“And your mind gift is still strong,” Edmund kicked his feet out and stood. “Thanks so much for that, brother. I had nearly forgotten what it felt like to have someone knocking around in my head.”
“If you are waiting for an apology, then be glad you’re an immortal.” I would never apologize for protecting Koryn.
Alize rolled her eyes but held her ground between me and the door. “I thought the age gap would spare me having to separate my imbecile brothers.”
In terms of fae chronology, where siblings could be separated by centuries, the three of us were very close in age. Margeaux was the outlier.
Which led to the natural question, “Does our elder sister not count as family?” She was nowhere to be seen at this family get-together.
Alize and Edmund exchanged a look. There was an understanding between them. They’d grown up together, their births only a few years away. I’d been young when they were born, but not a child. They were truly family. I felt a pang of jealousy.
“You know what Margeaux is,” Alize said.
Bitter. Volatile. Powerful.
“I thought I knew you two. I can be wrong.”
Alize’s eyes gleamed. “A man who can admit he is wrong. No wonder the witch fell for you.”
Edmund crossed the room in two easy steps, inserting himself into the conversation irrevocably. Despite his easy smile, the baby brother was done watching from the fringes.
“Margeaux wants to be queen,” he said. “That is her one and only goal. Father restored her title, but not her place in the succession. Her dearest wish would be that you and I both die young.”
Alize was the one who’d tried to smother Edmund in the cradle. But apparently that had been forgiven. Or at least, strategically forgotten.
“We think father has done something to protect our magic. Maybe at the expense of everyone else,” Alize said.
“His obsession with magic at the expense of everyone else is why Velora is cursed to begin with,” I pointed out, though it should have been obvious. Velora’s curse was only three hundred and seventy-seven years old. But my father had been alive longer than that.
“He did not act alone,” Alize countered.
She was correct, technically. At the time of the curse, there had not been a single fae king or queen. The Old Fae Kingdom had been a series of fiefdoms. The fae subjugated the humans, using them for labor to strip crops and ores from the lands, while they killed one another for magic in Balar Shan. They reached too high, and the gods punished all of Velora for their treachery. When magic began to fade, and all of the fae retreated to Balar Shan, our father had risen to the top. He’d used the intervening centuries to consolidate his power.
“Are you excusing him?” I ground out.
“I am stating facts, because facts are what will get us out of this,” Alize said.
“There is no getting out of this.” I took a step toward the door. Alize did not move.
I did not want to do it. But my sister needed to understand. Slipping into her mind and placing the command was easy. It always had come too naturally. To her, it felt like her own thought. She must let me pass, or risk alienating me.
She stepped to the side.
“We may share blood, but I cannot engage in whatever treason you two are interested in. I have one priority,” I said.
“The witch.” Alize’s amber eyes glinted. She knew what I’d done.
“Yes.”
Alize’s eyes flicked to my wrist, where the edges of the Lifebind were just visible beneath the sleeve of my surcoat.
A part of me understood my sister and brother. If this were real, if they were truly earnest, then Alize and Edmund represented the best hope for true reform that Balar Shan had ever seen. But I did not care about reforming the fae court. I wanted to burn it to the ground. Or, with Koryn’s help, freeze it to a singular piece of ice that would shatter and leave nothing behind but the cold burn of frost on the wind.
But none of it mattered without her.
I’d lost someone I loved before, and it had nearly broken me. There was no question in my mind. Without Koryn, there was nothing.
My heart flung itself against the confines of my chest. An eerie unease stole over my senses. My eyes darted around the room, instinctively searching for threats. But the danger was not here.
