We both tried to enjoy the little time we had together in school, and I never once brought up my past. But now, knowing my counselor had compelled me to keep the truth from her, I was even more pissed off. It was worse knowing I’d probably never get the chance to tell her. My mind replayed my entire childhood up until I left LakeWood. I went through all the times I wanted to tell Vallie I was Luxian, but whenever I opened my mouth to say the words—I couldn’t.
Everything about my life was a lie. A lie that Dovelyn concocted.
I hated her. Half of me wished I had killed her that day, but then another part of me understood it, even if I wasn’t ready to admit it yet.
And when I wasn’t contemplating everything I went through, I found myself staring at Tezya from afar, watching him when I didn’t think he’d notice. But Sie had. I knew he was watching me just like I was watching Tezya. He had asked to speak with me in private numerous times throughout the week, but I’d been avoiding him, finding excuse after excuse to push it off. I didn’t know what to say to him, and I wasn’t ready for what he wanted to say to me.
I’d been alone in my tent for the past hour, thinking everything over, when Peter found me. “Dravenburg called a war meeting.”
We werethe last two Advenians to enter the tent.
I was looking at Dravenburg in a different light, knowing he was mortal and the owner of the camp—or co-owner. I didn’t understand Tezya’s relationship with him or how a human family got involved in the first place.
If I hadn’t known Savannah was human, I would have sworn she was an Advenian. It wasn’t just that she had the same slender and tall frame or that her tattoos looked like permanent Luxian markings. It was more in how she presented herself. She was in a camp full of lethal beings, but she wasn’t scared that everyone around her had powers she was susceptible to. We were always taught that our kind was superior to humans, but if she was intimidated, she didn’t show it.
My gaze snagged on Tezya next. He ignored his seat. His fingers mindlessly rubbing at the scab on his palm. He stoppedthe moment his eyes locked with mine. The commotion around me stilled, and all I could focus on were the blue and silver in his irises, trying to figure out which color was winning at the moment.
Kallon clapped a hand on my back, breaking our gazes. “Have a seat, babes.”
I took the chair she was gesturing to and found two black eyes focused on me. Peter was sitting next to Sie and was rambling his ear off while Sie was looking directly at me.
I was surprised Tezya let him join the meeting, not that Sie didn’t deserve to be here, but it meant Tezya trusted him enough with whatever was about to be said. There were forty or so Advenians in the tent altogether, plus the two mortals standing next to Tezya.
Rainer smiled at me from across the room. I hadn’t seen him since he arrived. His dark skin seemed to glow against his unnaturally white smile. He swept his black curls off his forehead, exposing his sage colored eyes. He reminded me of Peter—not because of their striking green eyes—but because they were both warm and positive. It was refreshing to be around. I gave a small wave back.
Dravenburg cleared his throat, calling everyone to attention, as Tezya stepped forward to speak.
“I want to be proactive,” Tezya started, and I had to make an effort to focus on his words and not at how close he was standing to the human girl. “We still have the benefit of surprise since the King isn’t aware of our numbers. But the news of Sie escaping the prison is starting to spread. He will double his defenses if he hasn’t already. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to make a move. What we have been doing here isn’t enough anymore. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
“What are you suggesting?” Dravenburg asked.
“We need to uncover the prophecy.”
“No.” Dovelyn sprang from her seat so fast that her chair fell to the ground. “That is out of the question.” It was my first time seeing her since she confessed everything to me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
One of the Advenians from the camp asked, “What prophecy? How come I’ve never heard of it?”
Kallon answered next to me, “The prophecy started during the Ability War back on Allium. The servants of the Goddesses spoke about it before the planet was destroyed. They claimed it was the words of Pylemo herself. Once our kind came here, the kings from both sides kept the prophecy a secret. They didn’t want it to come true because it meant they would have to give up their crowns.”
Peter leaned back in his seat, resting his ankle over his knee. “So does anyone care to enlighten us on what the prophecy is exactly?”
Kallon’s yellow eyes flicked over him before she continued, “Legend claims a boy born from both kingdoms—a boy who possesses both golden and black markings—will bring an end to the current courts until there’s no longer a Light and Dark Kingdom.”
“It’s a waste of time,” Dovelyn interrupted. “We have no way of opening the tomb to even know if it would be helpful.”
“It’s worth a try,” Tezya said. “If it can help bring an end to separate kingdoms, maybe it’s the answer we need. Maybe it means this camp. We’ve been living together in harmony for a while, why can’t—”
“You are forcing connections, trying to convince yourself of it, Tezya, when in reality, it could damn us all along with the current rulers.”
“If that’s the case, then I won’t go through with it. But on the off chance it’s what we need to gain advantage, how can we not try?”
I knew what Dovelyn and Tezya weren’t admitting. The one thing they weren’t telling the group. They both knew if Tezya fulfilled the prophecy, it could very well be damning tohim.
“What are you talking about?” Dravenburg asked, shooing away Dovelyn’s concern. “What good is the prophecy without the Advenian born from both kingdoms?”
In answer, Tezya’s body lit up in golden spirals. I saw the slight tremor of hesitation he had before he compelled Savannah, “Fetch me that map.” His voice had the same familiar tones I heard many times before as his compulsion swept over the human. The lavender-haired girl moved without wanting to and brought the map to Tezya, setting it down on the table in front of him.
I stared at his markings as they came to life—hisgoldenmarkings. I memorized every curve of the Luxian flames on his skin when he was sweating during his punishment. But this was something else. An entirely different side to him that I hadn’t known existed. And he was revealing it to everyone.
