Of course.
If I’d seen a student with the same cause of death as several attackers, I’d also assume the student was involved in the attack. I knew Landon wasn’t, though, and now I was eager to see what Marion’s theory was.
“He threatened the enigma then,” I suggested.
Marion shook her head. “He has two different signatures I can sense. The enigma killed him, yes, but that was his body. His brain…” She looked uncomfortable for a moment, then gestured for me to pull back the sheet.
Landon looked the same as I remembered from the night before. He was dead, his skin now ashen and stiff, though his expression was peaceful.
But I barely held back a jolt of shock.
There were…veinsprotruding from his temples. Dark, purple-red and blue veins snaked down Landon’s face from his hairline like a morbid lightning strike. I’d never seen anything like it, and never wanted to see it again. It was unnatural in a way that made my hackles rise with a cold sweat down my neck.
The shadows replaced the sheet immediately.
“That’s not from our enigma.” I croaked.
“Not at all,” Marion murmured, her blue eyes watching me intently. “This is a telepathic injury. One I have not seen in many years.”
I rubbed my eyes, then my temples, half expecting to feel veins bulging.
“You’ve seen this type of injury before?” I asked.
Marion didn’t reply for several seconds, and when I glanced at her, she looked uncomfortable.
“My Prince, it is quite…I don’t want to offend–”
“Go on,” I encouraged, waving my hand.
“I have only seen such injuries about a decade ago, when Her Grace, the Crown Princess…suppressedthe knowledge of your…accident.”
My throat went dry. My balance faltered.
I heard Wyatt’s boots in the crunchy grass behind me, and I held upa hand to stop him. Thankful as I was that my best friend was here for me, I was still pissed at him.
“My mother has caused injuries like this?” I breathed.
“It is a telepathic injury. Any Telepath overexerting their affinity will cause an injury such as this.” Marion explained.
A telepathic injury that Skye didn’t cause.
She’d been in his mind, though. Surely she’d felt the Telepath that’d done this…which I would have known about if she trusted me and Wyatt wasn’t an idiot.
So what had truly killed Landon? Did Skye manage to stop his heart in time, or had the Telepath sensed the end was near and killed him to tie up loose ends?
“Looks painful,” I whispered.
“It is especially painful,” Marion said, pursing her lips when I looked at her. “One of the citizens Her Grace had…worked onwas conscious and…in quite a bit of pain when I healed him.”
“And he was fully healed?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Marion nodded, but it was stilted. “I visited him once after the healing, where he stays in a long-term care facility.”
Fucking hell.
I knew my mom could be vicious but that seemed downright cruel. I flexed my tattooed arm.
Time for a subject change.
