Page 24 of Maleen

“Ravina!”

I ignore him, focusing on what I know is right. “Last time I got close you, couldn’t keep your hands off me because you wanted to kill me. Do you feel that urge now?” I ask, leaning into his personal space.

He stares at me with wide eyes as he slowly shakes his head. “I don’t want to kill you,” he whispers in awe.

A grin breaks out over my face and I wrap my arms around him. “Someone get these Fate-fucking chains off him before I loose my Fates-damn mind!”

“I don’t think— Jesper, give me my sight back!” Killian roars and I glance over my shoulder to see Killian stumbling around before collapsing towards the ground as if he’s falling.

“What?” Jesp questions innocently. “Tal is clearly fine. No more danger than at any other time when he’s his normal self. I mean, look at him—he’s so shocked he still hasn’t even hugged our mate back. So you can stay there until you can play nice with your brother-by-mating.” Jesper skips over to a flailing Killian and snatches the keys to the iron chains off his belt before tossing them to me.

I don’t waste a second before unlocking the hulking chunks of metal and kicking them far away from my mate as they fall to the ground. “Fuck Tal,” I hiss. “I’m so sorry. They never should have used iron on you; it’s not humane.” His wrists will scar like mine, and my heart goes out to him. “Aemon. You will never use these on any of ours again,” I growl sounding a little too much like Killian, but I don’t mind. It does get the point across.

“I asked for it,” Talyn states. “I would have used my magick to get out. The iron was the only thing keeping you safe.”

When I glance back at him our faces are a breaths-width apart.

“Maeven,” he whispers before clearing his throat and moving back to stand up, offering me a hand despite his injured wrists.

I debate on not taking it, but with everything between us so fragile still, I grasp it. His calloused palm is warm and strong, and a small part—who am I kidding?—a large part of me doesn’t want to let go, but I still have so much to tell him. I can’t afford to be distracted by his touch. The realm depends on it.

Nero chirps, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Okay. Talyn you should go get cleaned up and meet us in the war room. Jesper, let Killian go. I’m sure he will feel better about all of this if he can actively keep an eye on Tal.” I turn to Talyn and mouth sorry, but all he does is shrug before giving me a playful smile and heading toward the door. It’s so different from the male who lashed out at me constantly over the past days.

Killian follows swiftly after grumbling about impatient royals, which only makes me snicker.

Aemon appears at my side and kisses my head. “It’s a win for us, getting him back.”

I sigh. “It is, but I don’t know how he’s going to handle the news about his sister.”Talyn is no longer under the influence of his father and the Soul Stone, so his emotions are more stable. But this news will be devastating to hear either way, although in a way they will always be siblings because family is more than just blood. It’s a choice.

I’M WAITING OUTSIDE Talyn’s door wanting to ambush him before the meeting. I’ve decided to talk with him away from the others, maybe take a walk or something. Killian of course is around somewhere.

Nero nuzzles my cheek. “Did you want me to take off or stick around?”

“Stick around. I could use my emotional support eyeball-snatcher,” I tease.

He puffs up his chest and flutters his wings. “Always, Rav.”

The door to Talyn’s room swings open, and I push off the wall and turn toward him. He looks much better after showering a week’s worth of grime off and a fresh change of clothes. The side of his scalp is freshly shaved, letting the intricate dragon tattoos appear once again.

His brows raise. “Ravina. What are you doing here?”

I match his brow raise with my own. “I wanted to talk in private before we get to the war room to fill you in on everything else.”

“Oh?”

I blow out a breath and gesture with a tilt of my head for him to follow me away from his room. “I talked to my mother after we arrived back here, and I discovered something.”

“Discovered what?”

I stop in the middle of a garden and sit on a secluded bench, patting the seat beside me. I discovered this quaint little courtyard not long ago—or should I say, ‘rediscovered’. I remember spending a lot of time with Aemon here as a fledgling when I would visit. There’s something about the floral scent that calms me. Poor Jesper, though, can’t step foot in here without his allergies flaring up.

I peer up at Tal and his brow is furrow, and I unintentionally stall. Why is this so hard? Maybe I should just rip it off like a bandaid. I take a deep breath. “Apparently Cynder is not your blood-related sibling. She’s mine.”

He shakes his head vehemently. “That’s not possible; my mother was pregnant. I remember…”

So I tell him everything my mother told me. About how his father’s unhealthy obsession with my mother grew into the night everything burned. That my mother was pregnant with Cynder and was planning to tell my fathers. How I suspect that Cynder has Gallalaus magick because of the dream we shared together. How his mother died from giving birth to him, and that Craven must have used the Soul Stone to create false memories of his mother growing up.