Born of Legend by Sherrilyn Kenyon

and had helped another named Parisa escape. Then he’d set her up to be captured by the new regime.
    Yeah, it was all rather bad. None of it made him particularly sympathetic or trustworthy.
    Ushara winced as she saw that his aunt Tylie, as acting tadara, was the one who’d signed the orders for him to be arrested originally on Andaria and exiled from their territory, and that his grandmother was the one who’d sent the orders to The League with a request for an execution warrant and bounty. As well as the orders for his Outcast status.
    But the form that made her sickest of all was the one his Triosan attorneys had filed on his behalf, requesting political asylum and protection from his father anywhere within the Triosan empire.
    Anywhere . Even on one of their colonial outposts.
    One word, in bold red letters from his father’s personal royal office, carrying the emperor’s royal seal.
    Denied.
    Tears stung her throat as she tried to imagine how badly that had to have burned for his father to refuse any semblance of safety. There were more denials from other family members in other empires, including Kirovar. Not one single aunt, uncle, or cousin would allow him shelter.
    No one.
    She scrolled back to the pictures of Jullien as a battered child and remembered what he’d said to her about his parents not being there, and how they had failed to raise him.
    No, his family hadn’t spared him a moment of their cruelty. From the looks of it, he’d been in the center of their backbiting madness, and their uncaring depravity had been his normal everyday routine and diet. An unprotected child left to fend for himself, while no one gave a single shit about him at all.
    â€œAre you safe from harm, akam ?”
    No wonder he’d been so adamant to ensure Vasili’s welfare before he passed out. Why he’d given the last cookie to her son, even while he starved. Because he knew the cost of it all. How much it hurt to be alone in the universe, without friend or family. With no one willing to look out for you when you had no one else who cared.
    And in that moment, her mind was set.
    â€œJullien stays.”
    A solid tic started in Gavin’s jaw. “Trajen will have a shit-fit when he hears of this. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t strip your Canting over it.”
    â€œI’ll deal with Trajen.”
    â€œAnd what are you going to do when that royal viper prick strikes us all down?”
    â€œYou’re being ridiculous.”
    â€œAm I? The entire history of our race has been written in the blood feuds of the Anatole family. Their insatiable quest for power and their willingness to cut the throat of anyone who got in their way. They chased us at blasterpoint to the farthest corners of the universe and now you dare bring one of them into our last place of refuge? Forget Trajen, it’ll be the Fyrebloods who skin you alive for it.”
    Now that  … that was a very real possibility.
    And her own father would most likely be the one who led the lynch mob for her throat.

 
    C HAPTER 3
    â€œYou don’t have to be afraid of me, mi tana ,” Jullien said softly to the boy beside him. The kid was so nervous, he was practically shaking in his chair. He half expected him to wet his seat at any moment. “You know I’d never hurt you, right?”
    Grimacing, Vasili scratched at his nose. “You’re really gigantic. Are all darkhearts as big as you?”
    Jullien cleared his throat at the innocent question. Darkheart was a nasty little dig against his breed that the humans had started using centuries ago. It stemmed from humanity’s disdain and condemnation of Andarion culture. Because Andarions were a warrior species, they used to carve the hearts from their enemies and dry them out to keep as strung trophies for decoration in their homes and for their weapons. The process they used for it would turn the hearts black and