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Draven feigned interest in a column lined with the thorny roses. He plucked a petal from a blossom, concealing the shaking in his fingers. “I don’t know who woke me up, but I’ve made no alliances. I’m a free man. Coming here was simply a curiosity.”

“Oh? What were you expecting to find?”

“Valen, for starters.” He gestured toward the Everlasting Root. “And I didn’t expect this to be little more than a fossil.” She looked his way once more with a scrutinous eye before focusing on the dead tree as if noticing it for the first time. “Was it your doing, or his?”

“Our doing. This tree was archaic. It only held back the Romon’s people.”

“Or it kept them in check.”

Brialis tipped her head. “You sound disappointed.”

Draven might not have been able to see life’s light anymore, but he could picture the void of it compared to what it used to be. “I can’t believe that this was what he wanted.”

“If you’re dissatisfied, then you’re welcome to leave,” she said. “You said it yourself: you are tied to no one, so what are you doing here otherwise?”

He laughed at the utterance of the same question he pressed Kyer for. “I don’t know! I haven’t the slightest clue why anyone would wake me up. I was hoping you could tell me.” For a breath, he lost control of the Serpent, and he appeared in her space within a single shimmer of the light outside. Brialis held her ground like he’d been there the whole time. She was nearly as tall as he was, but he hovered just a little higher.

“Why is it that I was let out of my cage like some rabid beast with the intention I’d cause you trouble?”

“Is that not what you are?” She kept close, watching him intently. A taut smile appeared over her dark lips, then she stepped around him with poise. “You’ve been led into being a coward’s attack dog. That’s all you’ve ever been.”

Draven glowered but didn’t say anything else.

Brialis sauntered over to the same column Draven left and picked a rose with elegant fingers. “It’s a shame. You had such potential. Now you stand here before me, thawing like a piece of gray meat without control of your own actions.”

“I do not need your pity.”

“You have it regardless.” His sister eyed him with judgment before turning her back on him once again and starting up the staircase. “It’s time for you to leave, Draven. Run along to your new master. Seeing you alive only serves to remind me of an opportunity lost.”

“Is that all I am? After all I did for him!” The click of her heels climbing out of earshot stoked his fury. “I want to see him!”

She stopped, her perfectly cut expression faltering as she spun to face him. It was brief, but Draven caught it. After a moment, she straightened her posture with a cross of her slender arms; the long sleeves of her gown draped at the crook.

“What makes you think you deserve to step foot in his presence after what you’ve done?”

The Serpent pulled him to the outer reaches of her shadow. “I wasn’t asking.”

She sighed then glanced upward as if she expected something to fall from the ceiling. She turned and continued up the stairs. “Come.”

Draven lingered, searching the space again until her steps left his earshot. He trailed behind, keeping a significant distance as they climbed a few more levels before continuing down a dimly lit hallway.

His gaze clung to an adjacent passage until it was out of sight.

Bright sunlight filtered through the small windows between each personal chamber. Draven stopped in front of a wide door near the end of the hall.

He knocked as he entered, grinning when he found his brother exactly where he expected—sitting in a chair across from his latest project.

“You’re interrupting my muse,” Caine mumbled, trailing his paintbrush slowly down the canvas.

“If you don’t want interruptions, why not lock the door?” Draven asked, closing it carefully.

Caine’s room was smaller than his, but it was decorated with the same furniture. A bookcase was built into the wall across from Caine’s easel, which was set at the foot of his bed. Opposite was an open window overlooking the lake. Just around the corner from the entrance door was the washroom.

“How was Chiman?” Caine asked.

Draven rolled his eyes. “How should I know?”

“You didn’t ask?”