Forged Absolution (Fates of the Bound Book 4)

by Wren Weston

  Nico’s thoughts had turned to Lila next. He’d asked someone to fetch her, to ask her why she’d never come to his cabin.

  Before they could, he’d closed his eyes and said no more.

  She’d run off moments later, chasing Olivier.

  Nico had died not knowing.

  If only she’d not wasted time looking into missing children, if only she’d trusted her initial instincts and waited to apprehend Camille until she’d found the second mole, then Nico and Delilah might still be alive.

  If only a lot of things.

  Her palm vibrated. Come to dinner tonight, Lila girl.

  Lila swallowed hard. Meetings had tied up her father for days. He’d sent her a few messages here and there telling her more about his forced retirement, but none had explained what had gone on between him and the committee.

  Perhaps she’d get answers at dinner instead of vague pleasantries.

  Footsteps scraped on the stone behind her. Cecily hadn’t bothered to dress for the day. Her tangled hair had been curled into a bun, and she carried a few books in her arms. She stopped several steps away from Lila, peering at her with wide red eyes.

  “Nico and Delilah died in this room.”

  Lila nodded, not wanting to speak about it. “Have you talked with Camille?”

  “Once. I don’t think I’ll talk with her again for a very long time.” She squeezed her books as though they were a stuffed bear, and sat next to Lila on the couch. “She lied about everything. She and Achille just pretended to be my friends. I brought them into this compound. If I hadn’t done that, Nico and Delilah wouldn’t have died.”

  “If lots of people had done lots of things differently, Nico and Delilah might not have died. Me included. But if you had done something differently, then this compound wouldn’t even exist. They came to spy. They came to destroy. Then they met you, and their allegiances changed. They protected you, your aunt, and the secrets of the oracles. You did that.”

  “It had nothing to do with me.”

  “It had everything to do with you, and you know it.”

  Cecily licked her lips. “Sometimes I got worried that something was going on between Camille and Achille. Sometimes I suspected that he had cheated on me with her. Sometimes, I’d catch them whispering or talking, and they’d change the subject as soon as I walked into the room. After he left, she seemed to know more than what she said about his disappearance. I thought it was proof. It only made me cry harder.”

  “Now you know.”

  “Now I know that he didn’t love me at all. Now I know he’s dead. I don’t even know how to feel about that.”

  “You don’t have to figure it out today. How you feel is how you feel.”

  “I just feel confused.”

  “Then let yourself feel confused.”

  “My aunt and my mother asked if Camille could stay on the compound. They say she’s important. I think they’re fools. How is anyone supposed to trust her now?”

  Lila shifted on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable angle. “I don’t know what to tell you, Cecily. I had a friend who proved false. In the end, she betrayed me and the trust of my family just to get ahead in life. A good man lost everything because of her actions, and she didn’t even care.”

  “She sounds awful.”

  “The difference between her and Camille is that Camille did everything within her power to keep you and your aunt safe. Maybe she could have made better decisions, but she made the ones she did to help everyone on this compound, not herself. She’d die before she betrayed you and your family, and that kind of loyalty is exceedingly rare.”

  “And Achille?”

  “He’s more complicated, isn’t he? They both did their best, Cecily. That might not make it better for you, but it is what it is.”

  Lila turned at the sound of more footsteps.

  Kenna paused at the lobby entrance in her white robe, her eyes skating over the room. “I’ve been looking for you, Lila,” she said, stopping at the end of the couch. “Mòr wanted me to speak with you before dinner.”

  Cecily’s eyes traveled back and forth between them. “I should go study.” She gathered up her things, gave a brief nod to Lila, and scooted out into the cold.

  Kenna took her daughter’s place on the couch. “It’s the eve of the Winter Solstice. You should come to our cabin tonight with Dixon. We always watch the same two movies and eat ourselves into a sugar coma. It’ll be fun. We’ll sweat too close to a roaring fire—”

  “That’s a given if you let Dixon anywhere near it.”

  “We would be very honored if you would celebrate with us.”

  Lila fiddled with her shamrock bracelet. “On any other night, I’d join you, but my father messaged me a few moments ago. He throws a family dinner party every year for the Winter Solstice. He and I need to talk.”

  “Join us after dinner if you’re not too tired.”

  “I’ll do that. Is that what your sister wanted to talk to me about?”

  “That, and a few other things. Mòr would like to keep your coat, Lila.”

  “Which coat? The purplecoat?”

  “No, the gray one.”

  “The one I had on when I got shot?” Lila asked. “Why? It’s ruined. Dr. McCrae probably had it tossed out days ago. You could tell her where I bought it, though.”

  “Dr. McCrae still has it. Mòr asked her to keep it safe.”

  “Safe? Why?”

  “For the parlor cases.”

  Lila’s eyes widened.

  Kenna did not look away this time. “One day soon, that coat will hold a place of honor next to Maid Lilliard’s saddle.”

  “What about Nico’s coat? Or Delilah’s? Will theirs have a place too?”

