Traitor Born (Secondborn #2)(11)

The orb slowly descends into the bowl. It settles among the other spheres, still emitting the light. “We are secure,” Dune says. “You can speak freely. Not even our monikers’ transmitters can penetrate the whisper orb.”

“Thank you for seeing me, Commander Kodaline,” I murmur.

“No need to thank me, or to call me ‘Commander.’ I’m not your mentor anymore. We both know I’m neither firstborn nor secondborn.”

“What shall I call you?”

“Dune.”

“Is that your real name?” I’m surprised to hear the hurt in my own voice.

“Yes.”

I once thought I knew everything there was to know about this man, but I know very little. “Your last name isn’t Kodaline. It’s Leon.”

“You met my brother Daltrey.”

“Does one really meet Daltrey Leon, or is he more like something that happens to you? Like an airship crash. I brought him the monikers that Flannigan and I stole from Census. He accepted them and then left me little choice but to infiltrate the Sword industrial systems for the Gates of Dawn.”

“He does have a way about him. He sees your potential.”

“Daltrey is your real firstborn brother, is he not?” I ask. Dune resembles the leader of the Gates of Dawn.

“He is. I had an older sister, Kendall, but she was murdered not long after her Transition by a firstborn from the city where she worked.”

“I’m sorry.”

“As am I.”

“Where was her post?”

“In the Fate of Virtues. She had a brilliant mind. She was training to be an energy engineer.”

“What happened?”

“She was raped by a man whose father controlled the energy contracts for the region. She became pregnant with his firstborn. He didn’t want anyone to know, so he strangled her.”

I should be shocked, but I’m not. “Was he punished?” I ask. Usually only secondborns suffer the consequences of any crime perpetrated against them by firstborns, especially the crime of rape.

“Not by Census. He paid a fine to the Fate of Stars, and they let him go.”

I shiver, seeing the intensity in Dune’s eyes. He has made pain his companion. I’ve always felt it, but I didn’t know why. “You avenged her.” It’s not a question. He’s patient and precise—dark and powerful.

“I tortured my sister’s murderer, and then I tied his rotting corpse to the trunk of a tree in front of his parent’s estate in Lenity.” Pain isn’t just Dune’s companion, it’s his lover.

“He was Virtue-Fated?” Lenity is a wealthy district not far from here.

“He was Star-Fated but living in Virtues.”

“Was it enough?” As a soldier, I know once the inertia of passivity is broken, crossing the line of violence has its own momentum. Revenge doesn’t have a master. It is a master.

“His death will never be enough. This Republic that allows firstborns to commit atrocities with little or no repercussions—that enslaves us—will end.” The caged-animal look is back, darkening his features. It’s unnerving. Dune’s usually so careful, so controlled. He has never spoken to me like this before, as if I’m his peer.

“It’s not your fault—what happened to her,” I say quietly.

“Isn’t it?” His tone is harsh. “You saved your secondborn friend from a similar atrocity.”

“It wasn’t the same thing. I was lucky.”

“Was it luck or was it you being brave, daring to act despite the consequences?”

“I don’t know.”

“Nor do I.” He paces behind the long sofa, within the whisper orb’s confines.

I clutch the arm of the chair to keep myself from going to him. He wouldn’t want that. I clear my throat. “Daltrey is the oldest in your family, then Kendall, and then Walther? That makes you technically fourthborn—thirdborn now that your sister is gone.”

“Walther is older than me, but only by minutes. We’re fraternal twins.”

Twins are rare. If a second pregnancy results in twins, one fetus is terminated and delicately removed or left to be absorbed by the other. With a first pregnancy, the parents can choose to keep both twins, but one must be secondborn, and eventually given to the government on its Transition Day. “How did Walther become a secondborn Sword?”

“Walther and I have been a secret since our birth. Census would’ve executed us both, and our mother for hiding the pregnancy, but my parents were wealthy and made sacrifices to keep us alive.” His parents were more than wealthy. The Leons are the Second Family in the Fate of Stars. They would inherit the title of “The Star” if the current First Family’s heirs in Stars, the Vukes, were unable to claim the title. In other words, if they were dead. If Aksel Vuke and his two children were to die, Daltrey rules his Fate as The Star.

“What sort of sacrifices?” I ask.

“Some firstborns in the Fate of Swords find the secondborn laws particularly brutal. Secondborn Swords aren’t just ripped away from their families, they’re often slaughtered by war or they die due to the extreme hardship of being raised as soldiers. Some firstborn Swords are unwilling to sacrifice their own child to that kind of brutality.”