” Linus said. “Look, Catalina has been setting a trap for you for two years and she threw it away just to keep you safe.”
“Don’t patronize me.” Victoria blinked. “Wait. Why are you here?”
“He was attacked and took an overdose of Styxine.”
Victoria glared at him. “Have you lost your damn mind?”
It was my turn to drop a bomb. “Also, he is the Warden of Texas. I am his Deputy. Where else would he be?”
The room went as silent as a tomb.
Linus raised his right hand. “Vicki . . .”
“You bastard! You dirty sonovabitch!”
Oh-oh.
“Let’s be rational about this . . .” Linus started.
“I’ll fucking lobotomize you, you filthy prick. You made her into a Warden! She was mine!”
The door behind me swung open and Arabella stuck her head into the room. “What’s with all the screaming . . .”
I pulled her in and clamped my hand over her mouth.
“You had two others to choose from,” Victoria snarled. “You could have had the older one. She would’ve been perfect. She is just like you. If that didn’t work out, you could have had the youngest one. She would walk across hot coals to get one of those kindly grandfatherly chuckles out of you. She adores you. But no, you took mine!”
“There were circumstances,” Linus said.
“Fuck your circumstances. You can take your circumstances and shove them up your ass.”
The circle pulsed with blinding light. If she had hit us with that much magic, our brains would have leaked out of our ears.
Victoria waved her arms around. “She stole Trevor from me! And I didn’t know! The subtlety required, the planning, can your stupid old brain even imagine it? I taught her, I molded her, I made sure she could lead this family. I made sure to find her the perfect partner. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to maneuver the two of them together? I suggested to the Keeper that he should request that boy to come to her trials. I made her promise that she wouldn’t leave the family for another House. I all but forbade her to love him, because forbidden fruit is the sweetest, and when she came to me, she was so meek and unsure, she would have fainted if he’d looked at her for two seconds. Their children will be invincible. And you ruined everything with your stupid plots and your inane nattering about duty and the greater good. Now she will die in one of your never-ending Warden schemes!”
Wow.
Linus opened his mouth.
“Don’t you dare!” She pointed her finger at him. “I don’t want your excuses. We had a deal. I held up my end of the bargain. I helped you with your idiotic Caesar plot! I became a criminal for you. I let them put me in prison. You promised me complete access to the children. You said I could pick one and you would not interfere!”
The circle pulsed. The floor under us shuddered.
“YOU LIED TO ME, LINUS!”
The chalk lines crackled with white lightning. We all stared at them until it faded.
“Question,” I said.
My grandparents looked at me.
“Actually, I have several questions,” I said, “But this is the most important one. Explain the idiotic Caesar plot.”