19. I Don’t Think We’re Related
19
I DON’T THINK WE’RE RELATED
*Kieran*
I’d seen her rush past while I was sitting in the rose garden, thinking about everything. My first instinct was to shout at her and tell her to get her ass back inside.
But I can’t do that, and I know it.
She has to leave. Not just because she doesn’t really belong here but because it’s the only way either one of us are going to get any answers. It seems certain to me that no one in our family is ever going to tell us the truth, and everyone else is afraid to say anything. Even Taner’s father, who’s provided more info than he realizes, won’t say anything more for fear that my father will kill him.
Still, with my hand wrapped around my sister’s thin arm, I have to admit, I don’t want her to go–not alone.
“Listen, Kieran,” she begins, breathing heavily from the run, “I know you think I shouldn’t be out of my room, but this is what you wanted, remember? You and Nessa?”
I wrinkle my nose and lean away from her at the mention of the woman who wants to be my queen. “Nessa is the one that said you need to leave,” I remind her.
She shakes her head. “She might’ve said it, but you agreed. You said–”
“I know what I said, Blanca.” I narrow my eyes at her. “I don’t need any reminders of what happened that night.”
She bites her bottom lip and nods at me, and I can’t help but think there’s something else she wants to say to me, but she won’t. Not right now. She’s trying to convince me to let her go.
Blanca lifts her eyes. That’s when I first hear the calls of the birds circling overhead. “Fuck,” I mutter, releasing her arm as I tip my head further back. “Are you sending them after the guards?”
“I don’t want to.” I believe her. She’s practically whimpering as tears fill her eyes. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, but it’s the only way I can get out.” The birds swoop lower, and even more of them come in in a large group from the south.
A murder. That’s what they’re called. A group of crows.
“Why are you crying about hurting the guards?” I ask her, practically snarling at her. “They’d beat the shit out of you without hesitation and drag you back to your room.”
A large bird swoops down slightly, and I take a step backward. “I don’t really want to hurt anyone,” she says. “But it’s not the guards I’m worrying about.” She locks eyes with me for a moment, and that’s when I realize what she’s getting at.
My eye begins to twitch. I reach up and swipe at it. Even though the marks from where that bird attacked me in the dungeon healed up a few days ago, thanks to my good wolf shifter genes, it still hurts just thinking about it. “You wouldn’t do that to me again, would you?” I smirk at her and shake my head. Who is this version of Blanca that has balls?
“I don’t want to,” she admits, taking a step away from me. “I just want you to let me go.”
“Blanca, I understand why you want to leave. I don’t blame you one bit,” I tell her.
Her dark eyes widen. “You don’t?”
“No, of course not. Clearly, something fucked up is happening here, and no one in this castle wants to help us figure it out.” I drag a hand through my hair. “It’s exasperating.”
“Mr. Blake wants to help,” she blurts out. “I can mind-link with him.”
My mouth drops open as I stare at her. As she finally lost her ever-loving mind. “What’s that?”
“I know it’s crazy.” She starts fidgeting nervously with the hem of her shirt. “But it’s true. I called out to him, after you left, to see if he was okay, and he said he was. I could hear him. In my head.”
I pull my mouth closed and stare at her because I don’t know what to say, but I don’t want to swallow a bug. “Listen, Blanca,” I finally begin again. “That’s not pos–”
“Possible?” She finishes for me. “I know. But he said the impossible is possible and the possible is impossible, and he’s right. None of this makes any sense, but Kieran, if I’m from Escuro–”
“How can you be?” I blurt out. “You’re my sister.”
“Am I?” She tips her head to the side and looks at me like I’m an idiot. “Kieran, we look nothing alike.”
“I know but–”
“We act nothing alike. I have these weird powers. I can hear a man we both know is from Escuro in my head.” A nervous laugh erupts from her mouth. “I’m starting to think someone has been lying to us.”
She makes a good point, and it would be easy to agree with her, but if I agree with her, I’m essentially committing treason. “If we’re being lied to, it’s from Mother and Father,” I remind her.
She nods solemnly. “Your mother and father. I don’t think they’re mine. At least, I hope they’re not because anyone who would treat their own daughter the way that they treat me is even more fucked in the head than I’ve ever even realized.”
Again, she has a good point.
In the distance, I hear the guards start to yell as they notice the birds circling. We don’t have a lot of time. Blanca knows that. She takes another step and peers around the bush I found her hiding behind.
“So you’re just going to run to Escuro? And then what? Do you even know how to get there?” I ask, bombarding her with questions.
“Yeah, Mr. Blake said to head due North. I can do that. And I guess when I get there, I’ll see if there’s anyone alive who can help me. Mr. Blake told me they were wonderful, giving people.”
“They might not take too kindly to someone coming through from Dun’s Crossing.” I’m making excuses now. I don’t want her to go alone. I’m afraid she might get hurt–or she might never come back, and then I’ll never know the truth.
“I’ll be okay,” she tells me. “But I have to go.”
“What about the guards?” I ask her. “Not these guards. There are other ones out there, and these will use the mind-link to warn them that you’re coming. They’ll capture you, bring you back here, and I have no idea what Father will do with you, especially if you really aren’t his daughter.” A chill goes down my spine as I think of what the guards did to Blake. Would Blanca suffer the same fate?
“It’s just something I’ll have to worry about later, if I get caught. But I have to go.” She takes a few more steps away from me.
Shaking my head, I tell her, “No. I can’t let you do this.”
“But Kieran–”
“Not alone,” I tell her. I take a deep breath and pull my shirt off over my head, preparing to shift.
Her eyes bulge from her head. “You can’t come with me.”
“Why not?” I ask her, kicking off my shoes. “You got room in that bag for my clothes?”
Her head rocks back and forth, but she doesn’t move. I pull the bag from her back and start shoving my clothes in it. When I unzip my pants, she turns away from me. Naked, I finish putting my clothes in and put the bag back on her before I shift.
We won’t be able to communicate now, so I grunt at her, and she turns to look at me. Once again, she has tears in her eyes. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Wordlessly, I nudge her in the leg with my nose. Once again, she takes a stuttering breath. I give her another nudge, and Blanca swears under her breath before sucking in a lungful of air and moving forward, around the edge of the bush.
Then, Blanca takes off running toward the gate. The birds swoop down toward the guards. They are all in their human form as I tear after Blanca toward the exit. She takes her bag off, tosses it over and then slips between the bars, something I wouldn’t be able to do even in my human form because I’m too muscular.
The guards are shouting, swatting at the birds. I see a glimmer of metal on the lead guard’s waistband and run over toward him, snatching the keyring with my teeth and pulling it away. He doesn’t even notice.
I rush back over to the gate where Blanca is putting her bag back on, looking at me with hesitation in my eyes. I can flip her the keys and hope she unlocks it from the other side–if I trust her.
Do I trust her?