CHAPTER 10

That was all he said before getting out of the car and stalking toward the path leading behind the mansion and into the darker shadows of the Abribi Covenant District. Sofia didn't need to ask to know where he was going. Like most male nobles, when his emotions raged and he didn't feel like he was in control, he retreated to isolation, sometimes even choosing a period of deep stasis. It meant getting away somewhere he could process the betrayal and let the rage bubbling just beneath the surface out on less inappropriate targets.

Whether it was her he would be tearing apart in his mind with some poor unfortunate human as proxy, or Rosa, or whoever her biological father was, she did not know. Maybe all of the above, but in any case, she felt shame and fear and confusion. So much confusion.

She went back inside and up to her room, curling up in her bed and hiding under the heavy velvet covers like she had done when she was little and she was afraid of a monster in the closet. Lord Quispe had never tolerated her coming into the bedroom to sleep with them when she was afraid. Even as a child, she hadn't really been allowed to act like one. Not in front of him, at any rate. Not if it would inconvenience him in the least. The fact that that was him when he had reason to care for her and love her was at once confusing and terrifying, because what the hell was he going to be like now that he knew the truth?

Anger joined the confusion, too, as she lay in bed crying herself into a sleep that was no more restful than consciousness. She didn't want to feel anything other than love and fondness toward her deceased mother, but what the hell was Rosa thinking keeping this from her? How could she?

Being unfaithful to your consort was taboo to any noble, though some Lords managed to get away with it behind closed doors. For a Lady, though? It was unthinkable, and it wasn't like Rosa had consorted with someone else in the Covenant. That might've gone unnoticed. In that case, Sofia probably would've Awoken her gifts like any other pureblood on her Ascension day, and she wouldn't be in this impossible situation right now. Instead, she was forced to contend with the realization that she wasn't just some illegitimate noble child. She wasn't a pureblood at all, not by the Covenant's standards.

She was human-born. Worse than human-born, she was a Dhampir. An abomination that wasn't even supposed to be able to exist in their society, and when one did have the misfortune of managing it, they were treated as a pariah, an outcast.

Sofia had heard the horror stories about Dhampirs born in other, smaller Covenants: rumors of extreme inferiority and debilitating hunger, from outright madness to monstrous, uncontrollable beasts that were better off summarily executed than suffered to live. Others were generous enough to allow them to exist on the fringes of their society as social pariahs, to put it mildly.

Sofia didn't know what case would be hers, if word got out. The only hope she had was that her father’s intense pride would keep him from letting the truth escape the Institute, that he would rather go on nurturing another man’s child, especially since she didn't have much time left as his problem, than let the truth come out about his consort's treachery.

For once, his absolute rage was not beyond her understanding. For once, she knew it through and through. A vampire noble's honor was as good as its bloodline, and that extended to consorts, too. A traitor to their duty to their mate and the purity of that bloodline was an outcast in waiting, so it was no surprise that Rosa would have kept Sofia's true parentage hidden.

From him, at least.

The fact that she had kept it from Sofia, too… well, that just added even more pain to all the rest.

When Sofia felt herself on the verge of a panic attack and a total mental meltdown, she forced herself to shut down. She refused to let her mind think of anything at all because each thought was only going to lead down a more dangerous path than the last. Eventually, she did fall asleep, but her dreams became far from a sanctuary.

It wasn't until three full days had passed that Lord Quispe finally called her to his office. There had been a part of her that had hoped he wouldn't do it at all. That was, by far, the best case scenario out of all the potential events that had been conjured by her mind over the last few days, considering it had nothing else to occupy itself with. The prospect that he would just dive headlong into denial, and pretend like none of this had happened. Not to save face for her, but himself.

He was, after all, the Covenant Lord. The Lord could do whatever the hell he wanted-a prospect that at once comforted and terrified Sofia. It was with a sense that she was being led to the gallows that her father's retainer escorted her down the hall and up the stairs to his private chambers. She never went to that floor, as it had always been off-limits to her when she was a child, and she still kind of assumed it was.

She wasn't sure if the tense way the guard was behaving meant he knew something of the truth or if that was just a reflection of the mood his boss had been in lately. Sofia walked into the office, keeping her head high and determined to keep her emotions in check, since crying only ever angered her father. What she wasn't expecting was to find the Princes gathered as well, stationed around various points of the massive office. Klaus was leaning against the wall, Zilo was sitting in a chair adjacent to her father’s imposing desk, and Zack was pacing across the room when she came in.

They all stopped and turned to stare at her as the door clicked shut behind her. She jolted when she heard the latch lock into place. "What are they doing here?" Sofia asked, looking right at her father. It was probably not the best foot to get this meeting off on, but they were the last people she wanted to see right now, especially in this context. She felt like it was four against one, and it probably was.

Even Zilo looked at her differently. Like she was a stranger. She couldn't really blame him, though, when she kind of felt like a stranger to herself, too. She had always felt like her sense of identity was somewhat flimsy, but not any more than that of the typical adolescent, really. Admittedly, her associates had managed to settle into more secure states of being once they accepted their roles within the Covenant. She just felt out of place, even though she had never grasped the magnitude of just how much truth there was to that feeling.

“Why wouldn’t they be?” Lord Quispe challenged, and his voice was unnervingly calm. Sofia preferred it when he was just outright angry. He rarely got like this, but it was never good. Sofia swallowed hard. “Did you—?” "Tell them?" he challenged. "Of course, I did. They're the ones who will have to decide what to do with you." Sofia stared at him, but after moments of silence, she was no closer to understanding what the hell he was saying. “I'm sorry? Decide what?

“You're not my daughter,” he said, his voice measured and factual, as if it were a concept with which she would struggle to wrap her head. He sounded like he was speaking of some annoying possession and yet had never, when she was young, tempered the way in which he spoke to her at all. Like everyone else in life, she was supposed to bend to suit his moods and desires, not vice versa.