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“Tell me what happened,” he urged me, his fingers still working at the soap in my tresses. It felt so good, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t get comfortable with this. Jace was the King of Goldhaven, and I was the daughter of Agnan—if Lysandra was to be believed.
A simple DNA test would prove that, but that was a test I didn’t know if I could stomach.
“Elix, what happened out there? You were so hellbent on telling me a few minutes ago, but now you’re clamming up?”
I shrugged him away from my hair, annoyed by his touch now. I finished lathering the cherry and vanilla-scented concoction through my scalp and scrubbed myself furiously with a loofa as I turned my back to him.
“Are you mad at me?” he asked dubiously.
“No,” I lied. “I just… I need a minute.”
He exhaled. “All right.”
“Wait for me in the bedroom,” I instructed him, avoiding his eyes. “And get Cirilla. She’ll want to hear this, too.”
“And Saint?”
I kept my back to him, suddenly wishing he weren’t staring at my naked body.
“You might as well,” I said grimly. It was time to return the shocking favor to my brother. He was about to find out that his half-sister had a half-sister of her own.
Chapter 8
Jace
Ifound Cirilla with Saint in the front room of the castle, with the King and Queen of Silverhold already. King Zen and Queen Mirielle were speaking quietly with the enchantress and Elix’s brother. All eyes moved toward me when I entered, and Zen jumped up to greet me.
“How is she?” he asked, his concern admirable, considering we weren’t as close as I was to the other kings of Mystara.
“She’s much better,” I reassured him, mustering a smile I didn’t feel in the least. “She’s showering now, and her fever is gone.”
“Oh, thank all the gods,” Queen Mirielle breathed, also rising. “Should I go to her? I’ve sent a change of clothing to her, but maybe I should see if she needs anything else.”
“No,” I said quickly. “She wants to brief us on what happened.”
“Oh, good,” Queen Mirielle smiled, misunderstanding me.
I cleared my throat.
“I mean, her brother and me… and our enchantress,” I explained. Her smile faded, and she looked at her husband.
“We have a right to know, too,” Queen Mirielle insisted, but her mate placed a hand on her arm gently.
“Let’s give them a few minutes to make sense of what happened,” he told her gruffly. “I’m sure that we’ll know when we’re meant to find out, right, Jace?”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure I was ever going to fully fill them in, depending on what Elix had to say.
His wife appeared distraught by his insistence, but she didn’t let the matter go so easily. As I ushered the others out of the room, she called out to me. “Where is Lysandra?” she demanded. “Did Miss Elix tell you as much?”
“I don’t even know who Lysandra is beyond the fact that she was once part of the Order of Souls and then the Anti-Order,” I reminded her. “I couldn’t tell you the first thing about her, I’m afraid.”
“I’m worried for her safety!” Queen Mirielle moaned. “If Miss Elix was in that state, how will we find Lysandra?”
Saint and I exchanged a look, but neither of us said what we wanted to say: that Lysandra had brought this on herself, and she didn’t need to be babied.
I glanced at Zen, wondering how much of our earlier conversation he had relayed to his wife.
Or maybe he spared her the pain of learning that part of their pet project failed.
