Page 90 of Fallacies

“She…” Callan blinks a few times, staring off at Ceres’s unconscious body. “She had a deal with Alaric,” he says finally, his words sinking like stones in the stillness of the room.

“What deal?” I blurt, heart racing in my chest.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Callan so disheveled. It’s like he can hardly believe the words coming out of his own mouth.

He looks to the Dame. “Ceres knew they were coming for Streatham,” he reveals. “Alaric offered her a chance to rule it, but he didn’t uphold his end of the bargain. Power in exchange for…” Callan shakes his head, his words getting away from him.

“For what?” Delia demands.

But I already know. I’m expecting his answer. The rising temperature of my blood is expecting it too, and when grey eyes find mine, they’re so solemn it hurts.

“For opening the gates.”

Ceres invited them in.

Ceres framed my mother.

My hand falls from Pax’s, the silence of the room growing quickly, morphing into a high-pitched ringing.

For the first time in days, I feel my father’s presence, cold and imposing at my back. And for the first time in well…ever…I’m not afraid of him. A sudden anger takes over my body instead, hot in my throat but frigid everywhere else. Magic that I cannot expel in this room slithers up my spine, and it’s just as furious as I am.

More than I am.

The Dame is asking the Captain questions, but I can’t hear his answers.

The room breaks out into a frenzy of chatter, but I can’t hear a single word.

“Lucina?”

Gemma.

I lift my gaze to hers.

All of a sudden, the emotions coursing through me feel foreign, rising to a level of wrath that—in all my years of experience with the feeling—has never felt like this before.

I manage to decipher one sentence through the muffled sounds pounding against my eardrums, begging to be let in. One sentence that pushes me right over the edge, spoken from the mouth of the man that I love.

“She killed Sable.”

I throw myself out of the door and into the hall, pushing my feet faster than they are willing to move. Fire and smoke crawl up my insides, burning my lungs. And if two things can even be possible at once, the blood in my veins ices over, stiffening my limbs.

Faster. I’ve got to move faster.

“Lucina!”

Footsteps bound down the hallway after me, and I pick up my pace, barreling outside and nearly tripping down the front steps.

I grit against the weight of my magic, doing everything I can to force it back down. Not here.

The part of me that’s Sol listens without question, but the part of me that isn’t⁠—

Hasn’t been properly trained.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

My heart thumps louder and louder every time my feet hit the ground, and by the time I break through the trees, it’s thrashing in my chest. Beating up the sides of my neck. Tainted blood rushing into my ears.

I lurch forward, dry heaving into the dirt, tears streaming down my face as I fight with everything I have to keep it inside. Just a little bit longer.