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I needed to make it right.
A quick stop to a healer to get my nose fixed—my wildcat would bedispleasedotherwise—and then I went searching for her.
Unfortunately, Prisca wasn’t in her tent. She wasn’t training, and Asinia claimed not to know where she was, although from the narrow-eyed stare she sent me, she likely knew and wouldn’t break, even under torture. The dull edge of panic sliced at me.
I located Demos’s tent, but he was sitting on his cot, idly handling a dagger. Tibris stood in front of him, arms crossed. Clearly, I was interrupting some kind of argument.
“Where’s Prisca?” I demanded.
They both glanced at me. Demos’s eyes were still hard, while Tibris managed to offer me a shrug. “I don’t know,” Tibris said. “Do we need to be concerned?”
She wouldn’t leave. It was likely she just needed some time alone. “You need to be careful what you say to her,” I addressed Demos softly. “She worships you.”
Demos gave me a cold look. “Stay out of my relationship with my sister.”
I showed him my teeth, and he bared his own in a challenging smile. “Seems like you can’t find her. What didyousay to her, Bloodthirsty One?”
Prisca already had one brother. She didn’t need a spare. I took a step toward him, and Tibris slapped his hand against my chest.
“What Demos doesn’t understand,” Tibris said, giving the other man a dark scowl, “is that Prisca was raised to be terrified of her power. She was raised to never tell anyone what she could do.”
“We all were,” Demos bit out.
“Not like Prisca,” I snarled.
Demos let out a low growl. Tibris ignored him, speaking directly to me. “She told you about the family?”
“Yes.”
Demos went still. “Which family?”
Tibris filled him in while I paced the tent like a caged animal. When Tibris was finally done, Demos cursed. “The woman she calledMamaallowed a family to die in front of her? As a warning?”
“That was just one example,” Tibris said, his voice tight. “Prisca doesn’t remember most of them, but they’re there, buried and waiting. She only remembered that family because she recognized the assessor. And it’s likely that my father was working on her memory, attempting to mitigate what my mother had done.”
I closed my eyes, wishing I could strangle both of her parents. “So she would forget most of the worst memories, but the terror would remain.” This was why Prisca craved normalcy almost as much as I cravedher.
“Yes,” Tibris said, turning to Demos. “So you may not understand why she needs stability. Why she’s so afraid of people knowing about her power. Of being a leader. But you don’t get to hold that against her. My mother was working on Prisca for almost her entire life.”
Demos buried his head in his hands. I could spare the tiniest drop of sympathy for him. Although I still wanted to slam my fist into his jaw.
Enough of this. Closing my eyes, I attempted to think like my wildcat.
Considering her discomfort with water, she loved staring at it. Whenever we’d argued while traveling, I’d usually found her near a lake or river.
Turning, I stalked out of the tent.
“Good luck,” Tibris muttered.
I found Prisca sitting on an overturned log by the river. She was alone, her shoulders hunched, her chin resting on one fist. She looked fragile. Breakable. My chest clenched.
“I thought it would be easier if I asked your bother,” she said, still staring into the water. “You clearly didn’t want to—or couldn’t—talk about it. Don’t worry, he didn’t tell me anything about Crawyth.”
I bit back the words that wanted to flood from my mouth. But she must have sensed them, because she still refused to look at me.
Enough.
Grabbing her shoulder, I swung her toward me. I caught her chin before she could pull away. Tears caught on the ends of her lashes, and my gut twisted. “Don’t cry. Gods, don’t cry.”
