Raikin nodded.
Savine sat across from Kinlon, Raikin standing behind him. “Tell me, Kinlon. I haven’t seen you on the battlefield in at least a decade. Where did my father send you?”
The man scowled at Savine before he kicked the bowl from the low table between them, launching the mess of stew and earthenware bowl toward Savine.
Savine pressed his hand up, releasing some of his essence as a wall of foliage came between them, stopping the bowl before it clattered to the hard wooden floors. Did he need to use his essence to stop a bowl? No, of course not, but he did want Kinlon to rememberwhohe was and what essence flowed through his veins.
Savine sent vines forth, binding the man’s legs. The man pursed his lips, eyes alight with frustration and rage.
“Your participation will make this go much more smoothly,” Raikin said.
The man leered, “I haven’t forgotten your betrayal, Raikin Aspinen.”
Raikin raised an eyebrow to Kinlon. “You were nothing when I chose my allegiance to King Savine.Nothing.You best not forget why I’ve been so valuable to kings.”
Savine pressed his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. He needed to be here for this, but he was beginning to think that he’d rather be anywhere but here.
“I grow tired of your spewing dissonance. Tell me, how long were you in Montana and how did you return?”
This took Kinlon by surprise. His eyes snapped to Savine’s and he showed a mouth of rotting teeth. Teeth that couldn’t rot like that in a fae with a healthy essence coursing through his body. “You know of the other realm then? The realm made of humans.”
There was no reason that he would tell this scum about Avery. No reason to share all that he knew. “I have found Jasper’s documents on his progress in sending Latian warriors through the portal.”
There was a spark of interest in the man’s dull features. “Then how wouldyouknow the name of the realm when King Jasper didn’t? The humans we found couldn’t speak our language. No fae that I knew of returned to Aeritis.”
Savine didn’t allow himself to reveal anything to this man.
Raikin said, “Perhaps you were not privy to such information.”
Kinlon let out a harsh laugh. “You have no idea what information was provided to The Hunters. None. What training and experimentations we underwent to prepare for our journey. I underwentthirteen yearsof training to prepare for my journey through the portal.”
“How do you know you are the only one to return?” Savine asked.
“All of us had the ability to return. It was successfully tested and we had our orders to not return until our task was complete. Only things did not work out as we planned.”
Savine felt Raikin lean in, close enough for his essence to stir from the nearness of his body. “You are saying Jasper had the capacity to slip between portals?”
“Of course he did. We all had the power to return after our mission was complete. Our king would never abandon us to the fate of being trapped in ahuman realm.” Kinlon spat at the ground, his faded essence swirled slowly.
“It was a human and a human weapon that ended Jasper,” Savine replied, his tone neutral.
Kinlon’s face twisted with disgust. “Ahumankilled my king? Was it the two born of one womb? Tell me, is it true that they are here?” He began to look frantic, trying to jump up, but the bindings on his legs were too tight and he fell to the ground. Kinlon thrashed on the ground, knocking the table forward.
Savine looked at Raikin and they both picked up the man. Savine bound him tighter with vines and set the man back into his seat.
This man somehow knew about the prophecy. He knew that twin women would return to Aeritis. How was it possible that so many knew for so long without him hearing word of it? How could his soulmate, his Avery, have transformed the political landscape so thoroughly?
“They cannot be allowed to live! They will destroy our nations and expose us to the evils in their realm. The fae will fade if they are allowed to live. They will fade and diminish just as I have.” Kinlon lifted his chained hands up to his face. “This is what their world does to us. It eats away at our essence. They have already taken some of our kind for their experiments. Distantplaces, untraceable and unreachable. Those that are not caught are forced to roam like animals as we searched for the two from one womb. I found the corpse of one of the Hunters, killed by the sisters!”
“Enough!” Savine growled. Kinlon fell silent to the power in Savine’s voice.
A soft knock rapped against the door. The guards would still be outside the door, so anyone knocking would have gotten past the guards.
Raikin went to the door and opened it, letting Avery in.
Kinlon’s eyes widened in shock as he took in Avery’s distinctly human body and the delicate crown atop her head.
“NO! No! Shecannotbe queen!” he shouted as he scrambled to move toward Avery.
