“A few centuries in isolation would be preferred.” Kole muttered under his breath.
How was she blind if she knew that some of her choices could cause harm? It made no sense, though she hardly ever did.
I turned to Willis, focusing on something potentially more fruitful than entertaining the old-timer. “I am going to Ariana. No more waiting.”
His stare pinned me, cold and unyielding. “Did you nothear the warning? Sure, you can help, but you can also make it worse.”
“I won’t make it worse.” The words were uttered through clenched teeth.
“Do not be so certain,” Edda spoke up. “Iver kept what he was from you because of hesitation regarding your response to learning his truth. Even your own family is cautious of you and now you wish to enter a highly volatile environment where a single breath in the wrong direction can bring the castle crumbling down on top of Ariana.”
A ripple of anger scorched me from within. “I am not some boy who cannot control himself. I would never bring her any harm.”
Edda’s black eyes narrow on me, challenging. “What if you get there only to learn she wishes for you to leave? That her heart now favors him and not you. What would you do?”
The room turned icy cold at her insinuation. My muscles contract and it was an effort to unlock even my jaw in order to formulate a response. “Is that true?”
Edda tilted her head, viewing me. “We are stuck in a layered web, all of us. Each move comprises potential repercussions.”
It was not an answer, yet the table did not wait for her answer, but mine. All eyes focused on me.
What if Ariana wanted the Sidhe King? The notion never crossed my mind. In all my thoughts of her and him, I always viewed him as an enemy, someone forcing her to stay there. Keeping her from returning to me.
I will find you.Those were the words I promised her. That I would come for her. That I would bring her back with me. But what if that was not what she wanted?
A sharp pain cut through me at the possibility of a reality I never considered.
“I would leave, if she wished for me to,” I finally answered.
I would find her. I would keep my promise. Though she never promised me she would return with me. And if she wished to stay, I wouldn’t stop her.
The thoughts rushing through my mind nearly choked me.
“You would follow her lead in this?” Kiora asked. “No matter what? Ariana has been in there for weeks. She knows what she is dealing with more than any of us. If you go there and she tells you to do something, or not do something, you think you can follow without hesitation?”
I turned to the Sparrow, thankful for her question for pulling me out of the spiraling of my thoughts. “If it helps her, then yes.”
Kiora turned to Willis. “The decision is clearly yours. But if sending him gives her any edge of coming out of this better...”
Willis nodded, gaze withdrawn in thought. Waiting for him to reply was grating. Especially when I was not sure I would listen if he forbade me from going to her. I did not promise to follow the Bavadrin’s second in command without question. Finally, he said, “If your actions make this worse for her, then you make yourself a threat. You will be eliminated without hesitation.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Kole’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. His head snapped so quickly to Willis, that his neck was bound to feel it the next day. A heavy tension settled in the room, weaving itself through the space. A thread connecting all of us.
Willis ignored him, gaze locked on mine. “If that is a risk you are willing to take.”
Kole rose from the table, stopped only by Eislyn’s hand, grabbing his wrist. She shook her head gently, stilling him.
“I am willing,” I stated.
“Be not mistaken.” Edda pinned me with a stare. “You are to be a wallflower. There for support, but not to intervene on your own accord. If Ariana needs you to do something, she will say. Otherwise, you do nothing to change the path of fate as it weaves around her. Be a wallflower, or you doom her.”
“Noted.”
Edda stood, walking towards the exit. “I need to clear my mind. Hopefully then I will be able to see more.” She paused at the door for a moment, as if intending to say something else, before walking out without another word.
Iver released a low whistle. “Love makes people agree to the wildest things. Even Kings may be willing to fall for it.” He saidKings. As if someone other than I may agree to things for love. As if Clause perhaps could. Though there was no way that was what this was. Clause might have thought he loved her, but it was mere infatuation. He did not know Ariana enough for anything more.
“As if you know anything about it,” Kiora mumbled under her breath, drawing Iver’s eye.
