“Sazu—”
I looked at her, my eyes blazing with fury.
“He. Is.Not. Lying,” I bit out. “You can lie to a face but you canneverlie to a bond. Manmi…she…she’s the one who did it.”
We are Anathelle’s Safah,Manmi told me often, dawn in and dawn out, as I trained for the inevitable dawn I would Ascend.We are holy, to whatever end.
Towhateverend.
How far did that end go?
My mind was reeling. I placed my hand at my temple. A splitting headache exploded at the front of my head. I forced a breath through my lungs as my thoughts clouded until they were thick walls I couldn’t pierce through. My mind suffocated on slow unraveling truths I wasn’t sure I was ready to face.
“Your Granmanmi gave us Blood Rites,” Quazar said in the quiet. The angels around our table leaned in, hanging to every word. “Your Manmi gave us the Empràr’s Pass and made it mandatory, or else we’d die. And don’t get me started on what yourGreat-Granmanmi did.”
Quazar tilted his head, studying me. “What willyoucreate, spawn of Anathelles?”
I refused to answer. Refused to look at him. To look at anyone. A thought occurred to me. I met Quazar’s gaze.
“If you graduated but are still at Azarath, do you have to keep going back to the Pass?”
“Sheisbrilliant,” Quazar mused. “Ifthis is going where I think it is.”
He smiled at me. Seventh Choir leaned in, trying to piece out what I wasn’t saying. Ellabeth most of all.
“Yes, my Starling. If we stay at Azarath, we must continue going through the Pass.”
“Why would you stay at Azarath?” I asked.
“If Dakairi and I leave, who would train Ivyana? Who would protect her? Who would defend my angels? I,we, stay so we can help those after us. Permission we’ve attained because it’s been told the…Hallowedget nervous when I am loose.”
He grinned wide this time. He didn’t have one dimple. The gorgeous Prince had two.
Rot, rot,rot me.
That smile would unravel me thread by thread. I tried looking away, but there wasn’t a chance in the Hèls I could. He smiled as if he’d sat at my kitchen table and heard Papi warn again and again about the Fallen Prince running loose and causing Hèls across the empyrean.
“Do you ever go to the Seal Gate?”
Quazar blinked at me. He watched me a long time. Ellabeth visibly leaned forward. I had a feeling she caught on to where my thoughts were going.
“I do. Usually with the Legionnaires when they’re on defense. Always during the wintrien season. The gate is messed with often when it’s cold and most islanders are bogged down in their homes.”
There’s no way.
There was absolutelyno way.
I couldn’t have been lied to.
Not to this magnitude.
“During…wintrien,” I repeated.
He nodded.
Quazar’s Talons looked between him and me. They hadn’t caught on to where I was going with my questioning. But Quazar had. And so had Dakairi and Ellabeth.
“Blessed lights,” Ellabeth hissed.
