Asmo carries me outside, the moon high in the sky. I inhale,fresh air and the scent of snow and pine filling my lungs. I didn’t realize how suffocating it felt in Squall’s End until now. “Where is she?” I ask.
He doesn’t respond, just funnels us away. The dark night is made darker as we materialize into a forest, the trees blocking the light from the moon above. I cling tighter to Asmo, but he carries me to the abandoned house. It’s hard to believe it was only hours ago that we were here.
The house reeks of stale air and mouse droppings and mildew. Asmo sets me down and points to the stairs. “I’ll be down here if you need me,” he whispers, then squeezes my hand before walking toward the worn couch.
The hallway upstairs is dark, but a soft light comes from the second bedroom on the right. Elle sits in a makeshift bed of rumpled quilts and worn sheets. A candle flickers in a brass holder on the floor. A large window is centered on the wall, a crack nearly splitting it in two. She hugs her knees to her chest, the train of her bloody and rumpled dress lying on the floor beside her. Her stare is vacant and fixed to the empty wall.
I lower myself to the floor and sit beside her. The silence between us is thick. I have no idea what to say to her. My sister.
My throat feels like it grows thicker as my thoughts get jumbled, as my brain struggles to form a singular sentence. How do you tell someone they’re your sister? Their twin? How do you tell someone they’re a High Princess?
How do you tell someone that the person who just killed himself was their mate?
“Elle,” I manage to say. But she doesn’t answer. She stares at the wall, rigid and silent. “Talk to me. Please,” I add softly.
Her mouth opens, but no words come. Not at first, at least. A tear cuts through her dirt-lined cheeks. She swipes it away angrily, then splays her hand against her chest, above her heart. “Something is wrong. I feel…My chest feels strained.” She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head. “No, that’s not the right word. I don’t…I can’t think of the right word for it, but it feels…Something’s not right.”
I can’t even imagine. When I saw the daggersticking out of Asmo’s chest, it felt like the world imploded for a moment. But he was fine. And Marik isn’t. Marik is gone.
“Elle, there’s something you need to know,” I whisper. I steel myself, then clear my throat. “Marik…” I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “Marik is your mate. That’s why something feels wrong. You just…” I can’t finish the sentence.You just lost your mate.Even thinking it makes my heart buck inside my chest.
Elle turns to me, her thick brows scrunched together. “No, he’s not. That can’t be it.” She shakes her head once and says, “Besides, mates aren’t a thing anymore.” But her gaze grows unfocused as she stares at something over my shoulder. I turn, but there’s nothing there.
“There’s more,” I begin again, “The Mother visited me one night, before the wedding. She left me a book that told me of Wrena’s tale. About a week ago, She visited me again.” Elle stares at me, a blank expression on her face. “She shared a memory of my mother…ofourmother.”
Her expression sharpens, zeroing in on me in a heartbeat. “What?”
I nod slowly. “We’re twins.” I force a smile to my lips—one that I know doesn’t reach my eyes—and say, “Surprise.”
“Silas was my…He was my dad? No, that can’t be. My mother…my father…” she mutters with a shake of her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
I tell her the details of the dream. From her expression, I can tell her thoughts are churning, trying to fit every puzzle piece together as I lay them down for her. She doesn’t interrupt me again. When I finish, she says, “Levana. Why is that name so familiar?”
“She was the witch that Cora had as the representative at the ball. She’s on our side. She helped rescue me.”
Elle quirks an eyebrow. “Rescue you?”
I wave a hand at her. “Yeah, I got captured, but not a big deal. At least, it’s not worth discussing right now.”
She shakes her head quickly and asks, “What does this have to do with Marik?”
I tell her the details of the other dream from the Mother—the one telling how to defeat Cora. “I can only assume she showed me thatbecause we’re the other set of twins. Marik isnotmy mate. If he was, he never would have done what he did. So that means…he has to be yours,” I say with a grimace. She squeezes her eyes shut. Another tear breaks free. “I know, Elle. I’m so sorry. This is so much to take in.”
“I think you’re right, though.” Her voice is a whisper. “That would explain everything. He saved me. He got me out of the castle. He kept telling me he was going to save me, but I didn’t believe him. I thought it was just another one of his games. I think he knows it, too. He—I would catch him staring at me sometimes. And he started to be kind to me when he easily could have been…his usual self.” She breaks off and buries her head into her hands. “I can’t believe I’m even saying this right now,” she groans. “He’s a monster, Mae. I don’t want this.”
A part of me wonders if she does, though. It sounds like she’s trying to justify these tiny moments of intimacy, as if he wasn’t responsible for orchestrating her capture. He could have gotten her out at any point.
“Well,” I say, “It seems as if he made the decision for you. His sacrifice saved us all. Cora’s gone.”
Elle looks up at me from her hands. “I don’t think they’re gone,” she whispers.
I still. This whole time, I’ve been thinking that battle was the end. I’ve been cautiously optimistic that we won the war. The prophecy stated we needed all four of us to unite and all four of us stood against Cora in Squall’s End. Marik literally dragged her through a black hole.
But there’s no way it would be that easy. What if Marik is still on Cora’s side and they orchestrated this entire thing? How idiotic have we been to think he could have changed his allegiances?
I don’t say any of that. “What makes you say that?” I ask.
She clutches her chest again. “I can feel him, somehow. It’s strained, so maybe he’s far away. I can’t explain how. All I know is that I can still feel him. After he disappeared through the portal, he spoke to me. He?—”
