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.“So basically, this means that not everyone would be willing to go against this mage, even to help us,” I mused.“But Anelah owes us,” Victor pointed out.“And while I haven’t spent too much time with her since she came back, I do think she’s regretful enough that she’d lend us a hand.”I wanted to say it was a bad idea, but as I looked at Red, I realized I couldn’t really do it.My mate was more important to me than myLittle Red and the Big Black Panther 99pride, or even the bitterness I still felt over the years I’d spent locked and waiting for something that had never happened.“What do you think, Red?” I asked him.“Are you willing to try?”My beautiful witch fidgeted, seeming a little uncomfortable.“I suppose.As long as you’re all right with it, of course.”That settled it.I never wanted Red to think that anything—even my own past—was more important than him.“Talk to her,” I told my brother.“If she’s willing to help, past differences don’t matter.”Victor nodded, eyeing me thoughtfully, like I’d surprised him.“Very well, brother.I’ll let her know.”A niggling at the back of my mind told me Red was having doubts.I took his hand and kissed it.“Don’t worry about it, really,” I told him through our bond.“If she can help, I don’t care what she did in the past.”“I know she hurt you a lot,” Red replied, biting his lower lip.“It makes me angry, too.Knowing that, I’m not even sure I can learn from her.”“Well, maybe, at the very least, you can use her as target practice.”Red’s full lips twisted into a small smile, and I deemed my job done.I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and kissed his temple.With the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my brother and Larue getting up and leaving the room.Veronica plopped down on the couch next to me.“So what if this doesn’t work? What if the witch can’t or won’t help?”For all her earlier words, she seemed quite apprehensive with regard to the famous Snow King.“There must be a way,” Red said.“That man seemed pretty convinced I could do it.And…well, I think I do have the power.I just need the ritual and the focus.”Mina patted my mate’s hand.“Of course you can do it.I always thought you were just as capable and strong as your brother.”Red smiled tightly, looking over Mina’s shoulder at Robin and Will.They’d been quiet up until this point, almost morose.I met100Scarlet HyacinthRobin’s gaze, narrowing my eyes at him in a wordless challenge.He just glowered in turn.He knew I knew, and that, by caveat, so did Red.Now, we just had to see what he planned to do about it.As if urged by my thoughts, Robin cleared his throat.“Red, can I talk to you?” Robin asked.“Sure,” my mate replied automatically.I could hear his heart start beating faster, and the vampire sisters must have sensed it, too, because they frowned in obvious concern.Mina threw an inquiring glance Robin’s way, but Robin said nothing.Instead, he turned on his heel and left the room.Silently, Red got up and followed.Naturally, I went with him.Chances were that Robin had meant for the conversation to be private, but I didn’t care about what he wanted.Besides, with the mate bond between Red and me in place, it would all be a moot point, because I could see, hear, and feel everything Red did.It still shocked me that Red had given me the amazing gift of our mate bond.I had truly meant to woo him, to show him through my actions how I felt for him, and half the time, I hadn’t done a very good job.Still, he had seen past my clumsiness.He had understood that I was honest and that I had only pushed him because I wanted him to see himself like I did.Red took my hand and squeezed it, throwing a tentative smile my way.The fact that he could even muster that expression at all awed me, and maybe made me a little smug.After all, I was at least a little bit responsible.“A lot,” Red said through our bond, his mirth honest and clear in spite of the apprehension hovering over his heart.Sobering, he added,“All right.Let’s get this out of the way.”We met up with Robin in the main foyer.He frowned when he saw me but didn’t comment on my decision to join Red, which was a point in his favor.“I suppose you already know what I’m going to say.”Little Red and the Big Black Panther 101I wasn’t about to allow him to get out of this so easily.“Actually, we might like to hear it anyway,” I said.Robin glared at me, but Red nodded.“Come on, Robin.I’m your brother.You know you can tell me anything.”My mate’s brother looked like he’d been struck.I supposed that nothing I would ever say could affect him like Red’s acceptance and kindness.“Very well,” he said, swallowing convulsively.“The truth is, Red, I was the one behind our parents’ accident.”Red squeezed my hand tighter.“I don’t understand, Robin.Why would you…? How?”“You don’t remember any of this, but I was very angry once,”Robin replied with a sigh.“I had a very strong affinity with the earth, so everyone admired me before you born.And then, you popped up, and it turned out you were a fire mage.Not only that, but you had our mother’s talent.Suddenly, I was no longer interesting, no longer relevant.Just another earth mage who didn’t matter when compared to his talented little brother.”It struck me that Robin’s situation had been very much like mine and Victor’s.It was painful that I could understand his bitterness and that I’d once experienced the same poisonous emotions.“I didn’t realize how dangerous it was,” Robin continued, oblivious to my thoughts.“I thought that if a fire started, it would be small and I could extinguish it with my powers.But when the circle broke…” He gazed over our shoulders, his eyes suddenly distant, like he was remembering.“It was like nothing I’d seen before.The fire…I couldn’t stop it.Our home was completely consumed in mere instants.I lost sight of our parents before I could even try to reach us.And then, I saw you there, miraculously still alive.I didn’t even know what I was doing.I just moved toward you and took you in my arms.I thought then that we’d both die there, because there was no way, no way I could bypass that inferno.But then…the pendant somehow kept the fire in check.”102Scarlet Hyacinth“The Snow King’s pendant,” Red said softly, his voice barely audible.His heart was breaking at his brother’s words, torn between the memories, the realization of what a painful secret Robin had kept from him, and maybe, just a little bit of relief.“What ever happened to it?”He sounded dazed, clinging to an irrelevant question so that he wouldn’t have to acknowledge what truly mattered.Robin nonetheless replied.“That man took it back.He said that day that he would return to claim what we owed him.But…I never realized he was serious.”“Why did you hide this, Robin?” Red finally asked.“Why did you keep it from me?”“I didn’t want you to hate me,” his brother answered.“You’re the only family I have, Red.I couldn’t take losing you, too.”“You were cruel,” I told him.“You were cruel and selfish and uncaring, too lost in your own guilt and bitterness to see Red was suffering.I was like that too once, but I never let my inadequacy reach such a point.”Red just leaned against me, and the scent of his tears awoke something ugly and angry within me.Perhaps I would have said and done more, but suddenly, a strange feeling encroached on my consciousness.“Something’s wrong,” I said.As if on cue, a scream shouted from the living room.Robin’s eyes widened.“Mina!” he breathed out in a panic.He took off running toward the sound of his lover’s voice.Red and I followed, already knowing what we would find.Indeed, the Snow King was sitting down on the very same couch we’d used just minutes earlier
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