And Uncle Matthew, a gentle soul forsaken by his family, driven mad by the Cause because no Forster would be his advocate.
Telford, whose loyalty knew no limits, a gift far greater than anything his master deserved.
A human girl, one Emily Roddam, who saw in him a monstrous legend come to life when he treated her with the contempt he held for all her kind.
John Dodd followed, and Aynsley, and a succession of servants afraid to meet his eyes. Afraid of his power, even while they paid the price for security and employment, their minds violated as Milena had violated his.
Illumination penetrated the hidden corners of his being, and the mad rage and hatred within him splintered into a thousand shards of radiance.
The light set him free.
He slammed back into his body as if he’d been soaring high above the earth.
Cassidy was there, sprawled on the ground where he had thrown her down. Not Milena. Never Milena. It had all been an illusion.
With a shaking hand he wiped hair from his face. He had come out of the madness stripped clean, like tarnished silver brought to a high gloss in one swift motion. He felt the brand of Cassidy’s brilliant soul emblazoned on his own. He could see her, not with his eyes, but with a part of himself so nearly forgotten that it no longer had a name.
He could see the whole truth for the first time in his life: the terrible price of the Cause, Grandfather’s expectations, Milena’s betrayal. The rage he’d hidden for years, fearing to let it loose, pretending cold disinterest in the feelings of others. The searing knowledge of his unforgivable mistake in loving and daring to hope for happiness. The guilt, knowing he had brought about Milena’s death.
He had killed her. In his terror, blinded and in unendurable pain, he had found enough strength to use his body to push her away. Push her with such violence that she fell, and kept falling, until she lay at the bottom of a cliff, and he’d felt his way down to discover her limp and broken, barely alive…
“Braden,” Cassidy said. “Can you hear me?”
He came back to the present and crawled to her, lifting her in his arms. She freed herself and stepped away.
She knew. She knew what he was, and couldn’t bear it.
“You thought I was Milena,” she said softly.
He remembered attacking her, bent on murder. All that suppressed fury turned against the wrong woman, a woman who deserved so much more than he could ever give.
“I could have… killed you,” he said.
“No, Braden. I felt you come into my mind, but you couldn’t hurt me.”
Insane laughter welled up in him. Milena had turned the tables on him and overwhelmed his will with her own. And Cassidy had the ability to rebuff him as if he were bereft of any power at all.
“I know how Milena betrayed you,” Cassidy said. “Her face was the last thing you ever saw. She was the one who blinded you.”
Yes. Her unleashed will had done damage to his body as well as his mind. It had attacked some part of his brain, burned out his vision in an instant.
Only Quentin knew the truth: Quentin, who’d followed him that stormy night and observed the climax of the tragedy. In his delirium of loss and guilt, Braden had confided the whole to his brother and then sworn him to silence. He let the world believe what he knew to be the truth.
He had caused Milena’s death. And blindness was his deserved punishment. Punishment for mistakes that could never be rectified.
“Braden.” Cassidy touched his arm, and he felt her quiet power. “I saw what Milena did to you. She went into your mind and tried to destroy it.”
As Braden had invaded the minds of so many servants, had once tried to do to Cassidy. He was the same as Milena.
“Milena was a cruel person,” Cassidy said. “She fooled everyone. And you fooled everyone, too.”
All but this girl, who saw so keenly into his most hidden heart.
Suddenly he knew how he had come to see Quentin, Rowena, Isabelle, Matthew, all the others so clearly. He’d seen through Cassidy’s eyes. For the time their minds had been linked, he saw them as she did. Saw what he’d done to them.