Chapter 41: Marcus's Last Bargain

Marcus Vale was held beneath the central Council complex in a detention wing built for Alpha-class prisoners.

I hated the place immediately.

Too much silver.

Too much concrete.

Too many locked doors.

Rowan walked beside me.

Adrian came too, but Marcus had insisted he would speak only if I entered the interview room.

"No," Rowan said.

The guard blinked.

I sighed.

"We discussed this."

"We discussed you speaking to him. We didn't discuss you being alone."

"There's reinforced glass."

"Marcus spent eighteen years planning around reinforced systems."

Adrian rubbed his forehead.

"You two can argue after we establish whether he has useful intelligence."

Rowan looked offended.

"We're not arguing."

"We are absolutely arguing," I said.

The guard looked like he wanted to disappear.

Eventually, Rowan stayed behind the observation glass.

I entered alone.

Marcus sat at a metal table.

He looked older than he had at the Moon Court.

Without power, followers, or polished clothes, he seemed smaller.

I refused to underestimate him.

"Congratulations, Alpha."

"How did you know?"

He smiled.

"I still hear things."

"That should concern security."

"It should."

I sat opposite him.

"You said Moon Crown is still active."

"It is."

"Who runs it?"

"First, I want something."

I stood.

"Goodbye."

His smile vanished.

"Sit down."

"No."

"Nessa."

"You don't have anything I need badly enough to bargain for your comfort."

"Your cousin is alive because of information I preserved."

"My cousin is alive despite you."

His jaw tightened.

I reached the door.

"Helena Voss."

I stopped.

"Who?"

"Judge Lucian Voss's daughter."

I turned.

"She runs Moon Crown."

I sat again.

Marcus smiled faintly.

"Better."

"Talk."

Helena Voss had been a researcher in Nightvale's medical division twenty years ago.

Brilliant.

Obsessed with mate-bond biology.

According to Marcus, she believed natural fated bonds were inefficient because they couldn't be controlled politically.

"She wanted to manufacture compatibility."

"And you funded her."

"Yes."

"You abducted Lunaris wolves."

"I supplied subjects."

The clinical language made my skin crawl.

"People."

"Subjects."

Golden light flickered over my fingers.

Marcus noticed.

"People," he corrected.

"Where is Helena?"

"I don't know."

"Then you're useless."

"Not entirely."

He leaned forward.

"When Seraphina escaped, Helena blamed me. She believed I had become too political and careless."

"You were massacring Packs. Difficult to imagine someone finding you too careless."

"Your humor resembles Aurelius."

"Don't talk about him."

Marcus studied me.

"Helena took Moon Crown underground. I spent years trying to find her."

"Why?"

"Because she took something that belonged to me."

My wolf growled.

"What?"

"Research."

I laughed once.

"Of course."

"She also took the final pairing candidate."

My stomach tightened.

"Rhea?"

"No."

I froze.

Marcus leaned back.

"Rhea was the Luna-side candidate."

"Then who was the Alpha-side candidate?"

He looked toward the observation glass.

Toward Rowan.

"No."

Marcus smiled.

"Yes."

I stood so quickly the chair scraped across the floor.

"Rowan was never in your facility."

"Not physically."

"Explain."

"Nightvale conducted routine blood screening on every heir."

My hands went cold.

"Helena had access."

"She selected Rowan when he was a child?"

"His bloodline."

Marcus shrugged.

"The eventual heir didn't matter until Orion's succession stabilized."

I looked through the glass.

Rowan couldn't hear us because Marcus had requested an isolated channel, but he saw my face.

His posture changed.

"Why Rowan?"

"Nightvale authority. Lunaris resonance."

Marcus's eyes sharpened.

"Moon Crown was designed to produce the strongest possible Supreme Alpha pair."

"We're already fated mates."

"Exactly."

I went still.

Marcus smiled.

"Interesting coincidence, isn't it?"

The room seemed to shrink.

"What are you saying?"

"Helena believed fated mate bonds could be predicted before awakening."

"Predicted isn't created."

"Perhaps."

"Say what you mean."

"She tracked both bloodlines."

Marcus leaned forward.

"She knew a Lunaris girl and Nightvale heir had an unusually high probability of bonding."

My childhood memory flashed.

A boy with light blue eyes.

A half-moon pendant.

Rowan.

"Did Helena arrange for us to meet as children?"

Marcus paused.

"I don't know."

I didn't believe him.

"Did you?"

"No."

"Then how did Rowan end up at Willowmere?"

"I said I don't know."

For the first time, he sounded genuinely irritated.

I pushed.

"Why did you tell Rhea one heir would have to kill the other?"

"To keep her hidden."

"Lie."

"To keep her useful."

There it was.

"Did you know I was alive?"

"Not until recently."

"Knox's transfer post?"

Marcus frowned.

"What?"

I watched his face.

Nothing.

He genuinely didn't know.

That mattered.

Rowan taking Knox's account had not been part of Moon Crown.

Whatever else had been manipulated, that choice had been his.

I hated how relieved I felt.

"Where is Helena?"

"Find Lucian Voss."

"He disappeared."

"Exactly."

"Where would he go?"

Marcus smiled.

"Now we reach my price."

I stood again.

"You're not getting freedom."

"I don't expect it."

"Reduced sentence?"

"No."

That surprised me.

"What then?"

"Protection."

I laughed.

"From Helena?"

Marcus's face changed.

Fear.

Real fear.

"She kills failed partners."

"You mean accomplices."

"Call them whatever you want."

"Why would she kill you now?"

"Because I can identify her work."

I stared at him.

"You spent eighteen years making people afraid of you."

"Yes."

"And now you're afraid of her."

"Yes."

I should have enjoyed that.

I didn't.

"What protection?"

"Nightvale custody. Not Council."

Adrian would hate it.

But if Marcus was right, Council detention might already be compromised.

"I'll consider it."

He nodded.

"Then I'll give you one location."

"Now."

"Greyhaven."

My heart skipped.

The airport where I had met Rowan.

"What in Greyhaven?"

"An old private clinic beneath a fertility research center."

"Name?"

"Moonwell Institute."

I stood.

Marcus spoke before I left.

"Nessa."

I looked back.

"If Helena discovers the bond between you and Rowan has awakened, she won't merely study it."

"What will she do?"

His eyes were cold.

"She'll try to complete it herself."