“Oh, we’re counting on that,” says Adria, her expression smug. “It’s a little delayed, but thank you for finally enabling me to do what I was trying to do last fall. What youruined.”
“You will be held here in the palace. But after what you managed the first time Sylvara was held captive, there will be other precautions. You’ll have to forgive me, but I couldn’t have you using your magic against us.”
I reach for my shadows, suddenly feeling their absence. There’s nothing there at all. It’s like I’ve been drained of my magic, only I feel no exhaustion.
“The wine?” asks Seth, reaching the same conclusion. We’ve been poisoned with the anti-magic elixir.
“From what they told me when I stepped out, you were quite busy tonight. But you missed one of our stockpiles: the one here in the palace.” My stomach lurches. They still have anti-magic elixirs to use against Ronan and his legions. “Although the tincture I gave you was from my personal supply. Anti-shadow is quite a rarity, but I’m told you have some sort of power that I couldn’t risk finding out about the hard way. Coming by a light-born wasn’t easy. In all my time, I’ve only found one. A fellow slave who helped me in Brakkar.”
“And you repaid her by stealing her blood to use against your own daughter.” She stands there crying, telling us that she won’t give up on us, and yet she poisoned us. She refused to listen to us. She’s planning to kill myhusband—
Fuck, I can’t believe I just thought that. I don’t have the right to think of him as my husband still.
Godsdammit, I miss him so much it’s tearing me apart.
She’s planning to killRonan, and she won’t stop there.
Mother’s lips press into a thin line. “I repaid her by freeing her at great personal risk. I repaid her by bringing her here with me. And I will repay her once more when we take Brakkar and the heads of all of those who wronged us.”
More death. More violence. Ronan was completely right. It’s never going to end. “Brakkar is our ally. I’m sorry for what happened to you, but how can you think it entitles you to all of their lands? There are other ways to stop the people who hurt you.”
Adria looks at me and then at Mother. “I told you she would need persuading.”
“So be it. See if the others have arrived yet, will you?”
My blood runs cold as Adria goes to the door. Mother approaches me, her bony hands tightening around my wrists. “You may not like it, but you are staying here, and youwillrepay the debt you owe this family. Youwillmake up for what you’ve made your sister suffer. You can tell us what we need to know the easy way, or we can bleed it out of you. Your decision.” She looks over my shoulder at Seth, who I feel approaching me, ready to defend me. “And that goes for you as well.”
Adria returns then, pushing two hooded figures into the room. She throws them to the floor and then yanks the hoods off their heads.
Larus and Octavia.
Adria shakes her head. “I should have known. No one recognized them, but I should have known.”
Larus blinks, his eyes adjusting to the candlelight in the room. “Sylvie?” he asks, looking at my mother. Then he leaps back in shock. “Diana. My gods. You’re alive.”
“Hello again, Larus. I wish we were meeting again under different circumstances. You were always Lysander’s favorite.”
“Diana, please.” Larus struggles against the ropes binding him, pulling himself into a sitting position. “You know I’ve always been loyal to this family. I tried to protect them. When I realized they were on different sides, I tried to save them both. I swear it.”
“I believe you,” says Mother. She strokes his cheek in a way that makes my skin crawl. “But in the end, you chose. And you chose wrong.”
“Well, Sylvie,” says Adria, coming alongside Mother. “I imagine you can guess how this is going to go. Tell us what Ronan is planning, all of it, and we’ll let them live. Refuse, and they die.”
“Don’t do it, Sylvie,” says Octavia urgently. “Don’t tell them a goddamn thing.”
“It will change nothing,” says Larus. “She can tell you every location of every legion in this world, and it won’t change a thing. We got the elixirs. You’ve lost. Use Sylvie to negotiate your surrender, and Ronan will be lenient with you. She’s everything to him.” He’s trying to protect me even now.
Mother laughs cruelly. “It would be a shame if that were true, but it isn’t. Sylvara, you know what you need to do. And Seth, you’ll be our confirmation that she isn’t lying. If you tell us something different, we’ll know we can’t believe you.”
Seth and I look at each other, and I know we’re both thinking the same thing.
We’re fucked.
There’s no way we can tell the same lie, and there’s no way we can tell them the truth. Ronan is already going to be at a disadvantage if they have even a small number of anti-magic elixirs. We can’t afford to lose any of the advantages we have.
But I can’t let Larus die. Larus, the father who was there for me when no one else was. Larus, the man who risked everything to save me from the people he was sworn to serve.
Larus, the man who raised me.
