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They weren’t hurting her yet, but I knew their combined power in such close proximity wouldn’t feel pleasant.

“Mom’s not doing it,” Cyn said, his chest rising and falling faster with each breath.

My gaze snapped to him. “What are you saying?”

“Lymsrana isn’t using her magic to hurt Raelynn. Mother isn’t either,” Ezra said through clenched teeth.

I looked at the council again and focused on their magical signatures.

They were right.

I’d focused so much on Rae that I failed to notice Lymsrana and Amra weren’t participating. They cast, but their magic flowed elsewhere. Only the others’ power touched the slab.

“They don’t want Cornaith to know,” Ezra said, answering my unspoken question of why they cast at all if they weren’t taking part in Rae’s execution.

Because the council masked their magic for broadcast optics, Lymsrana and Amra could conceal defiance, manipulating Cornaith.

Zeke crossed his arms, scratching at his sleeve. “Why are they pretending?”

Cyn and Ezra didn’t answer.

Like me, I doubted they knew the answer to that question.

Cyn reached for Zeke, knowing he needed comfort. But one warning glance from Roandra made it clear that even that wouldn’t be tolerated.

When Cornaith said something I didn’t hear over the rush of blood in my ears, the council moved closer to the slab.

Zeke’s breathing grew labored, and he mumbled, “I can’t do this. I can’t let her die.”

Ranthus glanced at us when Cyn growled low in his throat. “Young Master, control yourself. Soon you shall be free of her wretched influence.”

Free?

Centuries of emptiness awaited if we allowed Rae to die today. Fate wouldn’t bless us with another Nyrith—not after we allowed the first one to die.

Even if Rae used dark magic to bring us to Earth in a bid for power, it didn’t matter. Everything she’d said—about our kind, lesser infernals, the mark on her leg, her necklace—could’ve been a lie.

None of it mattered.

Rae turned her face away from the council, and her gaze collided with mine.

Nothing mattered but the truth I knew deep inside. Nyrith or not, my heart hadn’t ached for another the way it ached for Rae. And that ache cemented one truth that overrode all other doubts.

I loved her.

Never had another woman captivated me the way Rae did. She made each day feel new and exciting, where before I’d only gone through the motions, a slave to duty and chained by expectations.

Everything else could be solved with time. Even her connection to my brothers.

Ezra and Cyn might never act on their feelings, but I knew they felt something deeper than animosity. And Zeke? He loved her—maybe as much as I did.

They were my brothers. I’d spent my life sharing everything with them, so why would I squander the opportunity to share the most precious thing to come into our lives?

Rae deserved to be cherished and protected.

She’d spent her life running from shadows she never understood—neglected by a family who didn’t deserve her.

I might not be able to give her everything she needed, but my brothers could fill the spaces I couldn’t. If she wanted them too, I wouldn’t covet her as mine alone.