“I need to see her. And then we need to find Ever and the others. We trust nobody else.”
“You can’t just walk into the apartments with no escort, Aten. You’ll be challenged.” Cetus stands firm.
“Then come with us. You’ll need every scrap of intel we have.”
It was a gamble. The man who met me in the mountains wouldn’t have agreed to such flagrant help of a banished Kirrian. But a lot has changed. I resist tipping his decision our way with my power. We need him as an ally, and I’m not ready to persuade him that way.
“Fine.” It sounds anything but an agreement. “But on my conditions only.”
“Done,” Calix answers for me.
Wrapping my wrists in chains to lead me to The Court is a logical next move. I was banished, after all. Escorted by Calix and his father, nobody questioned us, and we had a free pass to our destination.
As Cetus had said, as we entered and walked up the curved cobbled streets, it was almost unrecognisable as The Court Igrew up in, but the Warriors we came across only saw their General.
We enter the halls and passageways to the apartments and my family’s rooms. No officer or guard is standing outside, unlike the previous visit.
“Be quick, Aten.” Cetus unlocks the shackles around my wrist and turns his back to me, and as he and Calix take up position at the door, I step inside.
The house is quiet. The air chills me as I enter. It doesn’t feel like anyone has been here for a long time.
I walk through the hall and into the main sitting room, and I find her in the same seat as she was in the previous time I visited with Ever.
There’s little change in her appearance, to my relief. But that vacant, faraway look remains in her eyes.
Guilt hits me all over again for leaving, for forsaking her after she was the one to stand for me. It’s an emotion I’m fast-growing used to carrying, and I promise, I’ll make amends, Aslendrix, you hear me?
“Hello, Mother.”
My greeting doesn’t disturb her, so I move closer and kneel to the side of her chair.
“Orion?” she questions, before moving her head toward me, her gaze following.
“No, Mother. Aten.”
“Where is your father?” she asks.
“Father? In his office, I presume. But I came to see you.”
“Aten?”
“Yes.” I take her hand in mine and squeeze. It isn’t common, but touch is fast becoming something I have a new appreciation for, thanks to Ever.
There’s a current, a pulse, between us as our palms touch. Perhaps the echo of a Guard’s power—of her power—responding?
Whatever it is seems to bring her out of the daze.
“Aten, thank the stars. Your father?—”
“I don’t want to talk about him.”
“No, it’s you who must listen.” She talks with vigour and an urgency I’ve not seen from her since before my Transference. “He only did it because of the girl. He loves you, please remember that.” Her eyes bore into mine, as if she’s willing me to understand.
“Is this about Ever?”
“The Fifth. He doesn’t want it to happen again.”
“I know about the battle. About the secrets. I know Father knew who her parents were, or at least who her father was.” My words are harsh, infused with all the pain that those secrets have caused. “Why was it all hidden? What was so important?” I pull my hand back and run my hands through my hair in frustration.
