“So? Are we going to talk about what you did?”
His eyes search mine. I avert my gaze. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Serena—”
“I wasn’t suicidal, alright? I was trying to protect you. All of you.”
“Fromwhat?”
He waits for me to elaborate. I draw in a long breath.
“Kylian showed me this mirror—a mirror into the future. If I were to keep refusing him…you all would have died. Hell, you still might,” I mutter, defeated. “That’s why you should have just let me die. I could have protected you.”
He shakes his head. “You can’t trust anything he showed you.”
“I saw you all die…I felt you. I held your body, Zadyn.” I look over him, cringing at the memory of his lifeless weight in my arms.
Zadyn props himself up on his forearm. “Serena, he has an entire room full of magic mirrors. You don’t think he has one for illusions?”
“No.” I shake my head, something in my bones warning me. “No, it was real.”
Those visions were so visceral. I could feel everything. I could feel those beautiful boys with the dark hair and eyes the color of the Praxian Sea. I felt a sense of completion—pride and joy.
I felt all of that in a scenario where my friends were dead.
The guilt of that unborn future haunts me.
“He was manipulating you. Everything he did was to force you into marriage—into performing the Bloodfast with you.” Anger laces his every word.
“The Bloodfast,” I repeat. “Why?”
“Because”—he sighs—“it would have given him access to his full power. And if you were married, any offspring of yours would be considered legitimate, and therefore eligible to inherit both your power and the power of his entire bloodline someday.”
Wow.
“Those visions were just another way to terrorize you, to scare you. It was all just part of the plan.”
I let the possibility of what Zadyn is suggesting seep in. Kylianisaliar and a deceiver. Could it have been an illusion? I guess. Though I’m not willing to risk their lives on a possible falsity.
“You don’t know that for certain.”
“I don’t care! Don’t ever do anything like that again. I could feel you dying.” He brushes his hand over my cheek. “I’ve never felt anything that excruciating. Sacrificing yourself…it’s out of the question. Do you understand me?”
I nod reluctantly as Jace slips into the tent. Zadyn drops his hand.
A light breeze rolls through the flap, and Jace catches me shiver. He ducks out and returns a minute later, holding a bundle of clothes.
“You’ll freeze in that thing,” he says, looking over my torn, bloodstained dress with disdain.
“Where did you get these?”
“Ilayna packed a bag for you,” Zadyn answers.
Careful not to jostle Kai, I gently set his head down and stand with my back to them. “Could you undo this?”
“Yes.”
Two voices answer me.
