“Ashryn… Lady Ashryn Zinsadoral?!” Rhalyf stared. “So it was her…”
A tight nod and an even tighter smile. As thin and bitter as a lemon peel. “She would have known my sister–your mother–would have been the last person who would support her.”
“But why…” He bit back the words that had nearly come out.
Vex chuckled. “You know her lust for power well, of course! So why wouldn’t she take a chance to ally herself with our cousin and attempt to oust me once and for all? Ashryn, after all, is… was, by far, the most powerful person to go after me in an age. She had many followers. She was almost beloved by the populace.”
And she had access to you. Personal, private, intimate access that few do. She would have been the perfect person to attack you. But she only had that because she loved you, Uncle, Rhalyf thought to himself.
“But the reason that dearest Ashryn went against me made it impossible for her to ever ally herself with your mother, with any of our family actually.” Vex’s eyes burned with a hot and bitter fire.
“Declan,” Rhalyf whispered the name almost against his will.
“My Rahven…. Our Rahven, I suppose,” Vex murmured.
“So you didn’t bring Declan to Earth to protect him–”
“Oh, no, she brought him here! And…” Vex stopped whatever he was going to say. He was smiling grimly, angrily, with grief and rage all mixed into one. His lips pulled back from his teeth that looked sharp and menacing.
Gods, he’s here to kill his son. That must be–
“She believed I would not let her keep the child. But she… wanted him.” Vex appeared confused by this. “So she acted in secret. She’s never been able to lie to me before but she managed it for a long time until… Well, when I found out about him, she took her shot.”
“And missed.”
“And missed.” Vex nodded. “Then she fled here with Rahven, Vulre and a small group.”
Rhalyf blinked. He and Aquilan had killed Vulre. Good gods, had Vulre been coming to Aquilan for help against Vex? Maybe to keep Declan safe?
And we killed them. Aquilan will never forgive himself for that. Then he realized something, Ashryn was not among that group. And Vex keeps speaking of her in the past tense. So she’s dead… But he didn’t kill her.
“I see. So you have come to ah–hello!” Rhalyf gasped the last when his uncle suddenly had a hold on his chin.
“Rhalyf,” Vex purred, “I forgive you for your past transgressions against me. They were made out of an error in your understanding.”
“I… I am so glad about–”
“But now that you know me so much better–or are getting to–I would ask something of you,” Vex continued to silkily speak.
“W-what would that be?” Rhalyf’s throat was tight. He could barely speak around the terror that gripped him.
“To continue being by Aquilan’s side,” Vex said with a flash of those very white, very sharp teeth, “as his best friend. As his confidant. As the person he turns to when he’s worried. As… Lord Rhalyf Neres. Just like you have been. All this time.”
Not as a Vex. Not as a Kindreth. But as a pretend Aravae. As a spy. For the Night King. Rhalyf swallowed as he felt that hold on his chin tighten. And what is also unsaid is if I do not do this… he will not forgive me. He will destroy me. And all I care for.
“Rhalyf! There you are!” Finley’s voice had him twisting around to see the young man jogging down the pathway to him. Finley had a dagger in one hand and a book in the other. He quickly stashed both as he approached. “I thought I heard you, but… who are you speaking to?”
It was only then that Rhalyf realized that Vex no longer held his chin. His uncle no longer loomed above him. He was, in fact, alone in the garden of the Temple of the Stag. Vex was gone.
Pollen Talk
Finley couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on his face when he saw Rhalyf–without his glamour no less!–standing amongst the beautiful, glowing flowers. Had they been glowing before? They were now. All glowy and throbbing. He shook his head and dusted the pollen off the sleeves of his shirt. He focused on Rhalyf.
Rhalyf.
Rhalyf.
Rhalyf.
