Page 167 of To Catch A Rogue

It wasn't paper.

Lark jerked her fingers back.

"It was themarque du sangDmitri Grigoriev once wore on his back, though I have no way of knowing whether it was my back, or some poor bastard who's buried in a ditch somewhere." He stared down at the glorious tattoo, his face expressionless. "It's not a gift. Balfour knows I will wonder. He wants to torment me for my betrayal."

"Then perhaps I can give you a gift," she whispered, taking his hand and dropping the locket into it. "I was wrong."

Eyes the color of gray ice locked on her. "What do you mean?"

"Please open the locket."

Obsidian did, and then his gaze swiftly lifted to hers. "Who is this?"

"Dmitri and Nikolai were born from my father's first wife. This is Nikolai's maternal grandfather. It's proof. You have your grandfather's nose. You have his eyes. In fact, I'm fairly certain if you grew a beard, there would be an uncanny resemblance. You're my brother. My eldest brother. You're Dmitri Grigoriev."

The look of shock on his face made her heart ache, but this time, it was not in pain.

"Then it's true," he whispered. "How did you get this?"

She told him about Nikolai.

And his eyes seemed a little bewildered. "I saw him. On the terrace. He didn't say a word."

"Well, he's... not the same boy he used to be. He thought you were responsible for the attack on the carriage. All these years Sergey's been twisting him to his whim."

"Hell." Obsidian rubbed at his mouth. "A brother. And a sister. I have asister."

She didn't know what to say.

Because he wasn't the only one reeling from this revelation. And she wasn't very good in these types of situations.

What would Charlie do?

Lark acted before she could think her way through it, and threw her arms around him in a hug. It was terribly awkward and he froze for a second.

"You had a family." She paused. "You have a family. If you want one."

His arms slowly came around her and squeezed back. "I think I would like that very much." Then he cleared his throat again. "I'm not very good at this."

"Hugging?" She let her arms slacken and they broke apart. "Me either. It gets easier with practice."

A thought seemed to occur to him. "Oh, God. Gemma and Charlie are going to be related in truth now. They're going to be insufferable. It's going to be war on both fronts."

Finally, she could relax. "Unless we form an alliance."

A glint of interest came into his eye. "We could do that."

Lark gave him a hesitant smile. "We just won't tell them."

And suddenly everything was all right.

Chapter 32

"There. That's better." Leo Barrons brushed imaginary dust off Malloryn's shoulders, then stepped back and took a better look. "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," Malloryn said, somehow forcing a smile as he buttoned his borrowed cufflinks.

Everything he wore belonged to Barrons. Borrowed finery. A borrowed skin. It felt like pouring himself back into the mold of a duke, but the edges were a little unrefined. There was damage there, cracks splintering through him, but as long as he kept his mask in place, nobody would know.