Chapter 123: Ten Minutes - Riven's POV

I stopped and turned.

Ronan was standing at the top of the stairs we had just come up, and I had no idea how he had gotten there without either of us hearing him. His expression was still composed, still giving nothing away, but his eyes were on the study door behind us and there was something in them that I had never seen there before.

Something that looked, very briefly, like fear.

"I figured you’d be in there, so I was coming to find you.”

He looked at me for a long moment, then he looked at Callista beside me, and something shifted again, but only slightly.

“Did your brother tell you anything interesting?”

One brow arched. “Why do you ask? That seems like an odd question to ask me after bringing him home. It’s as if you expect him to tell me something.”

“It’s nothing,” he murmured. “When you lose yourself to the demon, it can make you say funny things, so I thought I’d ask.”

I nodded. “Interesting. You assume he said something, yet you don’t know.”

He swallowed. My gaze caught on a bead of sweat at his hairline, shimmering in the light.

“It’s nothing,” he repeated, but the statement felt forced.

"Nothing," I repeated slowly. "That's an interesting word for it."

He didn't respond. His eyes moved between me and Callista once, then settled somewhere just past my shoulder. I knew that technique. It was what one used when you knew you were losing ground and one was determining how much you were willing to give up.

I had learned that particular skill from him.

“Ronan,” I said, my voice barely audible. “I’m going to ask you one question and I need you to answer me honestly. Not as the Alpha King or whatever else you’ve been performing since I arrived. But as my father.”

Something moved across his face at that word. He didn't use it often. Neither did I. It sat between us now with more weight than either of us had given it room for until this moment.

"Ask," he said quietly.

"Did you summon the demons?"

The hallway became very still. Ronan stared at me long enough that I noticed the tightness in his jaw and his shoulders. He shifted, probably re-clasping his hands behind his back.

"No," he said finally. “As you know our history, I did not summon them. That was something one of the old kings did and that is how this all began.”

I nodded in understanding. That much was true, and I knew that. But his words were far too rehearsed as if he had planned on me asking this one day.

“But you know who did it this time,” I whispered. “They have to be summoned to come again. They’re not inherited.”

He exhaled harshly through his nose. “What would you like me to say?”

“The truth,” I growled.

He huffed. “Yes, I know who did it this time.”

The words landed hard. Callista didn’t move beside me or even make a sound, but through the bond, I felt her attention all on him. She was horrified at his admission, yet comforted by finally knowing the truth.

"You've known this whole time," I said, and I worked to keep my voice even. "You knew it wasn't just a bloodline curse. You knew someone put them there deliberately, and you stood in front of me and let me believe—"

"I was protecting you," he said firmly, cutting me off. “It was all to protect you.”

"From what?" The evenness cracked just slightly at the edges. "From knowing what was done to me? From having a direction to look? Or from finding out who it was? I could have lived a normal life if it hadn’t been for you.”

Ronan's jaw tightened. "From what knowing would have made you do," he said, and for the first time since I had come to this mansion, his voice carried something underneath the authority that sounded like genuine anguish. "You were sixteen and already fighting something inside yourself that grown men couldn't have managed, and if I had told you, then that there was a specific person responsible—”

“Don’t give me excuses. This has nothing to do with the last fifteen months or more. This starts at birth. Why would you have someone put a demon in your child? Why curse your sons?”

“Because something is coming and we need—”

“No, you needed this for whatever reason,” I snapped. “You cursed us to have things live inside of us.”

“Listen,” he said firmly. “I can help you. You’re just not ready yet to see—”

“Ready to see what?” I asked, cutting him off this time. “I have a death sentence. There is no upside to having this curse. All of the ones who have come before me died after wiping out their packs…their mate. You hate me.”

He said nothing.

“Raze told me someone visited three days ago,” I murmured. “Whatever they did, pushed his demon to take over to the point he’s stronger than before. He broke out of this mansion, which shouldn’t have been possible.” I took one step toward him, a low growl rumbling in my chest. “Did you let him loose? Is this a test run for what you want to happen?”

Ronan closed his eyes briefly for one second, then they opened again. He looked at me with an expression I hadn't seen on his face before. This time, it wasn’t as the Alpha King. This was a man who was very tired and had been carrying something for a long time.

"Come downstairs," he said smoothly.

"Ronan—"

“Please,” he begged, the word coming out quietly as if it cost him. “Give me ten minutes to explain what I should have. And then you can do whatever you need to. I won’t stop you.”

I stared at him. Beside me, Callista touched the back of my hand with two fingers.

"Ten minutes," I said firmly. “That’s all I’m giving you.”

He nodded once and turned toward the stairs, and this time the set of his shoulders differed from every other time I had watched him walk away. That was its own kind of shift.

Callista and I followed him down the stairs in silence. I didn't look at the study door as we passed the landing. I looked straight ahead and told myself ten minutes was nothing.

Ten minutes and then we would know.

Ten minutes and then everything would stop being a boogeyman in the dark. It would become something tangible, something I’d finally know.