"No," Solomon admitted, because to deny it would be foolish when Malicant had flaunted his mocking of that care all over the network for everyone to see. "I only wish he'd loved me a little less. Maybe then he'd have survived." If he hadn't been so intent on giving something to Solomon worth having, if he hadn't felt the need to be such a role-model by refusing to bend his principles, he might have lived.

Solomon couldn't say he didn't understand the decision Raine's mother had made, though he was wise enough not to say so. Then again, he had refused, over and over, to sire a child for the Temple out of nothing but an unwillingness to let his child be raised unknowing of its parents.

Or for other reasons, ones Solomon was dimly aware might be there without bothering to look too closely as to what they were. But he didn't feel free, whatever Raine said about it; he was chained, damn it, bound by the bracelets on his wrists. Not free at all.