“No,” she replied, quickly and honestly. “I saw shadows around your brother that evening, yes. But I didn’t do anything to make them attack him.”
At least, not on purpose.
But a terrible possibility occurred to her then: Could she have been using that dark magic without even meaning to?
Was that how Nora had gotten sick in the first place?
She thought of both Noraandthe Sun King, of the way their illnesses mirrored one another’s. And there had always been rumors that Sephia was responsible for her sister’s sickness, hadn’t there? She had always told herself that such a thing was impossible, that she never would have hurt Nora, but what if…
It should have been a clean accident,is what that imprisoned Shadow fae had said.
They had tried to kill Nora at birth—this had obviously been their originalplan to destabilize the Sun Court. And they had used Sephia as a vessel for their magic back then, too, sent the shadows through her to do their bidding.
“There’s more,” said Tarron.
She cut her gaze toward him, afraid of what he would say, but desperate to listen all the same.
“I have a theory that your magic may be powerful enough that it draws any dormant Shadow magic to the surface. My brother was attacked years ago by shade beasts, but survived. He has been sick ever since, but functional enough—until these past weeks. His struggles started to resurface in earnest once we collected you from Middlemage. So even if you did not purposefullyset your shadows upon my brother, your being here was still destined to make a mess of things.”
She shivered, clearly remembering the words Prince Tarron had said that day at the riverside—
If anything happens to him, I will personally storm the Shadow Court and demand answers from the monsters there.
From monsters like her.
But another thought occurred to her then, though she was too numb to speak it:What if I could draw it all the way out?
She had always been taught to suppress her power. But what if she embraced it? What if she could control that Shadow sickness deep inside of the king, same as she had exercised control over the shadows that had been haunting her since she came here? What if she could draw it out, like poison from a wound, and then send it away?
She wanted to believe that there was still a way to make things right. And that perhaps…perhaps she was no more a monster than anyone else. Perhaps the line between monsters and mistakes was very thin, and what she chose to do next was more important than anything she’d already done.
“Answer one thing for me before we reach this trial,” said Prince Tarron, quieter now.
She tilted her face his direction, and she saw that he was finally looking at her.
“Why did you do it?” he asked.
She took a deep breath.
And she finally told him the truth.
“I did it to protect my sister,” she said. “I thought this court would be a danger to her, but I was wrong. Wrong about you. About everything, really. And I… I’m sorry. And if you would give me a chance to do it, I swear I would find some way to make it right.”
All of the hurt, all of the anguish in his expression was suddenly gone, and his face became an impenetrable wall. His gaze moved back to the hall before them. He was quiet for a long time.
“Tarron—“
”The council will decide your fate,” he finally said.
They exchanged no more words after that.
Eventually, they reached a pair of massive doors that each featured a deep carving of the Sun Court’s emblem. The throne room, she was fairly certain. On the other side of these doors, her jury awaited.
She was out of time.
She would never know what Prince Tarron was thinking in that moment. She would never know if there was some way she might save the king, or Nora.
Gods. Nora.
