I scowled at him. “Of course. I’ve always been honest with her.”
Pharis gave me a slight smile that made my blood run cold. “Not always.”
Then he turned to Raewyn. “Could you spend the rest of your life with the man who killed your mother?”
“What?” she gasped at the same time I yelled, “Shut up!”
He went on. “I told you the story of how my mother died, but would you like to hear aboutyourmother’s final moments?”
“Stop,” I warned. “Don’t listen to him, Raewyn. How many times has he lied to you?”
“Come now. Are you really going to withhold information from your dear betrothed, with whom you’re ‘always honest?’” Pharis chided.
“Not a good idea,” he said. “Raewyn is a fan of honesty. And as I said, she’ll get it from me from now on. What about you, brother? Why don’t you tell hermind-to-mindhow her mother met the end of her immortality?”
“Stellon?” Raewyn turned to me, appearing to be struggling for breath.
I had told her that her mother was Elven but had chosen not to mention knowing anything else about Jeneve.
Tell me,Raewyn said in perfectly clear nonverbal speech, surprising me with her newfound Elven ability.
And I willknowif you’re lying.
Chapter 23
This Isn’t Over
Raewyn
Stellon looked away and scratched his head, took a deep breath, and let it out. Then he finally met my eyes.
“What do you want to know?”he asked.
“How she died. And what part you played in it.”
“You don’t want to hear this,”he argued.
“Yes. I do. Now start talking.”Without moving your lips.
His posture slumping, Stellon began relating the story.
Jeneve was a traitor to our people—my father’s words, not mine. She was a high Fae of noble birth. She left her Elven family to marry a human man she’d fallen in love with.
My father,I said.
Stellon nodded.
Yes, though of course I didn’t know anything about him—or you—at the time. She was banished for her crime, and likely that would have been the end of it. But then she joined the Rebellion… on the side of the humans. She was captured while fighting for them against her own people.
She was fighting for me,I said.For my father and the people of our village.
Stellon nodded, blinking back tears.I know. And I can see the honor in that, but my Father could not. He wanted to make an example of her. So he gathered the full Court here in the ballroom, and?—
His story cut off abruptly.
My eyelids went wide, and I nearly choked on my own breath.Did you flog her to death like you planned to do with Pharis tonight?
The visual image was making me physically ill.
