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“I’ll go with Kieran,” Casja said.
I looked at her. She no longer looked like the small, fragile girl I knew her to be. As she met my gaze, her expression was full of courage and I could feel the raw power in her.
I nodded. We could use her strength. It felt as though I had none of it, these days.
“I will too,” Gethin said.
“Of course,” I said.
“Me too.”
As she spoke the words, Cari lifted the cloak on our minds. Or so I assumed, since she appeared before me as though she had been standing there for a while.
Anger flared in me as Casja jolted away from Cari who was now standing right beside her.
“No,” I said.
“How will you stop me, Kieran?” Cari said. “You didn’t even know I was here.”
“I can stop you,” Casja said calmly.
Somehow, I knew she could. So did Cari, it seemed.
“I can help,” Cari said, changing her tone at once. “You will need a mind magicker to protect you against this Lady Queill if it comes to it. I can help you hide. I can...”
“No,” I said again. “We cannot trust you.”
“What have I done to you to make you hate me so?” Cari asked.
She didn’t sound angry. She sounded... Hurt.
“You did a lot,” Gethin said, taking a step forward to stand before her. Cari's expression soured. Gethin was the only one among us who knew exactly what Cari had done. “But she is right, we could use a mind magicker.”
“She comes here, hiding herself, listening to a private conversation, and expects us to trust her?” I asked. “It’s...”
“I’m sorry,” Cari said. “I shouldn’t have done that. But you have to understand, I cannot stay here. The monsters hate me. Everyone hates me. And I cannot help Jasmine. Perhaps I can help your sister. She was captured because... Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what, exactly?” I asked, still unable to contain my anger despite the growing pity in me.
Cari gave me an odd look.
“I obeyed the queen because I was afraid of her,” Cari said. “I was six years old when she captured me.”
Guilt rose in me despite my attempt to remain angry at her. A six-year-old could not be blamed for anything she did. And even now, after ten years, Cari was still a young girl who hadn’t known any better.
Could I blame her for all that had happened? After she had endangered herself and went against the queen to help us? If it weren’t for her change of heart, all of us would have been captured by the Seelie Queen along with Fiona.
“It will be dangerous,” Casja warned her.
“I know,” Cari said. “But the prince is right. I am to blame for a lot. But I want to help fix things.”
Fix things... Father was dead. That could not be fixed. But then again, she wasn’t the one who killed my father. That was Lugh. And to defeat Lugh, I needed all the help I could get.
“You could use the help,” Brigid commented, looking at me. “And Jasmine trusted her.”
“It’s up to Kieran,” Casja said.
They expected me to make a decision yet again. Even Cari’s eyes darted my way and she awaited an answer.
