I study my sister’s face for a heartbeat. Blank. No reaction. Is it possible that I’m wrong about her partnering up with Bohdan and his cousins?
Aodhan falls into step beside me, his face twisted toward Ksenia. “Is that where you were hiding all along? In the fucking Lodge?”
“I wasn’t—Fine, yes, I was hiding,” Ksenia admits. Because the salt flakes give her no choice? “But only because I was trying to reason with Mestyla.” Her jaw twitches. Oddly enough, it isn’t shame or grief that she exudes, but anger.
Anger that I didn’t extoll her assassination?
Anger that we dare question her allegiance?
“If Salom hadn’t reduced Mestyla’s home to cinders?—”
Ksenia’s decree snaps my vertebrae into such tight alignment that I come to a screeching halt in the Great Hall.
“For the last fucking time, Salom didn’t set fire to the tavern!” My exclamation vibrates the crystals on the chandelier above our heads.
“Bohdan’s element is fire,” Isla remarks. “So is Mestyla’s.”
“He’s not her father,” Ksenia blurts out.
Isla tilts her head. “Funny that you’d jump to that conclusion, when all I was suggesting was possible culprits of the tavern conflagration. Come to think of it, Ekaterina mentioned Lev was her husband’s onlylegitimatechild…”
A nerve strikes my sister’s jaw.
One that makes me think Mestyla is indeed Bohdan’s daughter. “How will he react to the news you killed his daughter?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care,” she mutters.
“Aodhan, the next time you shift”—my tone is as taut as fabric stretched to its tearing point—“reach out to Imogen and tell her to inform Bohdan that Ksenia murdered his daughter.”
Ksenia huffs, pants, face luminous with sweat. “Are you trying to get me killed? Is that it? I suppose that if someone else stops my heart, then at least you won’t have another sibling’s blood on your?—”
The burst of magic I lob at her jaw to pin it shut is so powerful, it causes blood to dribble past her lips and hatred to ooze from her stare. A moment later, her mouth puckers—not around a scream but around a spit. On a crimson glob, she ejects two cracked teeth.
As Isla studies the lump reddening my stone floor, her brow crimps.
I’m about to ask why when Ksenia diverts my attention with a garbled, “While you’re at it, you should warn Imogen to keep an eye on Salom. He’s an exceedingly ambitious man.”
“Salom might not be a benchmark for sainthood, but he cares deeply for our family. He would never do anything to put me and mine in jeopardy.”
“Yes, yes. Salom is so fucking good and blameless.” Ksenia spits once more, spewing only bloodied saliva this time. “You may believe me a villain, brother, but compared to your general, I’m a saint.”
My nape prickles from her insinuation.
“Might want to say that when you’re not wearing the contents of another person’s veins on your person,” Aodhan points out.
A sour smile kinks her sullied mouth. “Funny that you’d defend the man, considering how suspicious of him you are.”
Aodhan stares long and hard at her. “I’m suspicious of everyone,savefor your three siblings.”
Ksenia nods to Isla. “Even of her?”
“No.”
How I explode then… “How many fucking times do I need to repeat myself? Stop trying to reap discord!”
The skin around my sister’s eyes tightens.
“Oh, Lev’s dead by the way. He died today.” Aodhan drops the news in with such nonchalance that it makes even me flinch.
