Prince of Demons 3: The Order of the Black Swan by Victoria Danann Page B

in or out.” Abide spoke with his usual unreadable calm.
    Brave yelled out his frustration and shoved a basket of mirrored balls off the table so that they cracked and rolled on the floor. He watched them roll about for a few seconds before asking, “Who’s the son of Roanald? What were they talking about?”
    Abide rose and walked into his antechamber, which was a smaller room about the size of a private study. By Callii standards it was cozy, complete with a hearth burning a real wood fire. Brave glanced at Perry then followed his foster father.
    Brave sat without being invited. Perry closed the door, but stood just inside, leaning against it like a henchman.
    For a little while, the only sound in the room came from the wood being burned. At length Abide seemed to have this thoughts together and began.
    “You are my son. You are also the son of a human named Roanald. I am the father of your heart and mind. He is the father of your blood and bones.”
    Brave felt everything in him go very still. As he waited for Abide to continue, he had to prompt himself to breathe.
    Abide continued. “For the past score of years we have kept you with us to save the Elemental balance, and the relative peace that exists, from destruction by your father. Your other father.
    “Roanald invented a genetic splice that would enable humans to travel interdimensionally as easily as Elementals. They would have the same freedom of movement as demons, angels, sylphs, all of us. When the genetically altered material is injected into the placenta of a pregnant human, the splice would be absorbed and permanently reprogram the DNA of the infant and its offspring. The length of time necessary for the conversion of humanity would depend entirely on how many women were injected. By our calculations, if a thousand women received the splice, it would take less than a millennium for the entire human species to get the keys to all the doors.”
    Brave’s thoughts went back to the day he and Lana had talked about invaders seeing themselves as victimized by the people they were attempting to displace.
    “For Elementals,” Abide continued, “the biggest concern was that, once humans could travel interdimensionally, they would not only upset the natural balance of species hierarchy, but that upgraded humans would spread their DNA throughout the worlds. And there’s no need to expand on how humans disrupt wherever they go. Right?”
    Brave didn’t answer the question. For one thing, he didn’t relish the idea of agreeing that humans should be characterized as disruptors. For another, he knew Abide thought his observation was rhetorical.
    When he did speak, Brave’s voice came out as a shaky whisper. “You told me that I was being protected by you, that my family was in danger.”
    “And that was true. I never lied to you, Brave. Your family was in danger. I just didn’t tell you that they were in danger from us.”
    He thought back to his defense when Lana felt betrayed. I never lied to you, Lana.
    “You’ve been holding me hostage, while leading me to believe I was a prince. That’s just… It’s just… ” He searched for the word and then it came to him. He knew if Lana was there she would say it was just wrong. “Wrong.”
    “It wasn’t personal, Brave. Over time we came to love you. We’ve found you and your ideas both useful and entertaining.”
    “Useful and entertaining,” Brave repeated drily. “Is my family alive? My real family?”
    He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw something flicker in Abide’s eyes when he said ‘real family’. “As far as I know.”
    “And all this time that I thought they were either dead, or that they’d abandoned me…” Brave tried to prioritize his questions as he fought to process in a rational way, even though he was overwhelmed emotionally. “Why do the Reinlitegen want me?”
    Perry spoke for Abide who seemed to be more and more uncomfortable with the whole subject and with