“She has him there,” Myla adds.
I roll my eyes and suppress a groan. I do not want to have his conversation with an audience. Lucan gives them a pointed look that is about as effective as a practice sword on a silver dragon.
“I know you may never believe a word I say again. Not after all the lies that I told you—that Ihad totell you to protect myself and my people. But I swear to you, Isola, that what I am about to say is the truth—and this might be the only chance I have to say it. So I’m going to. And you can choose if you want to listen and believe me or not.”
Folding my arms and leaning against the back wall, I drag my eyes to him and let my silence be the best encouragement I can offer.
“I was born beyond the wall and spent my childhood there with my mother, my father, and my sister.”
I was right. This might be the first time I have ever outright hated being correct. “You said you didn’t remember anything from before the attack. That all you knew was your name. Another lie.”
“A half-truth,” he corrects, somewhat defensively. “When I first woke up following the attack, I didn’t remember anything. I swear it. I didn’t know who I was or what had happened. There was just a big, vacant spot… But the memories came back in pieces over time.”
Do I believe him? Can I after everything?
“As the memories returned to me, they seemed impossible. I didn’t believe them at first. I had all these recollections of people and places that were so different from anything that surrounded me—from this place that people were telling me was my home. I thought it was all a dream, I really did. I was just a child then.”
“What made you believe it wasn’t?” I ask, almost angry at myself for indulging him. Almost. But I want the truth, and I like him enough to see if it changes my feelings about all this.
“Your mother. She found me as she was hunting down information from the day of the attack.” It makes sense. Lucan was the only other survivor. Mum would have questioned him for her research—or at least try to see if he saw anything when I unleashed the Etherlight. “And that was the start of me reclaiming my memories. After she was cast out of the Earthwardens and her research halted, it took a couple of years before I saw her again.”
My jaw goes slack. “That was how she always seemed to know what the vicar was doing with me.” Even if I never told her. She was always way too good at reading between the lines. She wasn’t reading at all. She knew.
He nods. “I… I wanted to tell you everything for years. But she made me swear not to.”
“You acted like you didn’t even know who she was when I asked you to cover for me so I could celebrate her birthday,” I breathe, staring off at nothing.
“I knew how remarkable a woman she was. And how much she loved you and would’ve loved to see you.” Lucan takes a half step closer, and the space between us instantly feels intimate enough that my cheeks are flushing. The other two are so close. “But she also wanted nothing more than to protect you, and it was my honor to help then—even if it meant turning you in so we all continued playing our roles—just as it is my honor now.”
An ashborn boy in the city. His sister infiltrating the knights to find him, check in on him. Mum figuring it out, and, of course, when she did, she’d naturally want to pick his memories for information on the world beyond.
There’s just one thing that still sticks out to me. “If you were born beyond the wall, how didyouget in?” I know how his sister did. But there was no mention of Lucan.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Ember cuts in, “but it’s been a while, and Pia still isn’t back.”
Lucan tenses, as though the time that passed physically struck him. He blinks, staring at the door, as though Pia just left through it. “She told us to wait.”
“For how long?” Myla glances at her sister, and they share a look of quiet dread.
Lucan opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again. “We haven’t… It hasn’t beenthatlong.”
“It’s been long enough.” Myla shoves her hands in her pockets and mumbles, “Probably longer than you think, lover boy.”
My cheeks are hot, and I can’t tell if it’s embarrassment or annoyance.
Ember, in contrast with her sister, stands tall, confident and cool. “Are we supposed to wait here until we’re caught? We know the path Pia was talking about—the way out to the other side of the wall. It’s the same path she used to get us and Dazni in. We’re dressed like their knights. We can easily sneak out.”
“You want us to leave Pia and Dazni?” Even Myla is shocked.
“Dazni was meeting us at the tunnel out, and Pia is smart. She’ll figure it out.” Ember’s confidence is unwavering. “Pia might have gone off to find Dazni, anyway. We don’t know, but the longer we wait, the more the knights will have a chance to get down into these lower levels.”
Lucan shakes his head. “We need to wait for the all-clear. We don’t have the gilding or Pia’s sigil to fake a golden eye.”So that’s how she’s doing it. “Anyone would know we’re not proper knights at a glance.”
“It won’t matter as long as we move quickly and keep our hoods up,” Ember counters quickly.
Lucan gestures to me with a flick of his wrist. “She’s not dressed as a knight and is the most recognizable person in all of Vinguard, not to mention the fact that she’s supposed to be locked up as a dragon sympathizer… That’s a much bigger problem than the gilding.”
I don’t love being called a “bigger problem,” but he’s absolutely right, so I keep my mouth shut.
