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“Do you remember Sandrine? Callan’s cousin?”
She spun back to Adrien, who’d ceased his moving. What did she have to do with anything?
“Of course,” Isla said. “I liked her much more than Callan. She may have been one of the few people who supported me going into the warrior program.”
“She’s dead.”
Isla jerked back, feeling the words like a punch in the gut. Her knees weakened beneath her, and she swore Kai’s power kept her upright. He pushed up off the column, ready to be a true steady force if need be. She and Sandrine weren’t particularly close, but death…
Goddess, she was sick of death.
“Dante, too.” Isla shook her head. Another guard she had a vague memory of. “How?” Kai was at her side now, a hand pressed to her back.
“It’s my fault. I…” Adrien clenched and unclenched his fists. “I brought them into the Wilds.”
“Youwhat?” She didn’t expect such icy rage to rise in her, darkening the corners of her vision. “You better be joking.” He clearly wasn’t. “What were you thinking? Why would you ever go in there?” If they had died, he could’ve just as easily, and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever recover from that. “Did your father make you?”
“No,” Adrien answered with some bite, his lip curling as he rubbed at his wrist. Isla could’ve sworn there had been darkness there, tangible darkness, but it disappeared from one blink to the next. “I needed to find Raana. I don’t know why she ended up in there, how.” Adrien let out a ragged breath, shaking his head as if weathering a barrage of memories all over again. “We hadn’t made it far into the Wilds when we were surrounded by bak, and then Raana showed up covered in blood. She told me to leave, to leave her. And then when I refused, she—she got me out. Left Sandrine and Dante to die, but took me. Said thatshetold her Raana could only save me.”
Isla could feel Kai’s fingers tightening on her back, but he remained silent. “She? Who’s she?”
“That’s what I asked, but she didn’t answer me before she shadowed away. I’m assuming back into the Wilds.”
An incredulous laugh came from behind her. “Well, that’s just fucking great.”
Isla turned just as Kai stepped back, pinching between his brows. “It’s the witch. That has to be where she disappeared to. As if one who murdered my family and nearly killed my mate wasn’t bad enough. Now, there’s another one running around that’s half-fucking-fae.” He snarled, “You Imperials just love screwing up your jobs and dragging them into our territory, don’t you?”
“Kai,” Isla seethed, trying to get him to back down. Though she understood his point, Adrien was already beaten up enough about this by the look of him.
She hadn’t seen him look at anyone like he did Raana since Corinne, and he’d chosen her as his mate. There must’ve been much more to his and the witch’s relationship than having slept together the one time he’d told her that it had happened. And though he’d promised nothing would come of it, because it would never and could never work out between them, it seemed easier said than done.
“Watch it.” The prince bared his teeth, but then something seemed to dawn on him. “You know what she is?”
“She told me, but even if she didn’t, traveling through shadows like that isn’t something a witch is capable of.”
Adrien glanced at the ground. “She never told me you knew.”
“She evidently hid a lot of her intentions from you.”
For Goddess’s sake, he was relentless. Isla was a few moments away from shoving Kai out of the room. The warning look she gave him now was the last he’d get before that happened.
As if he could sense that he was pushing too far, too hard, Kai softened his voice but only slightly. “Raana helped us, sure, and I am forever in her debt for that, but that witch said herself that she doesn’t want us dead. Maybe she’s been working with her this entire time.”
“She hasn’t,” Adrien said firmly, though the slightest doubt may have slipped through. “Iknowshe hasn’t.”
Kai looked as if you were ready to say something, something that would cut deep, but refrained. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because she wanted nothing to do with this continent. Nothing to do with the world. She was trying to get away from here. From my father.” In a hush, he added, maybe not for their ears, “Unless nothing was real, I don’t think that was always her intention.”
Isla caught the undercurrent, though. Staying could’ve been her intention now.
“Why is she trying to get away from your father?”
“He knows what she is.Allthat she is, and he propositioned her mother to leave her to him so she could work for him.”
Isla blinked. “Like his other witches?”
“He had a special job for her skill set, but she didn’t want to do it.”Adrien’s eyes slid to Kai. “He wanted her to kill you.”
