“Fini is certain that Vynsiel is loyal to Izzy, not Saldrea. She’s also certain that Saldrea doesn’t know it yet.” She gave me that disarming smile of hers, so kind and gentle, completely belying the deviousness of the woman. A woman who’d managed to talk Saldrea’s own maid — the mouse-shifter Fini — into helping us, spying for us, even though, if caught, she’d be killed.
“You are right to be concerned. We all need to be careful, and I have no doubts that it won’t be long until Saldrea suspects something, butfor now, we are safe,” Zora said evenly.
“How long do you think we have?” I asked, still concerned. I didn’t like how precarious this all was, balanced on a razor’s edge.
“A few weeks at most, several days at least.”
Several days? That was it?
“Then we need to tell Izzy the truth, tell her who she is!” I insisted. “This is getting out of hand. Who knows what will happen next? We can’t keep this secret from her.”I can’t keep this secret from her.
“No,” Safir came down hard, voice quiet but absolute. “She can’t know. Not yet.”
Zora bit her lip.
She wanted to protest.
I wanted her to protest, but she knew as well as I did that despite her intelligence and her say, Safir was in charge and there was no going against him when he got like this.
“If she knows who she is, she can start training in her other abilities,” I countered. “She’s going to need her elven side to stay alive!”
“Myel,” Safir growled. A haze shimmered over him, his tiger straining to get out. “No! And keep your voice down!”
Never before had I pushed my luck with Safir, but never before had I cared for anyone as much as I cared for Izzy.
“Why not!” I hissed.
Safir was up in an instant, standing over me. “Because you’re thinking about this all wrong and being completely selfish.”
I was?
“Isolde’s identity and your triste with her are two different issues.”
Triste? Really? I was bonded to her. I couldn’t believe he saw it as so little.
Safir raged on. “If your little fling comes out, so what? You die? You are not consequential in the grand scheme.”
Ouch.
But this at least I had a come back for. “Izzy would die too!” I hissed.
Safir scoffed. “Even with no clue what she was doing Isolde has begun to break the binding concealing her appearance. A binding given to her by her mother, one of the strongest earth magic users in centuries. Your bond with her will be nothing for her to overcome if she wishes it, andsomething tells me her impending death will be enough motivation for her to break your bond once you’re gone.”
I had no retort for that.
Because… he was right.
I liked to think Izzy cared for me enough not to break our bond… but if she had to, if she was dying… she probably could. She probably would. I’d be dead and Izzy would hopefully feelsomethingfor me, but I’d been forced on her, unwanted from the start. She’d probably recover soon enough.
I was crushed by the weight of my own insignificance.
Safir must have seen my reaction. His tone softened, even if his words didn’t. “At worst, Isolde feels bad for a while, oh well, but have you stopped to consider what would happen if Saldrea found out Isolde was the true princess?”
Saldrea would simply kill Izzy, like her mother was rumored to have done with Izzy’s grandparents, her whole family.
Safir felt the need to elaborate. “Right now, the worst that Isolde faces is a few pranks, cruel as they may be, but as soon as anyone else — outside of this room, including Isolde herself — knows the truth, that all changes.”
He glanced back at Zora, then at me. “We three can keep a secret. But already, three is too many. One slip to the wrong person and Saldrea won’t just be tormenting Isolde. She’ll outright kill her. Isolde is a threat to her and her mother’s power.”
