“They didn’t?”
“No.” My breath whooshed out of me. “I’ve listened for it ever since, because I know it still wants me.”
Reyla was quiet for a while. “What judgment did your mother make that day? While sitting on your throne.”
“She sided with a high lady—a woman I knew was in the wrong. The lady stole grain from a lesser, leaving the woman’s family near starving.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.” A bitter sneer twisted my lips. “My mother banished the woman instead of the high lady. A lesson to show what happens when someone falsely accuses a person of high born status. She exiled the woman from this court.”
Reyla’s brows pinched together. “But how? Everyone here is as entrenched in this curse as you. Theycan’tleave.”
“That woman was never seen again. I don’t know what happened to her though I’ve looked. But that was Erisandra’s last judgment. I did not allow her to make another.”
“You don’t call her mother.”
“She’s never treatedmeas if I was her child.”
Reyla's hands dropped onto her lap, and her expression twisted between fury and something sweet, something too close to what I'd been without for so long.
Understanding.
Perhaps even love?
Please, by all the fates, let it be love.
21
Reyla
“Before you leave, I want to show you how to perform nullification,” Lorant said. He rose with me in his arms and gently placed me on my feet to stand in front of him. “Though I need to be honest, I don’t know how to do the spell myself.”
“You said you knew of someone who could perform this kind of spell. I mocked you then, saying that maybe they should teach me, but I’m not mocking you now. Maybe theyshouldteach me.”
“Not this person.”
“Why—”
“Please. No. Don’t. Never.” The hoarseness in his voice told me more than the words themselves.
“I should fear this person.”
“Very much.”
“Is it the same person who gave you that scar?”
His sharp gaze pierced into mine. “What makes you think that?”
I shrugged. “No reason.”
“Hmm.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter.” I frowned and nibbled on a fingernail. “How are you going to teach me if you can’t do the spell yourself?”
“The same way an instructor teaches about wars or strategy, by sharing what they’ve learned from their studies.”
Leaning against the wall, I nodded.
