“Why did you scream?”
Again, she tries to press the crimps from its beak. “Because Pah needed favor with Bothaim, and I was the bounty.”
Oh, no.
Kyzari, no …
“I was quiet, just like Pah instructed. Until after.”
My guts squirm.
“The Grand Chancellor was not,” she continues, her face hard,merciless—such a contrast to the Kyzari I thought I knew. “Not the first time. Nor the second. The third.”
“You—”
“Yes.” She meets my eyes, her own frosted over. She’s never looked more like her mah than she does right now. “I did my duty as the greatTyroth Vaegor’sdaughter.”
My blood boils. Almost melts me from within as I realize I’ve been seeing her much like a youngling for these many phases because of the way she presents herself. But that’s just a mask she’s been using to protect herself from the terrors her pah bestowed upon her.
Thefuck.
I thought Tyroth protected Kyzari. Adored her to the point of smothering her. I was wrong. Blind.
I should’ve known better.
“That’s—” I clear the rabid rasp from my throat. “That’s why you offered yourself to the Creators this phase.”
“He’d grown sick of me anyway. Started asking for other things. Guess I wasn’t very good at it.” She shrugs, the half smile pulling at her cracked lips telling me that might’ve been purposeful. “I offered myself to the Creators as a way of severing Pah’s power over me. And because—” Her breath catches.
“What?”
That smile softens. “My heart already belongs to one.”
Creators. She’s spent far too much time on her own …
Rather than dwell on that, I reach through the bars, not missing the way she moves the lark out of my reach. As if she thinks I’m about to take it from her.
I grip her hand and squeeze tight, knowing there are no words I can say to undo her damage. No stitch strong enough to forever stop those wounds from splitting. But in the silence that sits between us, I vow to help her find peace. Help her find a happy place for her mind to rest.
Somehow.
“You think he’s going to let us go?”
No, Kyzari. He’s going to use us to hurt someone we both love.
I don’t say the words. What she needs right now ishope,and that—
I can give her that.
“I have something you need to see,” I whisper, pulling my arms from her cell. I reach down, lift the hem of my shirt, and begin unwrapping the strip of material bound around my waist, my throat growing thick.
Heart heavy.
It wasn’t easy keeping the diary concealed from the one who tore through my mind. I may be good at mental voiding, but with such limited strength, I could only protect a handful of things. It almost killed me more than once, but it would’ve been a good death.
Honorable.
Because this diary, the words in it … they’re personal. Not for anyonebut Raeve, Kaan, and my sweet, broken niece who so desperately needs to know just how much she’sloved.
