“We would have heard about it happening if they did.”
“My parents would have told me if it happened to them,”: I said. “They would have shared that phenomenon, if only to prepare me for it possibly happening to me. They would have told me, especially my mother, once she realized I’d fallen in love with you.
“And if that combination of powers happened between amsirah who shared abilities, then it would have happened between them. They both possessed fog; if it had linked them like lightning joins us, she would have told me. We also share rain, wind, and snow, but I haven’t felt those abilities join like our lightning.”
“Lightning is the rarest and the strongest.”
“Yes, but we still don’t understand why it’s happening, so how is Scarlet supposed to understand this connection between us?”
Ryker finished buttoning his pants and walked over to stand before me. “Do you trust her to keep your secret?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “Scarlet’s pissed, and she has a right to be; I’d be so upset if our roles were reversed, but she’d never betray me.”
“Then I trust her too.”
He kissed the tip of my nose before turning away to find his boots.
“I also told her parents, but they’re going to keep it from their son,” I told him.
Ryker stiffened before turning back to me.
“I trust them too,” I assured him. “And it was time for them to know. Things will get much more dangerous soon in this realm, and they have to be ready for it.”
“Do they know you can control all five of the weathers?”
“No.”
“Does Scarlet?”
“No,” I sighed. “Which means if she ever forgives me for this, it will only be in time to be mad at me again. I don’t know if our friendship will survive this.”
“If you’re as good of friends as you say, it will. She’ll forgive you.”
I gave him a small smile before bending to tie my boots. When I finished, I decided it was time to ask again. “What caused the smoke?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ellery
Ryker’s gazeremained on the closed tack room door before he turned to me. “Ivan had the survivors and the guards who failed to prevent their escape burned… alive.”
My mouth parted as my stomach curdled. “Alive?”
“Yes. One of them was Samael’s father.”
“Heburnedthe head of his guard?”
“Not just the head of his guard, Samay had watched over Ivan since his birth. Ivan grew up with Samay at his side.”
Nausea twisted through my stomach. “So, they were close.”
“I wasn’t around Ivan much, but Samay was always there to protect him whenever I was. From what I saw of them, he might have been Ivan’s only friend… or at least his onlytruefriend.”
“Shit.” With my shirt in hand, I sank onto a saddle, sitting on a sawhorse as I pondered his words. “Did we drive Ivan insane with that rescue?”
“I think we pushed him over an edge.”
And now I better understood Ryker’s words and actions earlier. An insane Ivan was enough to make anyone anxious about what was coming.
