“How can you tell it’s not from merely being near you?” Theo challenged. “Or from being the same type of shifter?”
Mordred arched a brow, straightening as he sat on the cot. “How can you explain the way you manipulate water? Or how you knew you could breathe under it rather than drown? Your ability is a knowledge in and of itself, Kraken. Some things I simply know. Others I do not. For example, if I knew your scent, I may not know you as a kraken—but once I found out what a kraken was, I could identify you. Once I met your family, I could identify that you shared blood.”
Grudgingly, Theo angled his head in acceptance as Damien muttered, Truth.
“So he is my father.” The words came out stronger than I had expected them to, though how long that strength would last, I couldn’t be sure. Mordred’s gray eyes were clear as he looked up at me, yet his gaze was empty and as chilling as ice.
“You smell like him,” he stated simply.
“Then why did he send you here?” Joshua challenged. “You’re obviously a hybrid, which means you must know about their twisted breeding program. You know about his connection to Nix. It seems that you’re worth more to us than to him for information alone. Why would he send you?”
Mordred inspected his bindings. “Because he believes he will win, and my knowledge will prove to be as useless to you as I now am to him.” His answer was flat, with no emotion to color it, and as simple as if he read off of notecards.
But was that a tell on its own? Was he reading a script to us? A poor actor reciting the lines the Council had fed him?
“The breeding program has been stalled by this war you have incited.” He drew up his knees and rested his wrists on top, and somehow, he looked every bit the prisoner he was. Trapped. Confined. “Even after it ends, if the Council wins, as they are sure they will, it will take years to rebuild their numbers and to ensure themselves of their power. Their attention will need to remain focused on other things. He is no longer hiding his relationship to Nix, so my knowledge of said relationship does not affect his plans.”
“Screw that,” Killian spat. “I’m more interested in what you want from her. You can talk all you want about the Council afterwards—maybe it’s a lie maybe it’s not. What are you trying to get out of this? That’s what it comes down to, after all.” His arms were still around me, guarding me as much as containing me, and I reached out to gently stroke my Puca. I knew he hated this, hated having me anywhere near someone he considered a threat to us and our bond, our family.
“It’s simple, really.” Mordred stared at us, deadly serious. “I want to change.”
“You want to join the rebellion?” Ryder scoffed.
Mordred arched a brow. “No.” His tone had cooled slightly. Apparently he did feel something after all. “Why would I follow your rebellion?”
“You don’t want to go back to the Council, but you don’t want to join us either. You clearly cannot join the humans.” Joshua waved a hand toward the small patches of feathers and scales that decorated visible pieces of his skin.
“I have heard whispers about some of your rebellion members.” Mordred didn’t bother to answer Joshua. “That there are some who would like to see everything that they are stripped away.”
My Phoenix let out a harsh cry, instinctively recoiling from what he was saying. “You want your alter stripped?”
Mordred’s eyes were sharp as they considered me, and he shifted to the edge of the bed. His feet were flat on the floor, and his hands rested robotically in his lap. The guys tensed and then relaxed when he didn’t make another move.
“I have grown up in that lab. I was their favorite experiment for many years, the one who survived. Who managed to take everything that was given to me and still develop. Over time, I grew from being an experiment to being a…” He paused, searching for a term. “Foot soldier, you could say. I rarely left the lab, but when I did, it was for short, specific tasks as my mutations cannot be hidden for more than a few hours at best. I wasn’t the end result they wanted, not the success they needed. I was simply useful, a curiosity, a grunt, a whipping boy.”
Tears burned in my eyes, and my chest ached at the picture he painted—a poor, abused little boy who had been tortured and manipulated. Our pasts might have been very different, but there was a common theme between us, and it was enough to soften me a little.
He cocked his head, studying me. “Again, you cry for someone not yourself. You’ve done that before. I am not sad about my past. It’s simply what was.” He shrugged as if the world of pain he’d experienced was of no consequence. “What I want is to rid myself of the other beings within me. They are wrong, foreign, and they do not belong. I will tell you what I can, but do not expect revelations for this.” Those words were a clear warning. “I am no key for revealing their secrets. If that’s what you expect in return for removing my curse, you will not get it.” He looked to each of us in turn, making sure we understood the truth behind his words. “I can, however, provide some information about the program you seem eager to know more about.”
His eyes turned toward Theo, who nodded slightly before Mordred continued.
“If you agree to strip away what does not belong, I will tell you what I know, but I wasn’t privy to their secrets, wasn’t part of their circle. I’m not a weapon to help you win your war—which is why they sent me. I am merely one more pawn they are sweeping off their board. I was trusted enough, considered loyal enough, that I would do this job without failure, without running or turning, and accept my fate. That is the reason I was chosen.”
Truth. Damien’s mental voice rang with pure fury, though his face was emotionless as he listened.
“If you don’t want to be part of the rebellion, you won’t be allowed to stay within our walls.” Damien wasn’t cruel, but he was firm. “We aren’t able to have anyone here who could end up being a liability, and knowing your allegiance isn’t to us means we cannot grant you refuge.”
Ryder cleared his throat. “Actually, we may have a different problem.” All eyes turned to him as his hand tugged at the hem of his shirt. “If you’re choosing to have your powers removed, I don’t have an issue with it. We’ve had a few hybrids who have already asked about it.”
My thoughts flitted through the hybrid children. There were a few who had no control over their powers and felt out of place despite the camaraderie of the other children and the affectionate adults acting as their caregivers.
“However,” Ryder continued, “unlike stripping a regular shifter, we simply don’t know what stripping you will do as a hybrid. You have DNA from eight species and, if I’m understanding things correctly, you mentally connect with some of them.” Mordred inclined his head in agreement. “Removing a shifter’s alter is usually debilitating, removing a hybrid’s alters, let alone a hybrid like you with so many… there is a lot of risk. You’re risking physical pain, but you’re also risking true insanity as well as death.” Ryder’s eyes, usually so bright, so full of fun, were serious now as he watched Mordred. “There’s a reason I have not made this a viable option for the hybrids in our care.”