And at the final hour, just before his eyes grew too weary from lack of sleep...
The War Table voted on her.
Yes.
18
She still hated him.
That much was clear, but Kinlear supposed ifhehad been shoved into a cell with a bloodthirsty raphon...he’d have felt the same.
But she hadn’t seen what he did, in the Eagle’s Nest, how it looked like the raphon and the Ravenminder had becomeonebeing. How they were connected through fate and through a Veilborne’s vision, and he trusted that she would not die that day.
And she wouldn’t die today, either.
“Kinlear,” Arawn growled.
He stood behind him in the catacombs, an unwelcome presence.
Arawn was only here because their father,long live the dying king,had forced him to be Ezer’s overseer. To check on her progress and report back, as was customary for a king in training.
But mostly, Kinlear knew, it was because his father wanted Arawn to spy onhim.To ensure the mission was moving forwardwith swift timing, even though their father had votedno.And probably, just to spite Kinlear.
Bastard,Kinlear thought, for this wasn’t Arawn’s place.
And yet...here the Crown Prince stood, his hand on his sword as if he would draw it against his own twin, the way Soraya did for him. The rage in his voice was careful. Controlled. “This is madness! Let her out. Try another way.”
Kinlear trusted his vision for the future.
But even if his vision just so happened to fail, he’d placed chains upon the raphon’s ankles to make sure it wouldn’t be able toeathis very last hope. He’d runed them himself, with what Magus had taught him, though it had taken a great deal of his energy.
He’d had to sip from his vial three times, until the runes were glowing and set in place.
“Trust me,” Kinlear said now.
Arawn practically snarled. “The way I trusted you with Soraya?”
What the hell,Kinlear thought, as his hands curled into fists,is that supposed to mean?As if Soraya was Kinlear’s tomanage?As if he could have done a damned thing to stop her from defecting? Fromdying?
She’d made her choices.
They all had to live with them now, with the ghost of her hanging between them.
He focused on Ezer, so he wouldn’t turn on his brother.
She was strong enough to handle this.
She would not die today.
He’d seen it.
He trusted it.
He had no other choice but to believe.
And there she stood, her entire body trembling, head to toe.
A part of him broke, at what he’d done to her.
