‘Are you sure it’s not poisoned?’ Jamie said.

For a second Claude blinked at him, and then he laughed. It was a big, booming laugh, his glance narrowing over Jamie as if it were their personal private joke. ‘I see she’s made a good impression on you.’ Claude stole a piece of cheese off Jamie’s plate and strolled over to a large armchair by the window, where he took his place.

Jamie could have killed him, and he must have known that; he was alone and exposed with no one nearby to stop him. They hadn’t checked him for weapons or a hidden mic, so he could very well be there to slit his throat.

‘Why are you trusting me?’ he asked outright, not having time for any games.

Claude turned to him, a smile playing on his lips.

Jamie couldn’t look away. I am this man’s son.

It was that same caressing awakening he’d experienced when he’d found the letters, slow, methodical hands reaching inside him and putting pieces in place that he never knew he was missing. Something stirred in the man sat in the throne, his features warping, the shadows digging deep into the bones of his face.

‘I am easing you in.’ Claude spoke frankly now. ‘You have been unleashed, freed from a sentence you did not know you were serving. I know the experience well. Eat.’ He gestured to the food on the table, and without question Jamie followed the order. ‘It is likely you are feeling lost, uncertain, the world stretching out larger than you remember it having the right to. Is that so?’

Jamie nodded.

‘You are my son.’ The fire ignited his eyes, the emeralds sparking with the power of the statement. ‘You are the child of the woman I loved, and we have both been punished for it. All these years they kept you hidden from me. I only hope that now we are together we can make things right. Does that sound reasonable for now?’

Swallowing, Jamie felt burning in his stomach again, because that’s exactly what he wanted: to right something that had been wrong, to free Lottie from a position she should never have been forced into, but first he had to be sure.

‘Last time I saw you, you had me cornered on a roof. Why not tell me then?’

Claude answered immediately. ‘I wanted to give them a chance to put it right themselves.’ He shook his head, disappointment clear in his glum expression. ‘I’ve only ever wanted to give them the opportunity to do the right thing. I never wanted to hurt anyone.’

‘So what are you using the Hamelin Formula for?’

Jamie kept his questions short and quick, a lesson every Partizan learned, because it was the best way to make sure your subject had no time to consider their answer.