Grace had said Lesana came from House Arada. Which meant that Lyris of House Arada was her family too. Lyris, who was rumored to be soon betrothed to theKyzaireof Erzos, though he had assured me that the engagement didn’t exist.
But Lesana certainly thought there was reason to suspect it did.
“He’s fed from others here,” I said softly, trying to reason with her, my cheek beginning to throb with my heartbeat. “Why have you not thrown them from thedyaan? I don’t understand.”
“You are a poison,” she replied. The hurtful words flung from her lips like they stung her tongue. “You cannot stay. You will only destroy everything we have worked toward.”
My lungs squeezed. I stepped forward, reaching for her hand. “No, Lesana, you don’t mean that. I’ve worked hard for you. For Draan. I—”
“Pack your trunk and leave. I don’t want to see you here ever again.”
“Lesana,” I said, taking a deep breath, even as wild panic infused in my very soul. “Please. I’m just trying to earn enough credits to reach my father. He died. A few months ago. His body is going to be burned soon, and I need to reach him before—”
A sharp laugh, beautiful but cutting, burst from her lips. “You think I don’t know about your father?” she asked.
My eyes widened. “How?”
She tilted her chin back, observing me through slitted eyes.
“Grace told me,” she said. “Before she left.”
A sharp prick of disbelief stabbed at my chest. “What? No. She wouldn’t do that.”
“Yes, she told me all about your father and his letters. To Ruaala, was it? She showed me them herself. We laughed about them, how pathetic they seemed,” she said coolly.
Why would Grace do that? Hurt and betrayal made my tongue feel like lead in my mouth. All I could do was stand there and feel like the floor was sliding up past my ankles.
“I knoweverythingthat happens here, Millicent. Don’t make the mistake in thinking I don’t. You broke your promise. You broke my trust. Now you’ll never reach your father in time.”
The cold cruelty in her words made my throat tighten until it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Learn this lesson well, my love,” she said softly. “Don’t cross me—or House Arada—again. You won’t like the consequences.”
Her smile felt like it was shredding me into scraps of parchment, my skin fluttering to the floor in a heap.
Her smile sharpened even further.
“Now get out of mydyaan.”
CHAPTER21
MILLIE
It seemed like I’d blinked and I was in my cottage in Stellara.
Not mine,I corrected.Theirs.
I didn’t remember packing my trunk from my room at RaanaDyaan, but it was sitting on the beige stone floor next to the hearth. I didn’t remember leaving thedyaan, but the thick mud on my boots and the dampness that had crept in through the worn toe told me I must’ve.
Pulling out my Halo orb from my pocket, I navigated to my account with trembling, cold hands. The number projected upward, a beam of blue light. I was nearly 4,000 credits short of my immediate goal, and now I had no way to make up the difference.
“Not entirely true, Millie,” I whispered to myself, wiping my wet eyes though I hadn’t realized I’d been crying.
There was one option left.
I didn’t know what the hour was or how long it had been since I’d last left RaanaDyaan, but I dragged myself up from the floor. Time was a luxury I didn’t have. If he said no, I needed to know as soon as possible.
I turned my Halo orb onto a yellow glow to illuminate my way and set out from the cottage, heading south. It was raining, I realized, a soft pelt that got harder and harder the longer I traveled. But I wouldn’t be deterred. I needed an answer.
