02-17-2019, 06:52 PM
By sunrise, Jaxen disappeared without a trace when Scion sent his people to retrieve the boy. The faint light of a new day dawning lit his window when he called Irina.
His ex-wife answered almost immediately.
“I was expecting you.” She wore a silk robe loosely tied at the waist. The thick black of her hair was loose around her shoulders, curls from the previous day fallen flat with restlessness. Gray streaked the onyx mane, wrinkles crimped lines in her face, but she remained the most beautiful woman on the planet.
Scion was as tired as she, but something fueled his anima that Irina could never know. Terror. “You know what your son has done?”
She shrugged. Fury gripped Scion’s fists tight.
“You think this won’t touch you!? If this family falls, it will be at his feet. He will bury us.”
Irina put a porcelain cup to her lips, eyes flicking over the rim. “And yet it hasn’t. If Ascendancy wanted retaliation, he would have done it already. Yet you are safe in your slippers at home, Scion. Jaxen is safe. That means we have something Ascendancy values, and it’s not your business acumen, my dear.”
He knew Irina would be the one to smuggle Jaxen out of the country. Impossible to know where he may have gone, but if Irina was funding his exploits, then he could be anywhere. Scion put a hand to his forehead, squeezing away a headache.
Irina blinked patiently, but when it was clear Scion was shaken, her voice softened to one he recognized.
“He values ruthlessness. Your ruthlessness.”
He looked up. Belief lit her eyes wild. She looked at him only a few times like that in the past. It was the reason he fell in love with her in the first place.
A press ended the call just as she took another sip of her coffee.
His ex-wife answered almost immediately.
“I was expecting you.” She wore a silk robe loosely tied at the waist. The thick black of her hair was loose around her shoulders, curls from the previous day fallen flat with restlessness. Gray streaked the onyx mane, wrinkles crimped lines in her face, but she remained the most beautiful woman on the planet.
Scion was as tired as she, but something fueled his anima that Irina could never know. Terror. “You know what your son has done?”
She shrugged. Fury gripped Scion’s fists tight.
“You think this won’t touch you!? If this family falls, it will be at his feet. He will bury us.”
Irina put a porcelain cup to her lips, eyes flicking over the rim. “And yet it hasn’t. If Ascendancy wanted retaliation, he would have done it already. Yet you are safe in your slippers at home, Scion. Jaxen is safe. That means we have something Ascendancy values, and it’s not your business acumen, my dear.”
He knew Irina would be the one to smuggle Jaxen out of the country. Impossible to know where he may have gone, but if Irina was funding his exploits, then he could be anywhere. Scion put a hand to his forehead, squeezing away a headache.
Irina blinked patiently, but when it was clear Scion was shaken, her voice softened to one he recognized.
“He values ruthlessness. Your ruthlessness.”
He looked up. Belief lit her eyes wild. She looked at him only a few times like that in the past. It was the reason he fell in love with her in the first place.
A press ended the call just as she took another sip of her coffee.