Maybe if he’d given her more of a reason to trust him, she would have told him the truth, and they might have found a way to fix things.
But that didn’t matter now.
“I will make her confess, one way or another,” he said, quietly.
“Will you?”
“Yes. Because she put our realm at risk.”
“True enough.” Deven let the words hang in the air.
“Shelied.”
“I know. And that is unforgivable, isn’t it?”
Tarron didn’t dignify this with an answer; he was tired of playing this game. He didn’t want to leave this room until he had calmed down, but he didn’t want to meet his brother’s expectant gaze, either, so he went to the window and pulled the curtains aside, searching for something else to focus on.
He could see the eastern tower from here. His false bridewas locked inside of it, as she deserved to be. It couldn’t be changed. Itwouldn’tbe changed.
She hadlied.
But then again…
She had also stopped that beast from attacking him, hadn’t she? And he could picture her face very clearly, that exact moment he’d seen her true magic revealed.
She had looked devastated.
As devastated as he’d felt.
Voluntarily recalling the memory of that devastation was like stabbing himself in the gut and twisting the knife around. Further proof that he had started to feel something for her, in spite of his every effort to avoid this.
In such a short time, she had somehow found a way in.
She had made him laugh for the first time in what seemed like forever, and she had made him forget about bargains and duties and obligations. Earlier today…he’d just wanted to be with her, regardless of tradition. Because for a moment, yes— it had felt right.Theyhad felt right.
But his feelings toward her were irrelevant, now.
He had to makethem irrelevant, because dwelling on them would only mar his judgment. There was a duty to be carried out. And if his brother would not carry it out, then he would have to do it himself.
Even if it hurt.
Chapter 14
Sephia spent two days locked in a room that was scarcely larger than a closet.
She barely slept. She barely ate. The guards stationed outside of the door were the only other living things to interact with, and they had apparently taken vows of silence, because they would not speak to her no matter how many questions she asked or what demands she made.
She felt completely and utterly alone.
Her thoughts were her only company, and they were not kind.
As she awaited her fate, she tried to piece together all that had happened. Tried to make sense of all of those pieces. But no matter what explanations she settled on, it all came back to one simple, ugly conclusion:What a fool I’ve been.
She had spent so much time convincing herself that Tarron and his court were monsters, had been so blinded by her own prejudice, that she had not realized she was making herownmonstrous mistakes.
And now she was not going to get the chance to fix those mistakes.
Her tricks were fading away. She was transforming back into her true self. The potion was wearing off—again, more quickly than she’d been led to believe it would. Perhaps it was because of the heavy, suffocatingly warm Sun magic that hovered over this place. Occasionally, she heard extra movement outside of her room—spellcasters at work, she thought—and soon after, she would feel a rush of that awful magic that countered her own. It felt almost like the members of this court were trying to cleanse her with it, to make her sweat out all traces of Shadow magic in her blood.
