[This post is from Marin’s point of view.]
I met his gaze with a long, hard look and he drew a rasping breath as he finally managed to straighten, leaning back against the wall and staring at me with those fever-bright eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Phelan looking at him nervously, gaze flicking between Cariocecus and I with no small measure of trepeditation written all over his face.
“Then tell me,” I said, my voice soft. “And don’t hold back. Not this time. If you’re right, now isn’t the time to be withholding anything.”
“You’re right,” he said softly, closing his eyes for a moment.
Phelan stood slowly and I looked at him sharply, grimacing at how pale his face was.
“Phelan—” I began. He shook his head.
“I’m all right,” he said. He was lying through his teeth and both of us knew it—his cousin did, too, but she kept silent, just staring at me. He moved slowly toward me, stopping to stand by my side, wavering on his feet but there with me in case I needed him.
I barely stopped myself from shaking my head at his perhaps misguided nobility.
Cariocecus cleared his throat.
“She’s not one of them,” he said. “Not really.”
“One of what?” I asked.
“One of Olympium’s get,” Cariocecus said softly. “They took her when they obliterated the Otherland she came from. They thought she might be useful to them.” He paused, glancing down. “I suppose they were right, weren’t they?”
Phelan put a hand on my arm and squeezed gently. I took a deep breath, glancing at him and then back at Cariocecus.
“Keep going,” I said.
He nodded slightly. “They gave her to a man named Aietes—one of the lesser among them, but just the right mix of smart and cruel to do the job of breaking her to their will. They married her off to him when she was barely old enough to know that that really meant and the work began.
“There weren’t many survivors of her Otherworld to begin with, to be honest, but I’m pretty sure she watched most of the others of them either be killed or suffer the same fate she did—broken to the will of Olympium or another Otherworld. I can’t even imagine what that must have done to her psyche. I know what it would do to mine.” He took a deep breath, leaning his head back against the wall and staring at the ceiling instead of me. “She’s a broken thing,” he said, his voice as close to sad as I’d ever heard it. “She’s hardly responsible for more than half the shit she’s done. Some of us knew that. Some of us tried, ones from the outside looking in. That was part of the reason why I took her, Seer. That was why I came and pulled her away that day she launched her attack.”
