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To his advantage, he looked remorseful, and my anger winced just a hair. “Because I needed to know. I needed to know if you wereher.”
“Her? You tried to murder me to see if I was your dead lover?” I shook my head. What I was hearing was beyond logical reason. Anger welled, a teakettle left too long over the fire, red hot and ready to blow. I hit my boiling point.
Water came rushing out of my hand. I didn’t care to give it shape, leaving it in its pure, raw form. I threw it at him with everything I had, echoing the force of my mounting frustration.
Arkyn raised his hand and a shield magically appeared in front of him, conjured from thin air.
I gasped . . . His shield was made from the same thing I attacked him with.
“You areWaterCursed?” I sputtered. My burst of water lost its form. It fell to the ground, shattering upon impact, drenching the dead prairie grass.
Arkyn dropped his shield, the water evaporating at the mere twist of his hand. “I can manipulate water, yes, among other things.” His brow furrowed, his words spoken slowly, “So then . . . the Endless Mist did not return your memory.”
Return my memory?
My mind spun amongst the chaotic amounts of information that were being dropped on me. Von and I were bonded beyond our tattoos. He could heal me, but I could not heal him and in exchange, I made him feel alive? Whatever that meant. Von and Arkyn knew one another, the origins of their acquaintance still a mystery to me, even though it apparently went way back. And Arkyn believed me to be his lost lover, which was why he threw me to my death, which made absolutely no sense. Not to mention the traumatic experience of what I just went through inside the Endless Mist. And now the connection that it was something to do with my lost memory?
My head pounded, a drum beating louder and louder.Too much. Too much. Too much.
Arkyn said something, but his voice was like a wave, coming and going, ebbing and flowing, the words out of reach.
I swayed, or maybe it was the sky. Regardless, something black licked at the edges of my vision.
“Enough.” Von cut Arkyn off, his voice full of steel. His grip tightened around my waist, keeping me from falling. “She fulfilled her end of the bargain. Now you will tell her where her brother is.”
There was noaskingin his tone.
I held on to his words as tightly as I held on to him. Clarity slowly began to seep back in, the world no longer spinning.
“She needs to hear this,” Arkyn said, daring a step forward. But he didn’t take another. Instead, he sputtered, his eyes going wide as his hands darted to his throat. His tanned face turned an ashen white and he dropped to his knees . . . He couldn’t breathe.
On the surface, I felt no remorse—he had done the same to me mere moments ago, whether it was intentional or not. And yet, deeper down in the crevice of some forgotten space, I wanted it to stop.
“Things are quite simple. I will restore your ability to breathe and you will answer,” Von stated, his voice surprisingly patient. “If you choose not to comply, I will leave you as you are for the ravens to feast on.”
That was when I noticed them, the sleek black ravens swirling above—ten of them.
Whatever Arkyn did to signal he would comply, I missed it, my attention stuck on the birds—in particular, their sleek, shining black feathers. They were like the one I had tucked in my bodice, but theirs were much, much smaller.
Slowly, Arkyn stood, his hand massaging his neck. “Very well,” he said as he drew a long, much-needed breath. “The men conscripted from Meristone are stationed at the Arundal training barracks, a short ride northeast of Clearwell Castle.” He handed over the information between heavy breaths.
Life had finally handed me a boon—that, or it had a strange sense of humor. Kaleb, who I had felt so incredibly far from, was not far at all. Clearwell Castle was just outside of Belamour.
All this time, he had been so close. And I’d had no idea.
I gave an odd little laugh, surprising myself. Another one bubbled up, as bad as an unannounced hiccup.
“Sage, I am sorry for all of this,” Arkyn said, his expression stating as much.
But I did not want to hear anymore. Whether that was for my own sanity or something else, I didn’t care. I turned to Von. “I want to leave.”
“No, Sage, wait. There is so much you don’t know. Please, give me a chance to explain. Do not go with him. You know not what he is, what he did to us," Arkyn pleaded.
But it was too late.
Von pulled me against him and the glades winked out of existence.
A swirl of shadows and twinkling stars exploded around me, and suddenly, we were standing in Von’s room back at the mansion in Belamour.
