His throat bobbed into a whisper, “Then they’re lost. All of them. Every piece I kept safe.”
My hands moved, but I didn’t remember the decision to move them, the wicked thing I had become had already chosen for me. My blade lifted from the floor, flying back into my grip, the point aimed toward Callum.
“Verena, I didn’t know—”
“You knew enough. And it seems once again, you’re spared byguardianship.” The world sharpened into impossible focus, and I waited for the whisper behind my eyes to come. It didn’t. My attention slid to Ronan, Isolde’s last words still burning behind my ribs. “Did you know?”
He closed his eyes. “Not every—”
I slammed my shields up so hard he staggered as his eyes shot back open.
“Was this before or after you swore an oath to Isolde to kill me?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. Let it. He didn’t deserve the restraint.
He rose, trying to take a step toward me. “I made that oath months before I knew you.” His jaw tightened. “I only realized your bloodline when ours snapped into place.”
The calm in his tone splintered something deep inside me. “Oh, well,” I scoffed, bitter laughter scraping my throat. “That makes it different, then.”
“Verena—”
“Don’t.” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to know. “Do you know who I was, before all of this?”
He dipped his head once before dragging it slowly side to side. “I don’t remember you,” he said quietly.
Don’t say it. Don’t share it.But the next words pushed through anyway, forcing themselves to the surface. “In the memory I just saw, there was a man.”
His shoulders stiffened, and he winced, either from the mention of another man or at the wound across his back.
“He was begging me not to do it, whateveritwas.” Another tremor ran over me. “That wasn’t you?”
“I have no memory of it,” he whispered, like he hated himself for it.
Callum moved closer, hands open like he could make it right. “It was to protect you,” he swore. “If Obrann or Isolde ever found out who you were, they’d have hunted you since the day you were...” He paused, swallowed. “Born.”
I wanted to scream, to tear the words out of his mouth and hurl them back. “You could have told me,” I mumbled, blood slicking my palms where my nails bit into them.
“We couldn’t risk how you’d react.” His voice faltered, quieter now. “Kairos made me pro—”
“Wells is dead—” My shout shattered whatever apology he was trying to build. “Elva’s gone, taken by those soul-spoiled bastards—” I pointed at him, trembling with rage. “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to her? I thought you loved her.” He flinched, like I’d struck him across the face.
Elysian’s ice-bright glare hit into Callum, and gods, how small the man I had trusted most in the world looked now.
I finally understood it all, he hadn’t just kept my secrets. He had built his life on them. My entire childhood was a kindness he invented. He didn’t just take away my memories, he gave me replacements.
“We’ll get Elva back,” Callum said quietly. “She has her full magic now; she’ll be stronger than before. She can fight. She can defend herself.”
A laugh ripped from my chest. “Defend herself?”
The word tasted wrong coming from him. Callum, who’d spent two decades throwing himself between us and death, now standing there as if surrender was strategy.
“Did she know?” I asked. “Who I was. Did Elva know?”
He only shook his head.
“How did she not question our entire friendship? We talked about growing up together.”
He lowered his head, ashamed. “I altered her memories too…”
For a moment, I just stared, my expression locked before I could stop it. Then the repulsion hit. Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn’t this. “Who else?”
