Kaelen's jaw tightened. "Dorian Valerius is a snake. He gave you that to destroy the blueprint we are building. He wants you to hate me so you will flee to Rome."
"I don't need Dorian to make me hate you, Kaelen," I said, walking toward him. I stopped a foot away, my eyes locked onto his. "I saw how you looked at her. I saw how you treated her like a piece of equipment that had outlived its usefulness. She loved you, and you treated her like noise."
"I was a different man then," Kaelen growled, his eyes fracturing with a sudden, sharp heat. "I hadn't found the Sun. I was a creature of the dark, building an empire because I had nothing else to live for."
"And what am I?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Am I just the 'Phoenix' that finally worked? Am I just the 'Stable Resonance' she couldn't achieve? Did you let her die because you were already waiting for me to be born?"
