“I risked my neck and reputation telling the council you would deliver the Lead Player to them. Instead, you have volunteered to take hisplace.” Her lip curls in disgust, but there’s more than that. Her eyes are full of hurt. “Whatmessage could you possibly have now?”
I grit my teeth. “Be honest, Cassia, please. Did my father make you—make you swear not to say—” I swallow, unsure how to even ask this. “Where did I come from?” I land on, enunciating each word, pinning Cassia with my golden stare.
Her face stills. “You are notfrom over the Cut, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
My chin shoots up. “A half-truth.”
Cassia’s face softens. “It’s said and done, Riven. None of it matters now.”
“Whatis said and done?”
“Your father, Michail…he had a cousin near the border who was killed by Revelers. Michail took you in. Insisted on it. You couldn’t have been more than three.” She speaks carefully, like I’m a flame to douse.
“Helene isn’t my mother,” I conclude. And Cassia is not my aunt.
“Michail wanted to raise you as their own. You are stillfamily.”
My breaths come quicker as I laugh at the ridiculousness. “Cass, Ilook like him,”I shout, pointing out the obvious. Helene may not be my mother, but Michail is most certainly my father.
Cassia thinks I was an orphan taken in.
But I’m not. She was fed a lie.
She winces. “I know. Obviously, what Michail said is not…true.” She seems to run out of words. I’m pretty sure the only ones left are:Clearly, he had an affair.Clearly, your mother lied to protect him.Michail wasn’t marked. No one was back then.
Gods. What have Idone.
“Go to the council,” I say. “The Great Dionysia has to be stopped.”
It was a plan. This was all a plan.
“And tell themwhatexactly?” Cassia growls, patience wearing thin.
“I don’tknow! Anything!” I say, regretting the lies I swore by in my trial. Realizing I’ve walked right into a trap. “Tell them—tell them they’re holding me here, that I was tricked by a Player. You’re marked; they can’t accuse you of deception.”
“They can accuse me of being outright mad,” she hisses. “And I can certainly accuseyouof deception.”
“You can. And you should,” I say, defeated. “Cass, after this conversation, don’t believe another word I say. Ever.”
Not that she needs to know this will be our last conversation anyway.
Cassia looks drained. “What is it you’ve done, Riven?” she whispers.
“It isn’t just what I’ve done. It’s what I’mgoingto do,” I plead. “You owe me. This is your fault, too.”
Cassia bares her teeth at me. “Myfault you walked into the Playhouse?”
“It’s not that I came to the Playhouse, Cassia!” I shout. “The problem is that I cameback.”
Act III: Scene IX
First, Cassia is there. Then the glass ripples, darkens, and she’s gone.
The curtained entrance to the arena shivers with light, sways with the swell of music pounding beneath my feet. There’s a pull in the air, like someone’s thrown a hook through my chest and is tugging on it. My eyes search for the invisible string lifting my hand to move the curtain aside.
The arena is dark. Familiarity coats the scene around me.
Then, a voice.