  “My sister doesn’t just want your coat because you helped bring down Olivier. There’s a bigger picture here, one that you are a part of whether you want to be or not. This won’t be the last item my sister begs from you. It’s not even the first.”

  “What was the first?”

  “The guns you used at the warehouse two months ago. They’re in a box in her closet.”

  Lila could scarcely imagine anyone keeping such a weapon, not after it had dealt so much death. Now the oracle wanted her bloody coat too? “Why didn’t your sister just cut off a few of the mercs’ heads and stick them on pikes while she was at it? I’m sure that would make a lovely parlor display.”

  “This is making you uncomfortable.” Kenna nodded. “I thought blunt would be the best approach. I suppose I should have led with our reasons.”

  “Which are?”

  “Sometimes the only way to keep history from happening again is to see it. That is why the oracle children have always been the keepers of the relics. It’s not for entertainment or amusement, Lila. It’s so we can glimpse the future.”

  “By remembering the past?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why even ask me when you have them already?”

  “Because we don’t have your permission. Think about it, will you?”

  Lila rubbed her wound and tried to settle into a more comfortable position. “Is that all?”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you. We want you to enjoy your time here. I know Dixon is helping you look for accommodations in the city, but we’d prefer it if you stayed. You could have a home here, not just a job.” Kenna crossed her legs. The toe of her boot made a slow series of circles. “Mòr, Connell, and I spoke last night. We have something else we’d like you to look into. Something we’re curious about, and something we know you’re curious about too.”

  “The Red Phoenix Army?”

  “We need to know who pulls their strings. We need to make sure they don’t wish the oracles harm. All we’ve found so far are rumors, nothing substantial.”

  “I’m blind without my
spy network.”

  “You didn’t tap any of your spies to find Camille.”

  “That was different.”

  “Maybe this can be different too. We’ll pay you for your trouble.” Kenna’s boot stopped moving. “No matter what you chose to do or not to do, you are a friend of the oracles, Lila. All of the oracles. We keep to the old ways. Every oracle is duty-bound to help you, no matter the city, no matter the country.”

  “Do I need to learn some sort of secret handshake, or does everyone have a sketch of me at their gatehouses?”

  “Your face has been etched into the skulls of every oracle and every future oracle over the last few months. Every purplecoat in the Allied Lands has a sketch of you and will let you inside their compound. You need only ask.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re all waiting. You will save us, Lila Randolph. We just don’t know when or why, and we only know a few pieces of the how behind it. We will do everything we can to help you and to keep you safe until that moment comes.”

  “And you won’t tell me anything about it.”

  Kenna would not meet her eyes.

  Lila wondered if she knew any of the details.

  Becoming prime seemed so trivial now, especially when the oracles and the gods kept shoving her toward another role she didn’t want, an even larger one, one with a great deal more responsibility and consequences. Strangely, both the oracles and her matron spoke the same words and used the same arguments.

  Lila was quite tired of them.

  Kenna glimpsed Lila’s stiffened form, too canny not to recognize she’d gone wrong somewhere in her plea. “I only meant it as a comfort.”

  “I don’t need comforting.”

  “Maybe we’re the ones who need comforting. I need my family to be safe, Lila. I need the rest of our people to be safe, too. Olivier rocked our sense of security. We need you to make us feel safe again.”

  “I don’t want to be anyone’s savior. I have enough problems of my own.”

  “Don’t we all?” Kenna smiled gently. “Come to the cabin after your dinner party. We all could do with a bit of celebrating. We have cookies.”

  “Chocolate chip?” Lila asked hopefully.

  “Promise to come by, and I’ll promise to bake some. Maybe I’ll even bake some double chocolate chip.”

  “Okay, but only for double chocolate chip.”

  “For the cookies.” Kenna nodded.

  Chapter 31

  Henri Lemaire opened the door to his suite in Falcon Home, his white coat and breeches abandoned in favor of jeans and a thin, faded burgundy sweater. He appeared smaller and shrunken without so much white fabric covering him, or perhaps he’d just lost weight since Lila had last seen him so casually dressed. His eyes had changed over the week, from clear and worried to heavy and dark. So had his face, for a shadow encroached upon his jaw and cheeks.

  Lila’s mother peeked around the corner, lurking, her silvercoat and crimson sheath so crisp that she must not have sat down the entire day. Her catlike eyes tracked her lover as if she had already pounced several times and would pounce quite a few more. They skimmed over her daughter too, widening at the prospect of a new toy to bat around.

  “Hello, Lila girl,” her father said tiredly. His eyes fell upon a white box tucked under her arm, tied with golden ribbon. She nearly dropped it as he embraced her in a bear hug. Luckily, he gripped her far above her still-healing wound. “I’m glad you could come.”

  “Me too. How are things?”

  “Better now that I’ve seen you.” He patted her on the cheek.

  Lila followed him into the parlor. Her mother watched them approach from her perch in the corner.

  “I’ve just been trying to convince Bea to purchase Mr. Shaw when he comes up on the auction block.”

  “I’ll never buy that man’s mark. I may not know the full extent of what he’s done, but I know your handiwork when I see it, Henri.”

