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“I’m not saying you can’t live your own life. What I’m saying is that you’re making poor choices and hurting those around you. In Terek, you’ve managed to get yourself out of every scrape. I’ve always trusted you to handle yourself, especially within the borders of our territory where we are surrounded by allies. When you chose to seek employment and knowingly put yourself within Sersha’s reach, after my repetitive warnings and our agreement that you would stay out of the Keep, what did you think would happen?”
“I didn’t think. I can’t explain it, but the moment I saw the Keep, I had to be within those walls. It wasn’t planned.”
“Had to or wanted to? I understand you were drawn there. Fate and magic often set us on paths we can’t explain. But you damned well know blood calls to blood. All I asked was that you keep your distance from the Queen. She could have sensed your relations had you not muted your powers.”
“Rest assured she never figured it out. The muting spell never failed and she has no idea we’re related by blood.”
“So you think.”
“She’d have asked if there were more of us. Then she would have removed my head before coming for yours.”
“Possibly. But how many hours did you spend unconscious? Can you guarantee there was never a time when she tried to figure you out? You caught her attention in a bad way. She would want to know everything she could so she could use it against you. Did she have someone at the Keep with the power to probe your mind when you were at your most vulnerable?”
There was no way my spell had failed. I would have known because it simply couldn’t turn on and off like that. But Sersha could have brought in someone with strong abilities to pick apart my brain. I had strong mental shields, but who knows what happened to them when I was out of it.
“Even if she didn’t sense you were kin while you were her captive, you know what would have happened if she’d killed you.”
My heart ached at the morsel of emotion he let slip. I’d not only endangered myself, I’d endangered my family. If Sersha had Dolan kill me, my suppressing spell would have died with me. In close enough proximity to my corpse, she could recognize some of the residual magics in my blood were a match to hers. Then she would have searched to see if there were any others with a possible claim to the throne.
“I’m sorry. I should have informed you my plans had changed.”
“Yes, you should have.”
“You know why I didn’t. You’d have tried to stop me.”
“Possibly.”
I scoffed. “Definitely. But as for the rest of the fallout, I’m sorry for freaking out Kol. I’ll apologize to him. I already apologized to Nik for letting things get as far as he thought they were. I didn’t realize he was so serious about us until it was too late. That’s on me. However, I cannot regret what happened at the Keep.”
“How can you say that, Raven?”
“I think I was supposed to end up here. At Embour.”
“You think or you know?”
Damn him and his perceptive brain.
“I know,” I admitted. I didn’t elaborate. Didn’t say something had settled inside me the second I’d felt the connection to Casimir. While witches didn’t put much stock in destiny or fate, the fae did. My soul knew the truth of things even if I refused to let my head articulate the thought.
Father’s penetrating gaze bore into mine. “So says your gut?”
“So says my gut.”
“We’ll know for certain soon enough. You’d better hurry,” Father suggested before closing the door and leaving me alone to shower and change.
Chapter 9
Raven
I showered quickly without looking at my image in any reflective surfaces. I was well aware of what marred my skin and hoped Hugo would be able to make the scars disappear.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a giant fluffy towel, I was greeted with a tray of broth and bread on the small table in the corner. I ate what I could, fastened my long hair in a braid, and got dressed in borrowed clothes.
The soft green tunic was a tad big, as were the even softer dark leather pants that I’d had to belt and roll up. The boots were loose on my feet, but I didn’t mind. I was thankful to be clean and have clothing on my back. I was even more thankful the bra and panty set fit.
Not wanting to be late, I hustled down the stairs to find Father and Kol. Hugo did a quick check of my vitals and confirmed I was in good enough shape to face the Council. He then introduced me to a genial male named Phalen. The newcomer gave me a brief overview of the Council and that he would be the one to escort us into the main building.
While I tamped down the urge to ask about Casimir, who Phalen said would be unable to join us, I noticed he wore a navy tee with a picture of a bone across the chest. Under it were the words,I found this humerus.
