The soldier who locked my cell walks away, and Kaidren’s brows rise as he realizes I’m as stuck in here as he is. “You were arrested? What for? Being a compulsive liar?”
“For helping you kill your father, actually.”
His dark chuckle lacks humor. “It’s rare to see irony strike so quickly.”
He has every right to lash out at me, but I’m angry too. Getting arrested wasn’t part of my plans for tonight. Neither was kissing the enemy or wrecking my brother’s trust in me. Everything is spinning out of control, especially my emotions. “I found the same poison that killed Arliss in your room, and you freely admit you despised him. How was I to know I was framing you?”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Not hearing you deny the poison was yours,” I say.
Kaidren glowers at the floor. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
“You do if you want any hope of getting out of here.”
He raises the force of his glare from the floor to me. There’s so much fury swirling in his eyes, I take a half step back. “You think I wantyourhelp? Are you serious? I already tried reasoning with you. You threw it in my face. Now isn’t the time to talk. That was hours ago, when I begged you to listen to me, and what did you do? Oh, right.You framed me for murder.”
“I didn’t know I was framing you.”
His expression twists into a sneer. “As if that would’ve changed anything. You wanted to get rid of me, so you did. Congratulations. I hope sitting across from me in prison is worth it.”
“I have no intention of staying here. If we help each other—”
Kaidren cuts me off by throwing his head back and cackling. “You’re joking.”
“Rarely,” I say flatly. “Come on. Wouldn’t you rather hate me from outside prison? You want to get out of here, I want to clear my name. We can escape together, find Arliss’s real killer, and both of us get what we want.”
Kaidren purses his lips, considering. “No.”
My jaw drops. “No?”
“That’s what I said. In the past hour, I’ve resigned myself to sitting in here for a while. Now that you’ve joined me, I’d rather both of us rot in here than give you anything.”
I fold my arms, trying to convey more confidence than I feel. “You know, I can just get myself out of here and leave you behind.” It’s an empty threat, and we both know it.
He shrugs, immediately calling my bluff. “Go ahead. I’m guessing your escape plan involves magic? I might be a liar, butthe decurio will probably be more inclined to believe me if you disappear from a locked cell without a trace.”
I hold in a groan. “You must have a price. What do you want?”
“Apologize.” He says it instantly, as though he was just waiting for me to ask.
I want to object, but we need to get out of here, and—all right,fine—maybe I do owe him an apology. “I’m sorry for framing you,” I say. “Really. Let me make it up to you by getting us out of here.”
He studies my expression, searching for a hint of insincerity. He must not find one, because he sighs, looking more exhausted than angry. “Fine. Apology accepted. How do you plan to break us out of here?”
Escaping is the easy part. Aikkari are typically kept in separate cells from the rest of the public—tshira prisons are great for people without magic but useless for an aikkari with access to their source. The decurio don’t know I’m aikkari, so Kaidren and I are in cells with tshira walls. “With magic. But before that, I need all the facts. Tell me everything you know about your father.”
Kaidren looks doubtful. “We’re on a mountain. We can’t just leave—we need a place to go, and both our homes are out of the question.”
“I’ve got that handled. Once we’re out of here, I know the perfect place we can go where no one will find us.”
“You expect me to trust you, after everything?”
“You definitely shouldn’t trust me,” I say. “Tell me about the poison. If you didn’t kill Arliss, why did you have kishori?”
Kaidren’s lips twist into a smirk. “I’m disappointed you haven’t already worked that out. I didn’t kill my father, but I’ve been poisoning him for two years.”
Arliss first fell ill two years ago. No one knew what caused it, but suddenly, he was too sickly to attend Honorate meetings, and he was headed swiftly for death. My eyes widen with realization. “You’re the reason he got sick.”
