Marius stared into the fire. “Perhaps we may.” He listened to it crackle as it consumed a log within its depths, and he found the decision came as easily to him as if he were tossing another log onto it. “I think I should like to help you with that.”
Chapter 25
Sienna
Now
I closed the door to my office and leaned against it, what I’d just learned swirling about in my head. The air felt thick with Janus’s revelation, like it was a weight on my chest stopping me from taking a breath.
I’d called a halt to the meeting after Janus had laid it all out for us. No one had said anything while he’d spun a tale that was as epic in its scope as that story of warriors and paladins that Scott had tried to get me to read in my off time a few months earlier. Afterward I could tell Reed was still about to blow up, but he kept his cool, thankfully.
Now here I was. The air conditioning in my office couldn’t turn up enough to cool the heat that was building under my skin.
Janus, that bastard.
I took a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Then again. I heard a knock at the door and kept myself from snapping. “Come in,” I said finally.
It opened quickly and shut quickly. When I saw it was Reed, I was amazed he hadn’t slammed it. “Do you believe this shit?” he asked me.
I stared at him. His face was as flushed as it could probably get, given his dark complexion. His eyes were wide and his teeth were bared. “Yes, I believe this shit,” I said and felt my anger leave me. “I totally believe it.”
“He didn’t tell us,” Reed said, and he flung a finger angrily at the door. “If that doesn’t infuriate you, I don’t know what will. Janus has been holding out on us from day effing one, and you need to boot him immediately—”
“I’m not ‘booting’ him,” I said, “unless by booting you mean kicking him in the ass, because that I would gladly do at least once, and probably twice.” I folded my arms. “I can’t afford to lose him or Kat right now, and they are probably a package deal. He stays.”
“He’s a liar,” Reed said, and his face darkened even further into a scowl. He took two steps toward me, got close to my face. “He’s been lying to us this whole time. He took the young man who was Sovereign, who came into his care, and he twisted him with his powers, with his emotional manipulation, and now we’ve got a monster to deal with—”
I waved him off. “Maybe Janus moved Sovereign to do … what they did,” I said, not being able to quite spell it out in words yet, “and maybe he just showed him the door and let him walk through. I don’t know. The guy’s had his own crazy mommy in his head since birth; it’s entirely possible Janus didn’t have to do much compelling to turn him into a vengeful murderer.” I sighed. “And it was a long time ago, you have to admit.”
“There’s a reason there’s no statute of limitations on murder,” Reed said. I snapped my gaze to him, and his instantly slackened. “Oh, shit, Sienna, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I know,” I said, shaking my head. “I know you didn’t.”
“Look, this guy,” Reed said, “he made the problem we’re dealing with.”
“Really?” I asked. “Did my mother make me?”
A look of amusement played across his strong features. “In literal terms, yes.”
“I meant, did she make me a murderer?” I looked right at him. “She gave me the training. She gave me a purpose—to learn to fight. Did Old Man Winter make me a murderer?”
Reed’s eyes were smoky now. “In literal terms, again, yes.”
“Not talking about Zack, or Wolfe, or Bjorn, or Gavrikov …” I paused. Man, I’d killed a lot of people. “I’m talking about what I did afterward with those others. Eve and Bastian and Clary and—”
“I know who you’re talking about,” Reed said, and he turned away as though he were uncomfortable looking at me.
“They didn’t make me do what I did there,” I said quietly.
“Well, they did a lot more than walk you up to the door and open it for you.” I stared at his back as he bowed his head, still not looking at me. “Especially Winter.”
“I made my choices, Reed,” I said. “I couldn’t help what they—what Winter—did to me. But I was in full control of my reactions, and I let Wolfe and the others talk me into bloodlust. I did it. I killed them. And whatever Janus did to Sovereign, Sovereign was the one who made it happen when it was go time.” I sighed. “And it probably doesn’t have much to do with what we’re dealing with now, other than some lovely background and a hint that he has powers we haven’t seen yet.”