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“This is a memory you don’t want to see,” I said into her ear. “Just trust me on this. You don’t want to look, and I can’t control this, or I’d take us far away from here.”
She stilled, gripping my hand as a familiar voice called out in the distance. My voice. “You cannot go inside there.”
Tessa breathed out. “Let me see.”
“Please, you don’t—”
“I need to see it, Kalen.”
This was the last thing I wanted. I hadn’t brought her here on purpose, had I? Deep down, I knew she needed to understand the truth about her father, but not like this. She should not have to see the moment the life left his eyes. Eyes that she had loved, that she had trusted. No matter what he’d done, I didn’t want her to experience a loss this harsh.
But it was her decision, not mine. And so I released her.
She stumbled away from me, toward the castle. I followed just behind her, my heart twisting into tangled ribbons of guilt. She stopped just as her father and another man reached the guard at the entrance to the castle. I—the me of the past—strode purposely behind them with a sword in his hand. Inmyhand. My face was hard and tense and cruel. I could see the truth in it now. I looked like the Mist King.
The guard shifted, frowning at Tessa’s father. “You cannot go inside.”
Nash Baran walked right up to the guard, unarmed, while the other man held back. The guard narrowed his eyes, but he was fae and did not see this human as a threat. The old me shouted into the wind, but it did not matter. Nash placed his hands on the fae’s neck and then jerked his head with a strength he should not possess. The guard was dead within seconds. His body hit the ground.
Tessa cried out, her hands flying to her throat. She stumbled into me, and her back hit me hard. I held her arms to keep her steady, but I didn’t force her to turn away. If she needed to see this, then so be it.
“What did he just do?” she breathed. “How did he—?”
The past me closed the distance and came up behind Tessa’s trembling father. “I can’t let you go in there. I know what power it is you’re playing with, and I won’t let you release it.”
Nash turned toward me with a vicious glint in his eye. Tessa flinched. “You can’t stop me. I’ll just kill you too.”
In the memory, I took a wide step back. “You won’t get close enough to me for that to work. What is your name?”
Her father wet his lips. “Nash Baran of Teine. The savior of our village, as soon as I release the god’s power and use it against Oberon. And against you, if you don’t leave me to it.”
“Step away from the door, Nash. Go with your friend back there and never return to this place,” I said gently. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you refuse to leave. Go back to your home in Teine. Go back to your family.”
“Yes, Nash. Come on. It’s time for us to leave,” the other man said, his voice soft and full of fear.
Nash hissed. “You can’t stop this. Even if you kill me, my daughter will follow in my footsteps. She and I, we’re the same.”
“Step away from the door. Now.”
But her father just laughed, twisted toward the door, and reached for the handle. Tessa’s body began to shake. I closed my eyes, wincing at the sound of my sword slicing through flesh. Tessa’s shaking turned violent, full of anguish and pain. And then the world beneath my feet dropped away.
* * *
We landed in the castle courtyard in Dubnos, my hands still wrapped around Tessa’s arms. She yanked away from me, opened her mouth to likely rail at me for what I’d done, but I didn’t hear a word she said. I was too busy staring at twenty-eight-year-old me, with my half-brother in front of me and my sister behind.
The image of my younger self was a stark contrast to the towering, brutal fae king we’d just seen. In this memory, I shuffled uneasily—face pale, eyes full of fear. Rhiannon wore a pale blue gown and cried into her shaking hands. Enysien’s smirk tore right through me.
“No.” I fell onto my knees. “I can’t watch this.”
“What’s going on?” Tessa started toward me, but I couldn’t bear to answer. I turned away, jaw clenching, tension wracking my body. The worst moment of my life sprang into action just beyond my line of sight, but I didn’t need to look. Every second of it was forever burned into my mind.
“Get away from her,” the younger me shouted at Enysien. “I won’t let you kill her.”
“Kalen, what’s going on?” Tessa repeated.
But my lips were nailed shut. I bent over the ground, dug my fingers into the dirt, and clung, knowing the words that came next.
“The crown will be mine,” Enysien said. “Our father said Rhiannon’s line will be the end of us all. I won’t let that happen.”
