“Your mother,” Thia snarled at Darice. “After Hauk had gone through two years of grueling training where she hoped someone would kill him, she ran to his CO and told him that Hauk couldn’t graduate to full assassin because he was pledged to her. The League discharged him immediately.”

Sumi winced at what Thia described. That would do it, since assassins were forbidden to marry. But what a callous thing to do, especially if Dariana had no intention of seeing their marriage met. Why not let him have that much in his life, if it was what he wanted?

Not to mention, it would have guaranteed that he’d never marry someone else. For that matter, why would his parents allow him to go through League assassin training, knowing he couldn’t graduate? Did they not love him at all?

As a full-grown woman when her courses had started, Sumi had seen firsthand the horrors and degradations of it all. The young boys and girls, Darice’s age and only a year or two older, who were ruthlessly put into arenas and forced to fight for their survival. It was why she was so desperate to get her baby out of that system before they forced Kalea into training.

Kill or be killed. The League didn’t respect age or pull punches for recruits. It was pass or fail, and failure was a brutal death at the hands of another student or instructor. It was the worst sort of daily beat downs.

Thia was right. Only a first-rank bitch would let a teenager go through all that, and then have him tossed out right before graduation. Why would Dariana be so vicious?

Unless, as Thia had said, she’d wanted him dead.

Darice scowled at Hauk. “Is that true? Is your pledge to my mother the reason you were thrown out?”

With a heavy sigh, Hauk picked up the Partini. “Yes.”

“Then why do you tell everyone you washed —”

“What does it matter?” Hauk snapped at Darice, cutting him off. “The end result is the same. I was dishonorably discharged just before graduation for not disclosing the fact I was pledged.”

Confused, Darice looked between them for an explanation. “I don’t understand why my mother would do such a thing when she has no desire to go through with unification.”

Hauk tossed another body over his shoulder. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter!” Thia stepped forward and gestured toward Darice. “For once, Uncle Hauk, tell him the truth.”

“It’s his mother. Leave it be, Thia.”

“Leave what?” Darice asked. “What happened?”

Thia’s eyes flared before she defied her uncle’s wishes. “Your mother couldn’t stand the fact that Uncle Hauk was a better soldier than your father. That he had more honors, awards, and kills as a recruit than Keris had as the head of the Andarion armada. She knew if Hauk stayed in The League, he’d outshine Keris’s glory and —”