“When we fought that first night in Seathorne, about my father rescuing Jules, I still maintain what I said. That he wouldn’t save her for you—no matter the bargain. He wouldn’t do anything to make you happy, or help her. Not unless it benefited him. Mercurial told me Meera was Cassarya. And that left only Hava to find. But then he said something strange. He said I had found Hava. Once.”
“He said you found her?” My eyes widened, piecing together what he was saying. “Rhyan.” I could feel my heart thundering. His father would only help rescue Jules if it benefited him. Rhyan had only found her once. Hava, Goddess and Guardian of the Violet Ray.
I remembered then so clearly the way Jules always loved the color violet. The way she wore a violet dress that night. The way her hair fell like a lion’s mane. How Hava was depicted the same. “Jules?”
He nodded grimly. “I think so.”
“Then your father truly will rescue her.”
“To control her—to control all of us.”
“We have to get the shard. We can’t let Morgana and Aemon have it. And we can’t let them take Jules for themselves.” I’d known from the vision I took from Meera they planned to come for her, too. But now I could see exactly why.Not because she was our cousin. Because they needed her for their army—to fight against us. Another Guardian. Myself to fucking Moriel. Jules was a Guardian. A Goddess.
“How?” I asked suddenly. “How does your father know all of this?”
Rhyan stared ahead. “Well, Jules is a guess on my part. But a good one based on the evidence. I think … I think my father’s actually telling the truth about my mother.” His jaw tensed, his eyes reddening. “I never … never saw her with a vorakh. But, for all his lies, sometimes there’s a kind of truth inside them. He bound her, drained her, amongst the other things he did. She would have hardly had access to her magic as it was those last few years. But I think she saw us coming, saw what would happen. I don’t know if she told him willingly, or if he forced her to detail her visions to him.” He shook his head sadly. “But it’s the only thing that makes sense, and now looking back at everything … When she died, she said something to me.” His voice shook. “She said that it was right.”
“What was right?” I asked gently.
He shrugged. “That she died for me? That she saved me? Maybe that she knew all along how it would end. I don’t know. But just before the tournament when Garrett died, she was speaking cryptically. Offering hints. I’d thought she was maybe intuitive, not vorakh, and then I had written the idea off, thinking she’d only known about my father’s machinations. I thought she was warning me. But now, I think … I think she knew more about what was coming than I’ll ever understand.”
“Jules is Hava,” I said, still in disbelief. “And there’s another Guardian. A lesser Shiviel.”
“Yes,” Rhyan said, looking distant. “Gods. To think that Kane could have been stronger the first time he broke my nose. He probably would have killed me.”
I remembered what Aiden and Dario had said. That Kane had hurt Rhyan the day before Garrett died. And that Aiden had healed him, that Garrett had been there, too.
“What happened back then?” I asked, my thumb rubbing small circles against his skin.
“I guess now is the part where I tell you the rest of it. All of it.” He took another deep breath, his eyes meeting mine. “Garrett was vorakh.”
My eyes widened. “With which power?”
“Mine,” Rhyan said bleakly. “Traveling. Remember when I showed you the scar on my back? The mark of a blood oath. I told you it was dormant, because it had been fulfilled, and because—because the author of it’s gone.”
We’d been on the beach, beside the Guardian of Bamaria. The waves lapping at our feet. Rhyan had just learned that Meera had visions. Learned why I’d been protecting her.
“I remember.” Like all blood oaths, his was invisible, and only detected by the feel of raised skin. “What happened?”
“Akadim attacked at the end of summer, the year before I returned to Bamaria forsworn. Everyone was out that night in the fields, drinking and partying. Even me. Then the bells rang. The akadim were close, and our soturi were nowhere to be seen. Dario was pissed, far too drunk to fight. We had no choice but to send him off with Kenna, who … who I was with at the time.” He pressed his lips together, looking unsure if he should continue.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I promise. You can talk about her.” Then I smiled. “I like Kenna.”
Rhyan emitted a small relieved gasp, his eyes watering further, and he nodded. “She likes you, too.”
I took a deep breath. “So you sent Dario to protect her?”
“And Aiden. Both of them are mages so …” He gestured helplessly.
“Not great in an akadim fight,” I offered.
“No.” Rhyan continued. “Garrett and I went to stop the threat. I was still new to killing the beasts. Not as skilled as I am now. One almost got me. One second, I was there fighting for my life, and the next … I’d traveled to a nearby river. I freaked out when I realized what I’d done. But it wasn’t me who’d done it. It had been Garrett. He’d gotten us out of there. He saved my life.” He looked down at the ground. “We swore the blood oath that night. Not exactly to keep each other’s secret. But, to keep each other safe. To protect the other. I was the only one who knew about him. Not Dario. Not even Aiden. Garrett didn’t want him to have that burden. So I kept it for him. Then, during the tournament, while we were in the wild tracking down our gryphons, we were attacked. Near the Allurian Pass.” He shook his head. “We were ambushed by akadim.”
“By the Gods,” I said, shifting closer to Rhyan, my heart was pounding.
“I thought we were okay,” he cried. “I really did. Garrett killed one and we escaped, and tried to warn the others. We had to fly back to the arena. It took hours. And Garrett,” his chest heaved, “he was quiet the whole time. Barely saying a word. He was forsaken … turning. And just—” Rhyan wiped at his eyes. “Silently dealing with it. Accepting his fate.” He swallowed. “Inside the arena, it was getting dark. He’d be akadim at sunset—he had maybe minutes. That’s when he told me. He wanted me to …” His shoulders shook. “Asked me to …” But he couldn’t go on. He was filled with too much emotion.
But I understood. “You had to kill him,” I said. “To save him.”
