“My parents arealive?”
Her lips pursed, so I looked to Jamie, even though I felt Kole watching me, his gaze so intense it burned as brightly as the Stone in his grasp.
“Do you know who my parents are?” I asked the warrior.
Jamie shrugged. “I do, but I can’t release that information either.”
He knew, which likely meant Kole knew too.
I glanced at the dark-haired warrior. Kole’s focus on me intensified, and his knuckles turned white around the Stone.
“You know who they are?”
His jaw locked, his mask slipping, but he didn’t reply.
“Did you know the entire time?”
He looked down, and the guilt in his auraexploded.
I sucked in a breath. Fresh tears blurred my sight. Just when I thought my heart couldn’t break any more, it ruptured anew in a gushing wound. And to think I’d told him the story of how my parents had died. And all along, he’d known that story was a lie.
Betrayal cut into me so deeply it felt as though I’d been stabbed.
“You need to come with us, Prim,” Kole said hoarsely, his aura like a rising tidal wave. “You’re not safe here anymore, not if your true identity has been leaked. Whoever Verin’s working for, they know where you are.”
My true identity. Whatever that was. And whoevertheywere.
Tears shone so thickly in my eyes when I finally met his gaze that I could barely see him. But I locked down my emotions. Locked them down as tight as they would go. “Were you following me the entire time I was hunting the Stone?”
Kole’s attention dropped to his feet, but not before another flash of devastation filtered through his mask.
My breath rushed out of me. “And when we met for the first time in Whiteolf, when you stopped Abel, was that a coincidence, or did you plan that too?”
His throat bobbed in a swallow, the only evidence that he’deven heard me. “I was already following you by that point and saw that you needed me to intervene.”
Silence filled the room, so thick I could cut it. I finally licked my lips and managed to get out, “I see, soeverythingwas fabricated.”
“Not everything.” His voice shook. “Not everything, Prim.”
Jamie’s eyes narrowed in his direction, but I no longer knew if I could believe Kole or not. I didn’t know who or what was real anymore. Least of all Kole.
Aunt Gwenery reached for me, but I fell back in my seat. Numbness crept through me as it sank in that nothing with Kole had been by chance, and all of our encounters along the road had likely been planned.
Memories flashed back to me rapid fire of every single crossing we’d had. Kole hadn’t been patrolling the Wood or tasked with stopping creatures like the one he’d killed outside of Inisville. He’d been assigned to me. For what reason, I still didn’t know.
Regardless, in all of the time we’d spent together, he’d let me believe that he was merely along for the ride, and that our encounters were entirely coincidental, and that I could join him if I wanted to for the last leg of my journey?—
My breath sucked in, and I narrowed my gaze at him. “Didyousteal my carpet in Inisville?”
He shifted in his seat and finally met my eye. All luster lefthis expression. He looked resigned. Dead. And in that unspoken response, I knew. Ifeltit.
“You did,” I said stiffly. “You stole it so I would be forced to return home or join you. Everything you ever said or did with me was a lie.”
“Prim . . .” Kole’s voice was rough. Hoarse.
Jamie stood. “It’s time to go, Primelle. For your safety, you need to come with us.”
“Now?” My aunt shot to her feet. “But her uncle?—”
