I arched a brow at him, silently communicating that he was the one who had told me not to say a word.
He arched a brow back as if saying—You may speak.
“He discovered my secret,” I finally shared, and even I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded.
Danne had learned the truth, but only because Silas Boon had let enough of it slip. Instead of delivering me into Silas’s hands, he’d double-crossed the other man, hoping if he gave me to his father, it would be enough to be forgiven for stealing from the Horned Gods.
“Do all the Pellans know?” Valarie asked. And that was the right question because I was sure it could seriously shift their plans for me. If anyone, like the Pellans, discovered my truth and revealed I had a wyrm living inside of me, the Horned Gods would claim me and kill every single Wychthorn.
And I was beginning to suspect, with the threatening message of Zrenyth’s magic cinched around my neck, the Crowthers needed something else from my father.
I wasn’t sure if the Pellans knew what Danne had discovered.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I said airily.
I heard a breath sucked in and caught Graysen tipping his head to the ceiling, briefly closing his eyes as if to say—here we go again.
They might have captured me, but I wasn’t going to go easy on them.
Graysen’s gaze slid sideways as he warned, “Wychthorn.”
I slipped a fingertip beneath Zrenyth’s cord. “It’s really hard to think with this thing around my neck.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. But there was some other feeling, not on his expression, but as if his entire body exhaled in relief at my biting response.
“Silas Boon is the one behind it all,” Graysen answered for me, still holding my gaze.
“We couldn’t find anything of worth about him, other than Danne owed him a debt,” I heard Caidan say. Surprise washed through me. They’d already known about Silas? I tore myself free from Graysen’s stare to watch Caidan crouch beside Ferne, zipping up the medicine bag and taking her elbow, urging her to sit down on the couch. He scooped up the bag, carrying it back toward the filing cabinet.
“Is he working for the Pellans? Someone else?” Valarie asked, not Caidan, but me.
I shrugged lightly as if I didn’t know.
Graysen’s heavy attention pressed into my skin. I met his dark gaze and watched his eyes become shrewd. He tilted his head slightly as he considered me, and he ran his tongue along the front of his teeth.
Your lies taste sweet like honey.
He knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth.
Last night there was one thing that I hadn’t shared with him. I’d told him about Silas Boon’s involvement with Danne. However, I hadn’t told him I knew that the warriors in thecatacombs were the Children of the Harbinger and that Silas Boon was part of it all.
And yet, Graysen didn’t push for an answer.
“Either way,” I answered Valarie, “the Pellans will know by now that Danne is missing. His family will want answers and retribution.”
“Let them demand it.” Graysen took a step toward me, and I held my place, refusing to allow him to see me intimidated. “They came between me and you. Danne dared to take what was mine. The Alverac protects my actions in relation to Danne.”
He meant Danne’s death. And with those words, he’d insinuated to his family that he was the one who ended Danne.
But that wasn’t true at all. Because I’d killed Danne.
So easily too.
A rapid knock and a scraping sound of wood on stone quickly followed as the door to the Crowthers’ family room opened. A young woman entered. Her crisp and somewhat old-fashioned servant’s uniform was black with a white-trimmed collar, belt, and cuffs. Her footsteps were silent as she approached the Crowther twins.
Valarie addressed the servant. “Penn?”
Penn looked to be about Graysen’s age. She held her hands stiffly at her sides and spoke in a soft voice. “Byron Wychthorn is here.”
