His son

Lucian knelt before her and held her hands away from her face, cupping her cheeks to make her look at him.

"We were once attacked by assassins on our way back from the market in Pendragon. You made your first kill then. You killed more than one man. I never told you about it and made you forget because I wanted to protect you." He caressed her cheeks, his thumb brushing away her tears as she stared at him, her breath shaky.

"But one thing I want you to know—you never killed anyone without reason. You killed to defend yourself, to survive." His voice dropped to a low murmur, his fingers tracing the curve of her jaw, tilting her face slightly upward.

Ave's lips trembled, her chest rising and falling unevenly with the emotions that overwhelmed her. Everything had just come down on her at once. First, she'd found out about this man being the father of her son, then she realized she had powers and had used them to kill—and had done it before.