Chapter 49
“You're posing as Aedric?"
The words exploded from me the moment the door clicked shut behind the servants. Rage boiled through my veins as I paced the length of the suite, every turn tighter than the last.
"Have you no shame?"
Rìan didn't even look up. His weapons had already been laid out on the table when we'd arrived, and he was bent over them now, methodically inspecting the iron blades that had been embedded in the alley wall.
"Careful," he murmured. "They'll hear you."
I rounded on him.
"Does it matter?"
He paused in his work, his eyes flashing silver for the briefest of moments before fading away. "Not anymore."
He returned to his weapons.
“You’re a monster.”
He set one blade aside and calmly reached for the next. "So I've heard."
I couldn't bear it. Couldn't bear the thought of him pretending to be Aedric. Worse still, I couldn't bear the thought of me pretending he was Aedric—smiling at him, touching him, standing at his side while everyone in this Court believed he was my true mate. I couldn't do it.
"I let you siphon off me and this is what you do with it?" I hated the sting of tears that burned behind my eyes.
His fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around the hilt of his dagger.
"Trust me, Eidra," he said quietly, "if there's one person on this continent I'd rather not be... it's him."
"Why?” I threw my hands into the air. “Why him? Why are we even here?"
Rìan ran his thumb against the edge of the blade. "Because Thalassis and Aedric are friends. It wouldn't raise suspicion for Aedric to bring his mate to Pelaga after Solmire. His Court is grieving. The world is changing. A visit between allies is expected."
"We’re supposed to be searching for the Gate."
"We are. But since we happen to stand out rather conspicuously…” He glanced pointedly at my skin. “... it’s considerably safer to hide in plain sight, as a guest to the High Lord of this Court. Thalassis believes he invited us here. No one will question it.”
“Only because you’re in their minds!”
He shrugged. “Take comfort in the fact that you restored my magic—”
“There’s very little comfort in that.”
“—and thanks to you, we're still alive. We can continue our search for the second well.”
“Some thanks.”
He leveled me with a flat look before continuing. "You're going to have to trust me. Trust that I’m handling this the right way."
I scoffed. "The way you handled Elyndra the right way, you mean?"
He slammed the dagger down on the table with enough force that the other blades jumped.
"Elyndra made a mistake," he ground out. "But in the end, she did the honorable thing. And so did I."
I barked out a laugh. "You?" I shook my head. "You don't even know what honor is."
The strain in his expression only stoked the fire raging inside me.
"You slither into people's minds. You steal people's choices. You lie as easily as you breathe. You walked into that room wearing Aedric's face and let one of his oldest allies welcome you like a brother."
The cords in his neck stood out as he fought to rein in his temper. "Aedric—"
"Aedric is honorable." I cut him off, the words sharp enough to draw blood.
"He sacrificed everything to keep Elantis safe—so people can close their eyes at night without fearing that a monster like you will slip into their minds and make puppets of them.
" I shook my head, revulsion curdling in my stomach.
"And now you dare to masquerade as him. It makes me sick. "
Fury transformed his face with such startling ferocity that, for the first time since entering the chambers, my outrage wavered. "You think he is honorable?" He took a threatening step toward me.
I lifted my chin. “I know he is.”
"Then tell me, Eidra." A razor-edged smile curved Rìan's mouth. "Was it honor that made him hunt down every last member of your race?"
I opened my mouth. "It wasn't—"
"Was it honor when he watched them all die?"
"Thalassis said—"
"Thalassis confirmed it." His voice cracked like a whip. “Or did you miss the part where he thanked me for wiping them all out?"
Everything inside me went cold.
"He wasn't speaking to me, Eidra." Rìan's silver eyes bored into mine, every word a fresh slice across my skin. "He was speaking to your mate."
The world shifted beneath me.
When Thalassis had spoken of the Eidrae… he'd been looking at Rìan, but seeing Aedric. He’d been praising Aedric.
Inside me, my magic swirled into a sudden vortex. I barely registered hitting the floor.
"No..." I groaned. My heart splintered into a million jagged pieces.
He lied to me.
When we'd swum together in the cave beneath Solmire. When he'd told me his story. When he'd bared his scars to me for the first time.
All of it… lies.
I didn't know Aedric at all.
My agony radiated from me, pulsing outward until it filled the room.
The betrayal consumed every thought. What else had he hidden from me?
Everything I thought I knew about him—everything I'd loved about him—had any of it been real?
