“Are you sure these are visions of the future?” Jayme challenged. “Not just dreams or wishes?”
“I know what I saw,” Vi insisted.
“But what if you were wrong?” her friend persisted.
What if she was… That was the solitary wound that had been struck deep within her, a gaping hole she refused to acknowledge. What if her father was actually dead and this was all false hope? What if the events that needed to come to pass to see him on the Crescent Continent hadn’t happened or wouldn’t happen?
There was still only one way to find out. Vi kept her eyes forward. The trees blurred around them and Vi cast her doubts aside, letting them fall under Gormon’s large paws and be left behind.
“I’m not,” Vi lied to them and herself. “I know it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know!” Vi shook her head. Tears stung her eyes again and she swallowed them down, setting her mouth into a hard line. She struggled to keep her composure. “You’re right, I don’t know. But I can find out. The answer is at Lake Io.”
“Lake Io?” Ellene repeated with surprise.
“I can only have my visions at certain places… and the next one is at Lake Io.”
“Is this why you’re so obsessed with maps?” Andru asked. It wasn’t. But by the Mother was that a convenient excuse. So Vi ran with it and gave him a small nod over her shoulder. “Why not just ask Jax for permission if he knows all this?”
Because he doesn’t know all this. “With the assassin still out there, and the outbreak, there’s no way he’d let me go. All my life, I have played by their rules. I’ve done what they wanted of me. I’ve sat and prepared and repeated and studied unquestioningly. I did it because that was the deal—if I played my part, I would someday be reunited with my family.
“Now, fate is trying to take that from me, and I’m not going to let it.” Vi stared ahead, waiting for the break in the trees that would show the water she’d hung her hopes on. “I’m not going to sit quietly by. I’m not going to be the perfect princess if breaking the rules will help me save my father. My family is the one thing I’ve wanted, the one thing I’ve been working toward. I can’t give up on it now.”
The conversation died with that.
Vi didn’t know if they believed her or not, but they’d stopped objecting, and that was the best she could hope for. At the end of it all, they didn’t need to believe her. She merely had to save her father.
“I think it’s admirable,” Andru whispered softly from behind her. Vi could barely hear him over the rustle of trees and snapping of foliage underneath Gormon’s paws. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping Ellene and Jayme hadn’t noticed. “Looking out for your family with such fervor when you don’t even know them.”
Vi swallowed. “My parents have come and visited me, when they were able. I exchanged letters.”
There was a long pause.
“I’m in love with your brother… and he’s in love with me.”
Vi’s hands tightened around Gormon’s fur. She didn’t look at the man behind her—the man who had been sent toassessher. She thought of his nerves around her, nerves she’d misread. She thought about how he mentioned her brother with such reverence at every possible turn. Andru’s slip-ups in saying Romulin’s name without “prince” before it. The letter about Andru’s importance written in Romulin’s own hand.
“I know,” Vi whispered. And her brother—her twin!—hadn’t trusted her with the fact.
“Don’t be upset with—”
“I’m not,” Vi interrupted sharply. Then, much more softly. “I’m not upset with him… Or you. I’m sure you both had your reasons to keep it from me—from everyone. But I don’t want to discuss this now. If I’m going to know, I want him to tell me on his own. He deserves that… I love Romulin, too. He’s my twin. Of my essence. The one I’ve known longer than any other. And I want him to tell me. It’s his truth to say.”
Andru was silent for a long moment and for once Vi felt as awkward as him. Vi released Gormon’s fur and patted the back of his hand lightly where it rested around her waist. She hoped he understood.
“Please don’t misunderstand me. Romulin can love who he loves,” she whispered. “I couldn’t be happier for both of you… But I want him to tell me all his secrets, in person, when we’re together for the first time—withbothour parents— come spring.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
They’d made good time.
The sun was setting over Lake Io when they first laid eyes on it.
Out of nowhere, a lake larger than any Vi had ever seen—so large she couldn’t even see the other side—appeared like magic in the center of the jungle. Trees ran right up to the water’s edge, their gnarled roots draped lazily over giant rocks to lap up the deep blue waters. Even in the fading light, the foliage was bright and verdant. The greens were more vivid—almost neon—the flowers boasted full rainbows of color in nearly iridescent petals. Vines created extensive spider-like webs, folding over each other, curled anchors holding them together.
“It’s beautiful,” Jayme whispered softly.
