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his own—his first wife and daughter were murdered in an attack on his estates in Bulgaria. Both men were tired of the bloodshed and devastation the war had yielded, and wanted to live in peace.
    “They continued to meet secretly for some time and jointly formed a plan to bring the two sides together for peace talks. The very first meeting was arranged for the night of the full moon in July 1887. Three Aeternus emissaries arrived at a designated meeting place in Budapest, including Ignatius, who acted as their spokesman. When the talks were well under way, Emil, Nicolae’s brother, attacked with a group of men. They murdered Christian’s father and wife when they killed the Aeternus emissaries.” Sergei paused, pinching the bridge of his nose.
    Antoinette knew the rest of the story. Christian, enraged with grief over his father and wife’s murder, began hunting down and slaughtering all those responsible. He killed somany rebels while tracking down the traitors, that he earned his title the Crimson Executioner.
    Talk of peace seemed impossible until Christian, the one they’d all expected to lead the attack against the humans, approached Nicolae instead. Christian’s grief had not been sated by the carnage he’d wrought; in fact his remorse was so great, Nicolae took pity on him. But the Aeternus Council of Elders would never agree to peace while the one man responsible for the attack was still free. Nicolae had to make the most difficult decision of his life. Face more war and more death or give up his only brother, Emil.
    Nicolae chose the latter, with the assurance that in return for his support with the Aeternus Elders no repercussions from the humans would be taken against Christian for the deaths he’d dealt. If the Crimson Executioner could be made to see reason, then there was hope for them all. From that single act of cooperation and mutual trust, peace talks became possible again.
    Emil was tried by the Aeternus Council of Elders and sentenced to death by public beheading, only this time Christian looked on instead of playing the executioner.
    “What does this have to do with the present and the Aeternus’s visit?” Antoinette looked up, trying to maintain a calm appearance.
    Sergei stood up and limped around the desk, his cane thumping on the floor until he came to a stop beside her. “Christian is not our enemy. You have to let go of the past.”
    “But Uncle—” All that history happened over a hundred years ago, but she couldn’t get past the fact Christian had slaughtered so many humans in cold blood.
    Sergei straightened. “I’ve decided that we should attend the annual CHaPR conference this year. I need to talk to some old friends.”
    “But, Uncle, they’ve been trying to get you to go for years and you always steered away from the politics of the Guild and CHaPR. What’s different now?”
    “You need to have more exposure to parahumans; you’veisolated yourself from contact for far too long. It’s time to live in the real world, Antoinette.”
    Antoinette glanced at Sergei, the sting of his words cut deep.
    His expression softened. “Look, if half of what Christian tells me is true, we may be in for some very rough times. I need to look into these incidents myself, and what better place to start than at the conference all my colleagues will be attending? The evidence Christian brought points to the involvement of someone within the Guild itself. I need to be sure before I turn my back on the Guild once and for all.”
    Antoinette narrowed her eyes. “That’s impossible. Why would the Guild be involved? Its purpose is to protect us from his kind—why should we trust the word of a filthy bloodsucker?”
    Antoinette’s head rocked back, the side of her face stinging. She looked up at her uncle’s thunderous face and raised her hand to her cheek. Sergei had never laid a hand on her before but then she’d never spoken with such disrespect either.
    “Firstly, we owe Christian a