"Are you okay? You look like someone has just danced over your grave," Izabella said from beside her.
"I just… I haven't eaten this meal in a long time," Altun said, her voice cracking.
"Kon is a really wonderful cook. You'll love it," Izabella assured her. Altun didn't doubt it.
Altun had a mouthful, and her eyes burned with tears. She swallowed them down, the salt mixing in with the flavor of the tomatoes.
Azra, I'm sorry I didn't take care of your baby better, she prayed to the ghost standing behind her.
"Okay, Jules, tell us what happened in detail," Silas said from down the table. Julian obliged, and Altun felt her temper rising with each word.
"Is Marina her real name?" Leo asked from his place across from her.
Altun dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "It is. I'm surprised she used it."
"Does that make your real name Theodora?" Julian said.
"Yes. My mother named us both after Byzantine empresses."
Leo tapped his fork against his lip. "What's your surname? I can do a search to see if it's an alias she still uses."
"Avci. I don't like your chances of anything coming up."
Leo frowned. "Why is that?"
"Because the alias would be too old," Altun said. She took a mouthful of the whiskey that Kon had poured for her and then blew her world to pieces. "Marina Avci was born in 1907."
The table went silent as the information sank in.
Athena was the first one to break the silence. "But that's bullshit. It means you would have to be how old?"
"One hundred and twelve years old."
"You've been holding out on me," Kon said, his dark eyes burning.
Altun laughed, a choked sound holding years’ worth of secrets that were about to go up in flames. "In so many ways, your head will spin, Konstantius."
"You'll have to tell me your ageing secret," Julian said.
Altun gave him a charming smile. "I bathe in the blood of my enemies."
"Hot," Julian and Dante said at the same time.
Kon hadn't looked away from her. "Magic or a curse?"
"A bit of both." Altun continued eating, needing a break in her story to give herself the courage to continue with it. No one was calling her a liar like she had thought. They were all getting too used to magic, and Athena was a homunculus after all.
"Were you once a part of Aurora?" Kon asked.
"Yes."
"What made you leave?"
Altun stared into his eyes, and it was like his father was staring back. "Your parents." She could see all the pieces in his head fitting together. Athena was glancing between them, her hand gripping her knife too tightly.
"You were the one who helped them escape and got them to Istanbul."
Altun nodded. "We all wanted out. The order wasn't what we had thought it would be. I was done being abused by my sister. We helped each other get out."
"Prove it," Athena said, pointing her knife at Altun. "Prove that you're not still working for them, or I'll gut you."
Altun reached into her pocket and passed her treasured photo to Kon. He stared at it, the Basty of Istanbul shrinking away and revealing the little orphan boy within.
"Why didn't you tell us this sooner? We came to you about Liddell!" Athena demanded.
"Believe it or not, I was still trying to protect Kon. Like I've always done."
Athena's eyes flamed. "Protect him? You turned him into your killer."
"He was already a killer when I found him again, little wolf. I hired him to keep him under my protection, to hide him from the Aurora, and he still went after Liddell. I couldn't stop him without revealing who I was, and I've spent the last two decades hiding from them," Altun replied. She didn't want to fight, but she would not let herself be yelled at. "I told you both to drop it, and neither of you listened. That's on you. I had hoped Dee was dead."
"That was why you needed the obsidian mirror. It shows the dead," Kon said, his voice small.
Altun nodded. "Yes. I used the mirror and learned that Dee was alive. That's when I involved myself. And before you accuse me of being a heartless, opportunistic bitch, Athena, please consider that my involvement makes the target on you all bigger. I barely saw Julian for an hour, and Dee was there, ready to kill him. Everything I have done was to keep Aurora away from Kon."
"Why?" he asked, looking up from the photo.
"Because I was your god-aunt, and I promised your parents I would."
"The fire…"
Altun's hands balled into fists. "When Liddell was confronting them, I was floating in the Bosphorus, full of holes. Dee found me and said that they would leave your family alone if I returned to them. I met her on a boat under the pretense of me rejoining the order. She told me she had commanded Liddell to burn your house down, so I put a bullet in her, and she stabbed me three times. I was in the sea, dying, when you were trapped, Kon. By the time I recovered enough to get to the house, you were gone. It wasn't until years later when I saw you with the gangs that I knew who you were. You look so much like your parents. You didn't recognize me, and I decided to protect you by not telling you who I really was. Theodora Avci was dead, and it was better that she stayed that way.”
Altun let them process it and finished her chicken. If they were going to kill her, she might as well have her last meal.
“Why did they want you to return to the order?” Silas asked.
“It probably had to do with the fact that I was Marina’s scryer.” Altun received a lot of blank looks. “What do you know of Dee’s angel conversations?”
“A little, but assume these reprobates know nothing,” Julian replied.
“John Dee was a practitioner who was obsessed with communicating with angels specifically. To do so, he needed an assistant called a scryer and a show stone. Like this one.” Altun pulled the necklace from around her neck and showed it to them. “In a very basic theory, a scryer looks into the stone, has visions, and then Dee would interpret the meanings. I was my sister's scryer. She had magic —my whole family did—but she was fascinated with angels and other ephemeral spirits and beings. The angel conversations are the main reason she is obsessed with John Dee and took his name as her own. She has never had a scrying talent like mine, and our magic melded seamlessly together. The order used my scrying abilities to spy. When I left, they lost an asset."
Kon drained his beer. "Liddell was also obsessed with communicating with the Divine. Do you think there is anything in his collection that might tempt Dee to come out of hiding again? Or would Liddell have shared it with her?"
Altun snorted. "Liddell didn't share. You have to understand the Aurora only works together to achieve their own ends. He wouldn't have told her about any of his acquisitions if they had made her more powerful than him. I would need to know what exactly is in Liddell's collection to ascertain if there would be anything she wants. Have you catalogued it yet?"
"Not all of it. We've been busy," Kon replied. His eyes flashed with the Basty once more. "We work together from now on, Altun. No more secrets."