“What the fuck did she just say?” Kane asks, annoyance carving a line between his brows. She sends him another withering look.
“It was Rhea, wasn’t it?” she asks after lowering her hand. “Rhea was with him in the Mirror.”
I nod as I answer. “Yes.”
Kane steps closer. “Who is Rhea?”
“None of your business, idiot. Kai, you need to tell Siyala.”
“Absolutely not,” I counter, folding my arms over my chest. “She has already tried sneaking off this island three times to go to the Mage Kingdom. I will not risk Siyala getting hurt. Not after she just returned home.”
“But is she evenherewhen her mind is so preoccupied with whether or not Rhea is okay? This information will be hard for her to hear, but it will also at least give her the truth. There is freedom in that.”
I exhale roughly, drawing a hand down my face as the memory of King Dolian and Rhea pushes to the forefront of my mind. “This is not a truth that I think will help. It will only hurt her.”
“Kai.” She says my name as if it’s both a question and the answer. “If you could know the truth about what is happening with Bahira right now, and you found out someone you thought you could trust was withholding that information from you, how would that make you feel?”
The air feels too heavy to breathe in as I look at her, my chest clenching at the thought.
“She’s right,” Kane says softly at my side. “I don’t know the context—”
“Because you don’t need to,” Jahlee draws, rolling her eyes again.
Kane ignores it. “But I do know that when faced with being honest or not, honesty is always the best way to go.”
Godsdamn it, of all the times for Kane to suddenly agree with Jahlee, this certainly isn’t the moment I would have picked. “Fine,” I say, my voice sharp. “We tell Siyala the truth.”
Siyala heeds my call for her to join me in the throne room, Jahlee and Kane also present. We had spoken on the walk to the palace about the scenarios that might play out once Siyala learns that Rhea is in the king’s clutches again, and they all pointed to one conclusion. One that I will need Kane’s help with in order to execute.
The door hinges creak as they open, and Siyala enters. Her hair is windswept, and the normally golden skin at her cheeks is stained red from the chilled air outside. She eyes the three of us warily, her gaze lingering on Kane the longest. “What’s going on?”
I swallow as I take a step towards her, my hands clasped behind me like it will somehow bolster me and make this conversation any easier. “We need to talk.” With a deep breath, I tell her about how I had seen Rhea with King Dolian in the Mirror—what she looked like and how little she spoke. The longer I speak, the more I watch Siyala’s shock morph into something keener, something more jagged, until rage carves lines between her brows.
“You knew,” she breathes out quietly, her voice dangerously rough, “this wholefuckingtime that she was with him?”
“I did.”
She takes a step towards me, rings of gold now glowing in her eyes. “Youknew, yet you lied and told me you didn’t.”
“I did,” I repeat, expecting her anger to manifest physically. But Siyala works her jaw twice before she swallows all her emotions down, instead lifting her chin in unbridled defiance.
“I’m going to the Mortal Kingdom.”
“No.” I hold my hands out in front of me when she lifts her upper lip in a snarl. The veins at her neck bulge with her unrestrained fury, and though her temptation to shift is visible, now is not the time to do it. I need her calm and rational if we are going to attempt what I suggest next. “Weare going to the Mage Kingdom.”
She scoffs. “To see your pathetic and worthless girlfriend? I don’tthinkso.”
The rumble that builds in my chest and travels up my throat bounces off of the stone that surrounds us, a reaction I hadn’t meant to let slip. But the slight against Bahira isn’t one I will ever tolerate, no matter who it comes from. “We are going to the Mage Kingdom becauseyoumay be able to pass through the Spell, but the rest of us cannot. You will need help to go after Rhea. I will not have your mother suffer any more than she already has over the thought of you being dead.”
Siyala drops her gaze to the floor, drawing in a deep breath.
“He is right, Siyala,” Jahlee says, laying a hand gently on her shoulder. “If you want to help Rhea, this is the only way.”
I watch as Siyala runs through the options in her head, but she is smart enough to know that this is the best one. Alone, she might not get very far. But with my help? Her odds are better.Rhea’sodds are better. “If this is the way it must be, then fine.” She tugs her shoulder from Jahlee’s grasp, her gold-threaded eyes lifting to meet mine. “But let it be known here and nowthat I willneverforgive you for keeping this from me. No matter what you try to do to atone for it.”
I nod even as Jahlee sucks in a quick breath. “Pack your things and meet us back here in two hours. Then we set sail for the Mage Kingdom.”
Chapter One Hundred and Five: Bahira
