The unfamiliar word that filtered through Cedric’s mind was lost to the feeling of something cracking behind his ribs. A splinter of grief, sharp and sudden. He turned back to Larkess. “My father?”
“Lysander Thorne was as human as they come,” she said. “But brave. Fierce in his convictions. He loved you and your mother beyond reason. Willing to live a small life to keep you safe. Died protecting you both.”
Cedric swallowed the lump in his throat. “When they came that night, what were they looking for? My mother? And why didn’tyou—” His voice cracked. “Why did you let me go with Lord Church, if you survived that night? Why couldn’t I have stayed with you?”
It wasn’t as though he would have traded the life he was given. He wouldn’t go back and change where he ended up. It brought him Tristan and Tenny and his other friends and a lifetime of experiences that had him taking on the Crucible at the exact right time to meet...
He flexed his hand around Elyria’s, adjusting his hold. She began playing with his ring, spinning it around his finger, and in spite of everything Cedric was hearing, in spite of himself, he was somewhat stunned to find he wanted to smile.
She was the only anchor he needed.
But he also needed to understand.
Larkess’ face fell, genuine sadness lining the weathered creases bracketing her mouth, spearing from the outer corners of her eyes. “Oh, sweet boy. If only I could have. But I did not escape that night entirely unscathed.” She drew back the long, pooling sleeve of her robe to reveal a vicious, puckered scar carving up her arm from wrist to shoulder. “And by the time I was well enough to return, you were already gone. He had already taken you.”
“Lord Church,” Cedric whispered. A new wave of thoughts started to intrude. How much did the lord paramount know? His piercing gaze, his air of all-knowingness suddenly took on a different tint as Cedric thought back through their interactions together over the years. His total unwillingness to discuss Cedric’s parentage, the origins of how he came to live under his care. The unrelenting path Lord Church put Cedric on when the time came to start training for the Crucible.
There was something dangling just out of reach of Cedric’s comprehension, a final piece of this strange and impossible puzzle that he just couldn’t seem to grasp.
The elder’s thin lips pressed together as though she, too, had opinions on the man who had raised Cedric in her stead. “You have become a fine man, Cedric. And so I must be grateful to him for that alone. But I think you know as well as I do that it had little to do with him. Just as who you have become has little to do with your lineage.”
At that, Cedric scoffed. “You say that out of one side of your mouth, yet out of the other you are trying to tell methat I am some kind of prophesied prince? That I will bring the dawn and heal the realm? Make up your mind.”
“You are both. You are more.” She looked from him to Elyria and back again. “Sunbringer. The phoenix reborn. The rising sun.”
A chill ran through Cedric.
The sun will rise.
“Varyth Malchior knows,” he said darkly. “He must. Otherwise, why would he bother setting up that trap in Dawnspire? Isolating me from the others?”
Elyria tensed. “ ‘He is required.’ That’s what Avery said. What he said Malchior said, I mean.”
“And what I think we all want to know,” chimed in Thraigg, “is exactlywhatthe damn bastard requires Ric for.”
There was a beat of silence.
“There is something else I need to know too.” Cedric squared his shoulders, lifting his chin.
Everyone waited.
“If Selenae was my mother,” he said slowly, every word heavy, “then the lost princess truly is lost. I saw her ripped apart before my very eyes.”
Elyria leaned into him. He leaned right back.
“But if she died more than twenty years ago”—he turned his face toward Elder Larkess—“then what happened to the other half of the crown?”
48
SAFE
KIT
“Areyou absolutely sure about this, Tenny?” Kit’s voice was a whisper as she stepped out of the shadows with Tenebris Nox at her side.
“Not even a little,” Tenny said, releasing a nervous laugh. “But I wouldn’t have asked you to meet me in here again if I wasn’t willing to give it a go, so let’s just get on with it.”
“Did anyone see you enter?” Nox asked, gesturing widely to the messy office around them. It looked almost the same as it had when they were here last, save for the lantern Tenny must have brought with her, set at the edge of the desk. With the sun making a rapid descent into the horizon, Kit was glad for the modicum of additional light, even if it did cast an eerie glow overthe rest of the room.