Had I been such a fool, so desperate to believe in him, that I'd ignored every warning simply because he told me he loved me?
I pressed my palms into my eyes, fingers tangling in my hair. My magic whirled through me like a tornado, rising to meet me. It gorged itself on the remains of my shattered heart, and I let it. I welcomed it. I craved the numbness. Anything was better than feeling this.
Strong hands closed around my wrists, prying them away from my face.
"No, Eidra," he said. "Stay with it. Stay with me."
His face was drawn with grim concentration, silver flecks dancing in the depths of his eyes. The touch pulled me back to the present, back to the room, back to the undeniable reality that the Dark Prince was kneeling before me, my hands clasped in his.
I tore myself free.
"Tell me," I demanded, my voice shredded raw. I had to know.
Rìan was a dark blur, wavering through my tears. "What do you want me to tell you?"
"The truth," I whispered. "No lies."
His gaze locked on mine, solemn and unflinching.
"Eidra." He said firmly. "I won't ever lie to you."
A wet laugh escaped me. "No?" My hand pressed against my chest, where the pain was almost too much to bear.
"No."
"You tricked me. You manipulated me. You used me. You—" The words caught in my throat.
He'd done all of those things, yes. But he’d never lied.
If anything, he'd only ever been cruelly honest.
Another laugh escaped me, brittle and broken, and with it the last of my composure. Tears spilled freely down my face.
Rìan didn't move. He simply knelt there, holding my gaze as though he meant to keep me from falling apart.
He was the eye of the storm. And I was the hurricane.
I lifted a shaking hand and pointed at him.
"Truth," I demanded again. He waited. "How—" My chest seized, refusing to draw another full breath. I couldn't ask it. Couldn't force the words past the grief lodged in my throat.
How had my mate slaughtered my people? My kind?
I didn't need to finish. He understood.
"Pyrestone," he said quietly. "An alchemical compound. It erupts moments after coming into contact with flame. Aedric was supposed to surrender himself to the Eidrae—their condition for preserving the peace after the murder of Caer Leahnn's mate. Instead, he marched an army into the Mirrorlands."
My pulse roared in my ears.
"The soldiers loosed iron-tipped arrows coated in pyrestone. They burst overhead, scattering burning fragments in every direction. In the chaos, the Eidrae were driven back onto the salt flats."
The room wavered around him.
"Once their magic had drained…" His throat worked. "... the soldiers rounded them up and burned them alive."
A ragged sob tore from my chest.
"One Eidra survived. She fled into the Wildlands, hoping to reach the Court of Dusk, hoping to reach me.” His eyes closed briefly. “She never made it."
I swallowed against the bile rising in my throat.
"I tried to stop it. But the Full Circle had planned it all. It was the distraction they needed to summon the Moiraithe."
I knew the rest. "And you were imprisoned in the Veil."
"Yes."
Every muscle in my body was drawn so taut I thought I would come apart. Somehow, I still managed to whisper, "Truth. Please."
A muscle feathered in his jaw, but he didn't look away. Again, he waited for my question.
"The Battle of Nightreach." The words scraped their way out of me.
No. Not that.
Aedric wouldn't have lied about that. Not about the soldiers who'd died there. Not about his parents.
Rìan’s brows knit together, but he gave a slow nod. "Truth. The Eidrae slaughtered five thousand soldiers of the Court of Flames at Nightreach."
My chin quivered.
That, at least, had been true. My people had wiped out five thousand soldiers in a matter of moments. His men. His family.
Did grief not twist people into doing terrible things? Did the desperate need for vengeance not make monsters of ordinary people? Was that enough to absolve Aedric of his actions, his lies?
Had he been too ashamed to tell me? Maybe it had been easier to place the blame on Rìan—the Dark Prince, cursed to the Veil and powerless to contradict him—than risk me looking at him and seeing the architect of a massacre.
The hurt inside me searched desperately for somewhere to land. It found Rìan.
“Eidra—”
"No more." I lifted a trembling hand, silencing him before he could speak. I didn’t know if my heart could take it.
He inclined his head once and turned away. Crossing to the table, he returned to his dagger and drew a whetstone toward him. Steel whispered against stone in slow, measured strokes, the steady rhythm filling the heavy silence between us.
I tore myself away. The ground pitched beneath my feet as I reached the bedroom, and I slammed the door hard enough behind me to rattle the walls.