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Kerrigan said nothing, just stared in revulsion. What horrors Danae’s mother must have endured at the hands of Tarcus’s family to choose death over an enslavement she had willingly entered into.
“I’m sorry,” Kerrigan finally whispered.
“As I said, it was a long time ago. I was very young.”
Her heart went out to Danae. She understood that all too well. “I thought my mother died in childbirth,” Kerrigan said when the silence stretched too thin. “And my father abandoned me when I was old enough to start to reveal that I was not fully Fae.”
Danae tilted her head, her eyes going to Kerrigan’s ears. “Ah, but you are Fae-touched. That is highly prized. Why would he abandon you for that?”
“It’s not prized where I’m from. Only full-Fae with sharply pointed ears are respected. I believed for a long time that my mother was dead and my father didn’t want me. And I suffered greatly for being different. I am sorry to hear that you have endured a similar fate.”
Danae was quiet a moment at Kerrigan’s pronouncement. “You’re not from here, are you?”
Kerrigan bit her lip. “No, I’m not.”
“Well … how did you get here?”
“A portal,” she said, reaching for a truth the way that Danae had given her own truth. She didn’t know what made her want to say it, but something about Danae was so soothing. As if Kerrigan could tell her anything.
Her eyes widened. “A portal from another world. We had tales of that back in Andine, but I believed them to be myth. Why would you come through the portal here?”
“My world is in peril. War broke out, and we lost. As Andine lost to Domara. I was sent to find a way to save my people.”
“But you were caught by Flavia,” Danae said, as if all the pieces fit together.
“Yes, I’ve made costly mistakes because I didn’t understand this world. Like you, I want to get home. I want to save my world.”
An inkling in the back of her brain was starting to pulse at her. She didn’t know what it was, but something was telling her to ignore it. And she wanted to ignore it. Still, it was there. As if drawing her in. She didn’t know how to stop it.
So, she went into herself the way she would have when she had magic. There was nothing there to control it, but that pulse was still active. Kerrigan reached out and touched it. The bubble burst, and suddenly, Kerrigan gasped, coming fully back to herself.
She wrenched away from Danae in the water. “What did you do?”
Danae’s mouth opened in shock. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do?” she demanded.
“I … I …” Danae opened and closed her mouth. “I’ve never had that happen before. I swear it.”
“Have what happen?”
Her hands covered her face, and she spun away from Kerrigan. “I’m so sorry. I got caught up in the tale. I didn’t mean to spin it on you.”
“Spin what on me?”
Danae swiped at tears and then faced her again. “No one knows. No one. If I tell you, I’ll be breaking every rule.”
“If you don’t tell me what you just did, I will force you to tell me,” Kerrigan snarled.
Danae held her hands up. “I’m a truthteller.”
“A what?”
“I can judge when someone is telling me the truth. Or at least … that is how I’ve always used the magic before.”
“And now?”
“I think … I made you tell me the truth.”
Kerrigan seethed. She never would have confessed information to this total stranger otherwise.
“That is invasive and horrible.” She headed back the way she had come in the pool. She couldn’t be in Danae’s presence any longer. Not if Danae was going to secretly use her magic to get information from her.
“Kerrigan, wait …”
Kerrigan froze at that name. “What did you just call me?”
“The truth,” Danae admitted slowly. “I didn’t know that until I said it. Please, let me explain.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t. Not after what I did, but I promise you on my mother’s life that I didn’t know I was doing it. My powers have been suppressed. Truthtellers are owned by the Doma. My father and mother kept me hidden from them. That is why there are so few servants and why my father keeps us far away on this compound instead of in the city. It’s too dangerous for me.”
“And you just manifested your powers around me?” she asked skeptically. “Constantine didn’t put you up to this?”
“No, he’d be furious if he found out.” She was trembling in the water, and she looked so young. She wasn’t even as old as Kerrigan, but had dealt with this much hidden power and a life of trauma. “I don’t know what happened. My magic has been hidden so long that it just … uncoiled at my confessions to you.”
