“Good. You are smart.”
He starts to smile. It’s handsome, masculine, and firm, not devious like Galen’s.
“Is he here in the castle?” I ask.
Titus nods.
“Get him out; send him away before dusk falls upon the land. Sable doesn’t kill, Titus; she picks apart her prey. Slowly. She learns every detail; some they don’t even notice. She uses that to torture them. She was doing that to Everett before he died. Everett never wanted to fight. He was using the war as a cover.”
“A cover for what?”
“Something I considered a pathway to madness.” I bite my lip.
Why am I telling him this?
“Everett was searching for a location,” I confess. The scrolls Everett smuggled out were used in a time when we didn’t etch our maps with magic but with paper and ink. “Everett and Sable were playing a game; racing to find the same thing,” I admit in a hushed tone.
The question is, who started it? Did Sable find something that made Everett react, or vice versa?
Who threw the first stone?
“What location?” Titus’s face lightens.
If I told you what my brother was searching for, you’d think me insane.
I turn toward him and lick my lips. “First, tell me what my brother told you. Tell me everything.”
Chapter
Fourteen
Selene
The moment I ask, Titus’s lips press into a thin line, like a coffin lid shutting. I roll my shoulders, but the walls still press in.
Knowing the memory of my brother’s death pains him. A little.
We’re forced to be friends because of what my brother plotted.
Titus’s hands curl into fists. “I am sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” His brown eyes cloud like thunder.
“You’ve expressed that,” I declare. I slide over the polished stone floor and sit across from him. “Apologies get us nowhere now. Facts do. What did Everett tell you?”
My feet itch to stand and pace, but sitting lowers defenses. It makes this interrogation feel like a story shared around a campfire.
Titus pushes his hair back and rubs the back of his neck. “Prince Everett told me many things. Most of which made littlesense.” He glares at his hands as if they belong to a stranger he’d rather not associate with.
I reach up, cover my mouth, and rub my jaw. My brother’s magic rests in these hands. I bite the inside of my cheek. How do I get him to cherish it?
“Do you feel the time magic?” I ask. He’s a child running with adults. He needs to master this gift before someone more dangerous finds out.
What a waste that would be.My brother is dead, but his magic isn’t. I’ll do everything to keep it alive.
“No. Not at this moment; thank the gods. It… terrifies me.” His sigh is a mountain that lost a piece of itself to the abyss. Another chunk cracks off, crumbling down and fracturing more parts. The agony of the fear, of the fact he’s not the same person he once was, is palpable.
Titus coughs, but his voice only deepens. “During Everett’s final battle, he caged me. Stopped time. My brother was on the outside, moving more slowly. I witnessed swords sink into flesh; I saw the prolonged confusion that death claimed them. I’d rather die instantly than watch the seconds pass.”
The hand of my brother’s killer slips into mine before I can stop myself. My actions shock us both. There’s a spark that curls up our arms. His fingers hug mine.
