“There’s a reason you don’t remember certain things,” she says. “A reason that makes me want to see my father live again if only for the chance to murder him slowly and with much misery.”
Alexus leans forward, elbows on his knees, and touches her cheek. “What are you trying to tell me, Fleurie? Please. Just say it.”
She takes a deep breath, like she needs the air to sustain her reply. “The woman became my friend. A sister, in truth. And she became your lover.”
Poor Alexus looks more confused than ever. “Is this about my wife?” he asks.
Fleurie’s brow crumples. “Your wife? If you ever took a wife, Alexus, I did not know her.”
“Evie,” he says, as though Fleurie should remember, but she just shakes her head.
“No. The woman I’m talking about was only with us for close to a year. And in that time, you grew to care for her so deeply that it changed the course of your life, and mine and Elias’s as well.”
He frowns again. “Elias?”
“Gherahn,” Neri answers. “Elias Gherahn. Otherwise known as the Prince of the East. This is beginning to feel like a very boring game.”
Fleurie darts a glance at the wolf, but to my surprise, it isn’t an angry one. She seems relieved that her words have validation.
It strikes me then, what Neri said last night to the prince.“Do you want your name?”
He knew him. Because they lived at the same time.
Alexus straightens in his chair, his apprehensive stare on Fleurie. “Tell me he’s lying.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t. The man the world calls the Prince With No Name is the son of King Gherahn. Outside of me, Elias was your best friend, ever since you were brought to the scholorada as a boy.”
Every person in the room draws a stunned breath, including me.
Alexus scoffs, though the turbulent thoughts happening inside his mind are made evident in his bewildered expression. “I would remember that. So would he. Besides, there is no way he could’ve lived that long.”
She tilts her head, her gaze soft. “As a Soul Eater, Alexi? A threat even to the Shadow World? Feeding kept him alive, in a withering yet living condition, until my father practically called out from the grave to manipulate Elias’s every move.” Her voice trembles as tears roll down her rosy cheeks. “Because the prince we knew wasn’t a monster. We loved him because he was anything but. It’s just that neither of you remembers that time because Thamaos made sure that was impossible. We have all been made pawns in a game created inside the darkest corners of my father’s twisted mind.”
Alexus studies her face as though he’s staring into an unknown darkness. “So you’re… You’re saying Thamaosstolemy memories?”
Neri huffs. “Un Drallag, do you think he would have spared you had you known something he did not wish you to know? He was a memory thief of the highest order. Or did he steal that knowledge as well?”
Alexus glares at Neri, the tendons in his neck tightening and flaring, but again, I see his mind turning.
Oh, my gods. I press my hands to my face because the wolf is right. That’s precisely what Thamaos did.
Fleurie reaches up to touch Alexus’s chin, bringing his attention back to her. “Thamaos sees memories the way some witches see magickal threads. If he sees one he wants you to forget, he reaches out and collects it. When it came tome, he couldn’t simplystealmemories. He’d created a spawn who was far from susceptible to him in that way. I think he tried, covertly, before he reversed our rune. I was young, and he was still unsure about my immortality and strength. But when he realized he couldn’t tamper with my memories, he had no option but to destroy the bond and the emotional connection I had with you. It was the only other way he could tear us apart. You knew about this ability of his, once upon a time. You even became skilled at building constructs around your mind because as we grew older, you knew better than to trust him. You tried to protect Elias, too, but in your greatest moment of weakness, my father robbed you both.” Her voice quivers, and she looks down, crying, her hands in fists on his knees. “He made us watch as he tore Elias’s mind to nothing, emptying it so he could later fill that void with whatever he wished. And for you, he left only enough memories to make you miserable.” She lifts her head, her agony evident, her voice thick. “But not before destroying the most precious memory thread he could.”
Alexus looks perplexed, running his fingertips over the scar inside his wrist, the one Raina told me about. The destroyed bond he once shared with Fleurie. “He didn’t take my memory of you, Fleurie.”
Her eyes and lips turn down at the corners as she stares at him intently. “Those are not the precious memories I’m talking about, Alexi. I’m talking about the memories of that final year before Urdin killed my father. Memories that meant everything to you, because they were memories of a woman named Raina Bloodgood, who appeared at Min-Thuret late one summer night and fell under Un Drallag’s care.”
Alexus’s face falls, stricken with yet more disbelief as I sway on my feet. Reflexively, I reach for Neri, clutching at him for stability, but he’s already there, one hand spanning my lower back, the other slipping into my searching grasp.
“You believe Raina Bloodgood wentbackin time?” I hear Fia say as I stare into the wolf’s worried eyes.
“I don’t justbelieveit,” Fleurie replies. “Ilivedit. I remember.”
Another collective gasp fills the room, followed by low murmurs between the scholars.
“Gods never forget,” Neri whispers, shades of genuine empathy tinting his voice.
As Fleurie’s story seeps into me, I turn back to her and Alexus. I feel detached, every inch of my body trembling, though I’m still secure in Neri’s hold. Alexus sits back in his chair, his eyes vacant and yet wild, the rest of him frozen with shock.