  “Father’s handiwork?” Lila sat on the parlor couch with a grunt and settled her father’s present on a table at her side.

  “Don’t play dumb with me. I should have known your father was behind it all, playing you like a puppet. He’s always been able to curl people around his finger and watch them dance. The trick is he never lets people see the strings. Never forget that, Lila. It’s his talent.”

  “Bea—”

  “Don’t you start, Henri. Every charge Bullstow laid upon her was your fault. Mr. Shaw didn’t ask her to go into the BIRD. You did. Don’t act as if I’m too stupid to figure it out.”

  “Lila is a grown woman. Whatever she chose to do, she did of her own free will.”

  “She didn’t choose anything.” The chairwoman took a seat in a sofa chair beside Lila. “You’ve always been her favorite. She’d do anything for you, and you know it. You asked her to break a hundred laws. You put her neck on the line. For what?”

  “For the good of Saxony.”

  “Fuck you and fuck Saxony. You almost got my daughter killed!”

  Lila gulped. In twenty-eight years, she’d never heard her mother swear.

  “I would never have let that happened,” Lemaire answered, sitting next to Lila. “If they’d sentenced her to death, I would have—”

  “Death? Mr. Shaw intervened for a slave’s term. Maybe I should have chosen him to father my brood instead.”

  “Bea—”

  “That’s Chairwoman Randolph from now on,” her mother said, straightening her silvercoat. “What of Elizabeth? Did she escape this latest round of troubles?”

  “I negotiated immunity last week,” Lila said. “They couldn’t have touched me even if they wanted to.”

  Lemaire clapped his daughter on the back. “She did well for herself. I’m—”

  “Silence,” the chairwoman said. “I don’t want to hear anything else from you. You and Mr. Shaw nearly got Elizabeth executed, and now you’ve made it exceedingly difficult for her to assume her role as prime. Regardless of what the papers say, the highborn know she’s involved in something odd with Bullstow. The families will grow skittish thanks to this scandal. It will take several years before Saxony will forget and allow her to assume control of Wolf Industries, and yet you’re congratulating yourself because she’s not in a holding cell?”

  “I thought I was exiled,” Lila said.

  “Temporarily. How did you like being out in the cold?”

  “I enjoyed it immensely.”

  Her mother harrumphed. “Bull.”

  “Look into my eyes, Mother, and you’ll see that it is not. You have a prime heir, one who lost her fiancé because she’s just as bloodthirsty as you. I want no part of a family who thumbs the lives of others in such a manner.”

  “Said the woman who broke a hundred laws and still managed to slip through Bullstow’s fingers. You find nothing wrong with breaking into—”

  “If you can’t see the difference between us, then there’s no hope for you.”

  “That’s rich,” her mother muttered. “Your father gets you dragged before the disciplinary committee, nearly gets your neck broken in a noose, and does nothing to help you. I did! Yet I’m the one you rail against? I’m the one you punish? Even today you don’t see that your precious father sits by and lets things happen, the same things you blame me for?”

  “It’s not the same situation.”

  “Not the same? You’re damn right. It’s not the same. Senator Dubois isn’t family. Jewel is. You are. Your father let your name and your family’s name get dragged through the press. He let you get sentenced to slavery. This wasn’t taking away someone’s right to have a child, Elizabeth. He nearly got his own daughter killed. He’s not a real man. A real man respects and nurtures his family. You deserve better.”

  “I’m lucky to have him as a father, to have him as an example.”

>   “Fine. Play the wounded daughter for as long as you like, hate me if you wish, but everything I said to you a month ago still stands. Jewel will never be competent enough to run the family. They need you. We need you.”

  “We’re back to this?”

  The chairwoman’s eyes roved over her daughter’s face. “It’s my own fault for indulging you all these years. I should never have allowed you to join the militia. Let me be perfectly clear, Elizabeth. You’ll never regain your place in the militia on my compound, but I will give you a second chance to become my heir. I’ll give you a month to decide. Think hard and think carefully, because I will not give you this chance again.”

  “I don’t need a month, Mother. I have my mark. I also have several contracts waiting on my bedside table at this very moment. I don’t need my old position back, and I certainly don’t need to be your heir. You have no leverage.”

  “What do you mean you have contracts? You’re seriously thinking of signing a contract outside the family like some—”

  “Filthy workborn? I’m not thinking about it. I already have. I’ve even made enough money in the last week to sort myself out for an entire year. If you thought stealing my money would have me rushing back into the fold, you thought wrong. It’s only pissed me off.”

  “It wasn’t your money. It’s mine.”

  Her father eyed them both. “What money?”

  The chairwoman’s head swiveled. “I’m not going to provide financial support to my daughter as she runs away from home and shirks her duty like some spoiled brat.”

  “It’s my money,” Lila said. “I earned every dime of it.”

  “You didn’t earn millions as chief. You were given dividends as a member of the Randolph family, and your percentage was quite a bit higher because you are my daughter and the future prime. That money comes with strings, Elizabeth. If you can’t be bothered to do your duty, then you don’t deserve any of it.”