Gregor looked Lorna over. “A prophecy that has already come to pass,” he dismissed.
“Has it?” the Vaguer pressed. “There is a second part, is there not? About righting the greatest wrong?”
The king and Evie shared a long look, and it had Aya shifting against her shackles. The anchoring of the iron was a strange sort of comfort against her wrists and her rising panic. She did not need the reminder that there was work unfinished.
But Evie’s attention did not drift to Aya. Instead, she fixed on Lorna in a dangerous sort of focus.
“And what of your own visions?” the saint questioned.
Lorna lifted her chin, the picture of stubborn pride. “I have had none.”
“She lies,” the Vaguer hissed, the sound echoing through the ranks of the Saj who stood surrounding him. They closed in around Lorna ever so slightly, and Aya watched as the woman’s shoulders tensed.
What had they done to her? How had theyfoundher?
It is not your burden to bear, she reminded herself. She did not need to take on any more battles.
“She was a refuge from Tala,” the Vaguer continued, “hidden away from their queen.”
“Political differences,” Lorna retorted, her clipped tone transporting Aya back to when she stood on the Saj’s doorstep, her son desperate enough to risk their safety for his mother’s help. She’d been unwilling then, too.
Her ownson.
Evie had no idea just how obstinate the Saj could be.
“We’ll see,” Evie said evenly. She pursed her lips in curiosity, her gaze finally flicking to Aya. “And how do you know our dearest Aya?”
Aya couldn’t help the way her muscles tensed, even as she stared resolutely at the saint. But she could feel Lorna’s gaze boring into her, steady and sure, and…Aya knew exactly what was coming.
Lorna had never cared to protect Will. Why would she start now?
“She was involved with my son,” Lorna explained. “The queen’s Enforcer.”
Aya’s eyes fluttered shut.
Let them see the sting of betrayal. What does it matter now?
“Ah, William, isn’t it?” Evie asked. Aya blinked her eyes open to find Evie watching her. “I am well acquainted with the tenor of his screams.”
Of course she was. She had heard them in Aya’s dreams about the Wall when she’d played the healer in those twistedversions in which Will died and Aya, in her grief, killed her, too.
Its own sort of prophecy, perhaps.
“I do so hope I have a chance to meet your beloved,” the saint mused.
Once, the words would have brought Aya’s anger roaring to the surface. But now she simply stared at Evie, a heavy numbness keeping her still.
Broken.
“We should have the woman questioned,” Evie said to the king, her gaze still fixed on Aya. If she was waiting for a reaction from her, she would not get one.
Not anymore.
“You think she has knowledge that will be useful to us?” Gregor asked, curiosity lifting his brow as he scanned Lorna once more. Whatever rivalry rested between them seemed forgotten in the light of a potential new weapon for their cause.
Evie hummed. “I suppose we’ll find out, won’t we?”
25
