Read Online Veil of Midnight by Lara Adrián - Free Book Online Page B

politicians in my ranks, Alexei.”

    “I am a soldier,” Lex replied quickly, raising his head and watching as his father continued to jab the iron poker into the fire. The logs broke apart, sparks shooting upward, crackling in the long, deadly silence that fell over the room. “I am a soldier,” Lex stated again. “I want to serve you as best I can, Father.”

    A scoff now, but Yakut swiveled his shaggy head to regard Lex from over his shoulder. “You give me words, boy. I put neither trust nor confidence in words. Lately I can’t see that you’ve offered me anything more.”

    “How do you expect me to be effective if you don’t keep me better informed?” When those amber-hued eyes with their slivered pupils narrowed sharply on him, Lex hurried to add “I ran into the warrior on the grounds. He told me about the recent Gen One killings. He said the Order had contacted you personally to warn you of the potential danger. I should have been made aware of that, Father. As the captain of your guard, I deserve to be informed—”

    “You deserve?” The question hissed from between Yakut’s lips.
    “Please, Alexei…tell me just what it is you feel that you deserve.”

    Lex remained silent.

    “Nothing to add, son?” Yakut cocked his head at an exaggerated angle, his mouth pulled into a tight sneer. “A similar charge was hurled at me some years ago from the lips of a stupid female who thought she could appeal to my sense of obligation. My mercy, perhaps.” He chuckled, turning his attention back to the fire to stab again at the incinerating logs. “No doubt you recall what that got her.”

    “I recall,” Lex answered carefully, surprised by the dry catch in his throat as he spoke.

    Memories swirled out of the undulating flames in the fireplace.

    54
    Northern Russia, the dead of winter. Lex was a boy, barely ten years old, but the man of his meager household for as long as he could remember. His mother was all he had. The only one who knew him for what he truly was, and loved him regardless.

    He’d worried the night she told him she was taking him to meet his father for the first time. She said Lex had been a secret she’d been keeping—her little treasure. But the winter had been hard, and they were poor. The country was in turmoil, unsafe for a woman raising a child like Lex on her own. They needed shelter, someone to protect them. She prayed Lex’s father would provide for them. She promised that he would open his arms to them in welcome once he met his son.

    Sergei Yakut had welcomed them with cold fury and a terrible, unthinkable ultimatum.

    Lex remembered his mother’s pleas for Yakut to take them in…completely ignored. He remembered the proud, beautiful woman getting down on her knees before Yakut, begging that if he would not care for them both that he look to Alexei alone instead.

    The words rang in Lex’s ears, even now: He is your son! Isn’t he worth anything to you? Doesn’t he deserve something more?

    How quickly the scene had spun out of control.

    How easy it was for Sergei Yakut to draw his sword and slice that blade cleanly through the neck of Lex’s defenseless mother.

    How brutal his words, that he had room only for soldiers in his domain, and that Lex had a choice to make in that moment: serve his mother’s killer, or die along with her.

    How weak Lex’s answer had been, hiccuped through his sobs.

    I will serve you, he’d said, and felt a bit of his soul desert him as he stared down in horror at his mother’s broken, bleeding body. I will serve you, Father.

    How cold the silence that followed.

    As cold as a grave.

    55
    “I am your servant,” Lex said aloud now, bowing his head more from the weight of old memories than out of deference to the tyrant who sired him. “My allegiance has always been to you, Father. I serve at your pleasure only.”

    A sudden heat, so intense it felt like open flame, pressed to the underside of Lex’s chin. Startled, he