Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Haru glared at the screen, wrinkling his nose. “He’s a bloated old toad.”
Vitor’s fingers danced across the screen, and the image changed to a pair of thin, blond, pale women in fancy dresses. It looked as if the picture was taken from some kind of official gala. “Rati has two daughters—both in their twenties. Kami and Alyce. They appear at all official functions and are viewed as his muscle. They are known as venomous vipers who will rally the people against anyone who dares to stand up to their father.”
Tyche squinted at the screen. “Are they…are they real? They seem to be creepy clones of…something. I don’t think those are real people.”
Vitor snorted. “They’re real enough. They’ve just had a lot of plastic surgery to look like that.” He hit a button, and the image changed to a younger, slightly slimmer version of Rati. “This is Rati’s eldest son, Meran. Thirty-two. University dropout. He supposedly runs his father’s businesses, but our research says that he rarely goes to the office and everything rests on the shoulders of his managers. Minimal intelligence. Hot temper. Rati is at least smart enough to keep his son—who is usually off partying—away from politics.” Vitor hit another button, and the image changed to a boy who was about nine or ten. He was chubby with a sullen expression. “And this is Zayd. We don’t have a current picture of him. It’s estimated that he’s about twenty-five now, but no one has seen him in years. There are rumors he’s dead—possibly killed by Meran.”
“Lovely family,” Adrian muttered. “This is who’s behind the killing of all those people and gods?”
“Yes, but there’s a catch.” Vitor tapped another button, and the screen went black. “We don’t know which of them is overseeing it and spearheading the operation. There’s no direct link to Rati.”
Tyche lifted his left hand, palm flat. “So, you’re saying that Rati could be giving verbal direction to one or more of his kids to handle the operation.” He lifted his right hand as if balancing a set of scales. “Or one of his kids could be doing this without the chancellor’s knowledge.” Tyche closed his hands into fists and shrugged. “I say we kill all four or five of them just to cover all our bases. That should put an end to it.”
“Is there a wife?” Shey inquired.
“Several, in fact, but none are in the picture right now. Rati Feng has been married five times—divorced twice and widowed three times. All his children have different mothers.”
“This…” Haru’s brow furrowed and his lips curled as he seemed to struggle to form words. “I don’t understand. Is this normal among humans to change mates so frequently?”
Adrian reached across the table and placed his hand over his lover’s fist. “These are spouses. Not mates. And among most humans, this isn’t regarded as normal.”
Haru released a breath and relaxed against his chair, shooting him a smile as Adrian drew his hand back. In Haru’s mind, mates were forever. If Haru lost his mate, he couldn’t imagine going on with his life, let alone moving on to finding love with another mate. Never mind four other mates.
“Regardless of Rati Feng’s personal life,” Vitor cut in, his tone painfully dry, “we don’t know who the true power behind the endeavor is. However, considering how the man micromanages his children’s lives, I would wager that he is the mastermind. If we take him down, the operation should fall apart.”
Shey tilted his to the side and lifted one brow. “And the current war?”
“That could be trickier to manage, but if the assassination was framed as happening from within his own support system, rather than say, the prince of a foreign country, I could see the interest in the ongoing war fizzling and New Rosanthe rushing to the negotiating table.”
Tyche extended a finger and poked Shey in the shoulder. “Sounds like Vitor is ordering you to stay home and keep out of trouble.”
Shey captured Tyche’s finger as he tried to draw it away and held it trapped in his fist. “I’m pretty sure a good disguise would allow me to stay involved.”
“We’ll see,” Vitor grumbled, not looking pleased at all.
Adrian frowned, a tightness growing in his chest. He wasn’t usually involved in these decisions. These kinds of decisions were made by people above him—namely King Caelan and his chief advisor, Rayne. “Wait a minute. Have you talked to Cael about all this? I might be wrong, but can we really go in and kill the chancellor of the Federation of Order? Doesn’t Erya have laws against affecting the regime changes of other countries? This is a slippery fucking slope we’re standing on.”
Vitor peered at Adrian, his bland expression unreadable. Adrian couldn’t tell one way or the other if Vitor gave a shit about what he was proposing. “I have been sending the king regular updates about what I’ve discovered as well as my assessment of the situation. However, we’ve not had a discussion over a proposed course of action.”