“It’ll be best if Hildegard completes her examination before we show anything to Malory,” Reagan said. “We also need a clearer understanding of your access before we go.”
I knew Malory’s methods well enough to agree. I wanted her judgements far from my family. We couldn’t let her decide Joy’s fate. Or mine.
I inclined my head in muted agreement.
“That is why we need to assure her we have control over this,” Reagan warned. “She will have questions.”
“What about their father?” Gwin asked, glancing at Finnegan, her elbows planted on her knees. “Could he have a relic as well?”
Finn shook his head. “None that we could find. And we lost the chance to confirm his access once he lost consciousness.”
“I don’t think their father is hybrid-born at all,” Gwinifer went on. “Jane was able to get out at the train station in Mountheim.Hedid not.”
The others nodded as if realising something.
Gwin turned to me. “Only the mageborn or a hybrid-born can see that stop. Humans don’t notice it when the train stops there. When you arrived, I told them you’d probably gotten off the train because you saw me getting off, which was eithermymistake or a problem with the human passageway. But now it makes sense. It was your first time travelling to the human Capital, the first time you passed through Mountheim’s station, and you thought it was the right one. But the station you wanted was the next human station. Your father travelled the othertimes and never saw it, except when he waswithyour sister. He must be fully human.”
Nodding, I pressed my fingertips into my temples as a sharp ache pulsed behind my eyes. Probably from lack of sleep. “So should we test now?”
“You should rest before the examination,” Reagan answered me, his gaze catching on something in my expression.
Fine. Better.
“I will stay with her tonight in my room,” I murmured. “Is this all you need from me?”
“Yes,” Reagan replied. “In the morning, as soon as you are ready, we will test.”
I dipped my head again before turning towards the door and slipping out of the room. There was nothing in me capable of caring for the rest of the staff meeting tonight.
Reagan fell into step beside me. “Your sister can have her own room. Cerridwen arranged the one next to yours.”
“I would rather she stays with me tonight.”
He caught my elbow, stopping me mid-step. “You need to be careful, Jan. Tell her to sleep with her ring. If her emotions are unstable, she might lose control again. In the next room, you would still be…”
“She will be fine with me,” I cut him off. “And far away from you.”
His grip loosened. “You didn’t know what she was capable of until tonight. If there is risk, I will tell you, even if you are cross with me. You know why I did it.”
I wrenched my arm free, my resentment bubbling inside me in a rush, threading every word. “I know why you did it. And I still wish it hadn’t beenyouwho treated my family like that. So poorly. You lied. You kept from me that they were here, that they were hurt. You can call it protection if you like, but it wasselfish, Caedmon. You decided you knew what was best for me. You don’t. You don’t get to make those choices.”
He frowned, an expression closer to regret than confusion.
No, he understood. Reagan’s ordeals had been bound to his nature. Anyone could look at him and think he was perfect, the kind of person that intimidated and commanded by sheer presence alone. Everything a ruler was meant to look like. But the curse had never been about authority or appearances. It had been about virtue.
He wasn’t cruel, but he could be. Perhaps this response was exactly what had been taught to him, being raised to protect and fulfil his duty. I found myself wondering if kindness had been second to those things. It wouldn’t have surprised me.
Still, he wasn’t cruel to me anymore. Since we were together, he had become gentle and steady and devoted. And heknewme. He had to have known how absurd his actions were, how needlessly cruel they had been to the people I loved.
My gaze dropped to where the heartstone would have rested, if it were still there.
“You’re right,” he said. “And I have explained myself. I apologised. If it had been anyone else, I would not regret it. But I do. I am sorry your father was hurt. I regret your sister today.”
His hands twitched at his sides, though the rest of him remained impossibly still.
I sighed, recognising the expression on his face, the one he wore when he wanted me to give in.
Once, we had an expiration date. Now everything felt unmoored.
