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ZINA
All the argunts Zina wished to muster to let Daemon know that he never needed to prove anything to her, much less his love, died on the tips of her tongue as curiosity settled within her.
Even though it made her uncomfortable that Daemon thought she might have doubts about his feelings, she was actually curious to know how he intended to prove them in turn. Never had she seen him like this—so at ease with her while going as far as taking her outside of the castle walls—so how could she not be curious?
So she stewed in tensed silence as the carriage jostled forward taking them to a destination she never knew anything of... yet. She was about to make small talk when Daemon beat her to it.
"You spoke of your mother the other day..." he trailed, his dark broody eyes observing her carefully while Zina startled at his words.
"I did...?" She trailed unsure, racking her mind as to any mory that might remind her of what he spoke of. It was true that she had the intention to tell Daemon about her mother that appeared to her, but she couldn’t quite recollect if she later did so or not.
Daemon smirked, "’I too have a mother but was forced to grow up without one’." He quoted, eyeing her carefully, "do you rember now?"
Then it ca to her like the rush of the wind. In the heat of their argunt before Daemon claid her, she had said a lot of things she couldn’t rember, and amongst those things was ntion of her mother.
She chuckled uncomfortably. "Indeed. I do rember now. But why are you asking about it suddenly?"
"It occurred to that it wasn’t a statent you made casually. You ant more by it, no?"
Zina nodded pedantically, "Truly, nothing can get past you." Zina mused, and then she proceeded to explain to Daemon everything that happened that morning of the coronation when she was attacked. She didn’t leave anything out about what she experienced in the projection, and most importantly the woman she saw in it... her mother.
However, of all the questions she believed Daemon would ask in return, she wasn’t expecting him to say, "Did the woman in the projection... your mother, say anything about who your father could possibly be?"
Zina shook her head. "I assu that it would be her husband or so." She muttered, her voice distant, although not believing her words. She rembered the dream from that morning, and it was because of that dream that she simply couldn’t find it in her to believe that her heritage was that simple. Daemon’s next words sealed that fact as well.
Daemon shook his head. "If your mother is indeed the Luna of the Screars Pack, then it’s already outrageous enough to believe that she managed to in fact survive the execution of the Screars Pack thirty-five years ago. Assuming that the Alpha of the Screars Pack also survived is simply unbelievable."
Zina bowed her head, playing with her fingers nervously. She wondered what it would an for her to entertain the thought that her origins, despite knowing who her mother was, was still quite muddy.
"If my father is not the Alpha of the Screars Pack, then how co I’ve possessed the powers of the Pack?"
Daemon smiled knowingly, "didn’t you know that the Alphas of the Screars Pack married their cousins to conserve the power of the Pack. It’s a well known practice done by families who were experiencing a thinning out of the true powers of their blood."
Zina gasped at him in horror, "Incest?"
He chuckled, "I wouldn’t go as far as to call it that since they marry their cousins and not siblings. From what I’ve heard, your mother was a distant cousin of the Alpha of the Pack."
Zina brought her mind back to track. "So you’re saying that regardless of the fact that I am not the daughter of the Alpha of the Pack, I must have still gotten my powers from my mother?"
"Yes. I’ve also heard that the last Luna of the Screars Pack is a known descendant of one of the most powerful Ancestors of the Pack—Shiromi Screars. She was the only female Alpha of the Pack from a few centuries back after the ti of the great purge, and as far as possessing the powers of the pack went, she was quite superior."
Zina digested the information from Daemon like a drunk in need of alcohol. As always, she was amazed by his vast knowledge and the manner in which he easily imparted said knowledge.
"So you’re assuming that my virtue of blood, even though my mother herself might not have possessed the powers of the pack herself, then she could have passed them to on her own."
Daemon nodded, "So it would seem."
"Who is my father then?" She asked, trying hard, but failing, to keep off the dread in her voice. It was as if she knew the answer to that question, but was scared herself to confront it.
Daemon held her eyes as if trying to put her under a spell. "Why don’t we start with if your mother is truly alive."
"She’s alive!" Zina found herself protesting louder than she had ant to. No matter how much she tried to think about it, there was no way the pain and despair she felt in the projection was unreal... it all felt too real, too true to be otherwise.
Daemon’s eye trailed down to her fingers which she was still jamming together against each other as if trying to tear them off. Then his hands rested on them as if trying to calm her down.
"Now let’s ask ourselves the next most important question, Zina. If you say she’s alive, then I would naturally believe the sa. But if she’s truly alive, then where is she?"
Zina cast her eyes down to her laps, taking in the way Daemon’s powerful yet almost slender fingers covered hers. It offered her all the protection in the world, and his intent was abundantly clear to her.
"I don’t know." She answered in a low voice, almost as if she was whispering. "But wherever she is, I believe the Ruins of the Screars Pack is there as well."
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