"I found out that I inherited my shadows from Erlik. My father."
The words came out before I could stop them. Sarp went very still.
"Fuck."
"That about sums it up."
Sarp was quiet for a long moment, processing. Then: "Is that why the warrant got dropped? Because Gün Ata found out you're basically shadow royalty and decided to keep his enemies close?"
"Probably. I don't know his game yet."
"And your mother?"
"Doesn't remember. Erlik altered her memories. She thinks we were hiding in the mortal realms."
"But you weren't."
"No."
Another pause. Then Sarp reached out and clapped me on the shoulder, his grip firm. "Well. This certainly explains your personality. Nature versus nurture and all that — turns out you're genetically predisposed to being an intimidating bastard."
A laugh escaped me, unexpected and genuine. "That's your takeaway?"
"I'm processing. Give me a minute." He squeezed my shoulder once more before letting go. "Look, whatever happened in Kara Cehennem — and I'm assuming it was bad, because your face does this thing when you're holding something ugly inside — you're not alone in this. Ada's been searching for you for three days straight. She's barely slept. And I've been fielding questions from approximately everyone about where you disappeared to." He grinned. "I told them you were on a spiritual retreat to contemplate your many flaws. Very believable."
"I need to find her."
"She's in the palace library. Been practically living there since you vanished." His expression softened. "Go. Talk to her. And Hakan? Try not to be a complete ass about whatever you're hiding. She deserves better than your protective bullshit."
I found Ada in the oldest wing of the palace library, surrounded by towering shelves of crystal and ancient texts. She sat at a study table, books spread around her, dark circles under her eyes that spoke of sleepless nights.
She looked up when I approached, and her face —
Gods, her face. The relief that cracked across it, the way her eyes filled with tears she was too proud to let fall, the trembling of her lower lip before she pressed them together.
"Hakan." My name was barely a whisper.
"Ada."
She was on her feet in an instant, crossing the distance between us, and then she was in my arms and I was holding her and everything else fell away — the horror of Kara Cehennem, the deal I had made, the impossible weight settling into my bones. There was only her warmth, her light, the rapid beating of her heart against my chest.
"Three days," she said into my shoulder, her voice thick. "Three days and no one knew where you were and I thought — I thought he'd taken you forever —"
"I'm here." I pulled back enough to see her face, brushing the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. "I'm here, starlight."
"What happened?" Her hands gripped my shirt like she was afraid I'd disappear again. "The portal closed and Milan couldn'tfind you and I tried everything, every tracking spell I know, but you just vanished —"
"The portal went wrong." The lie tasted like ash. "We ended up in the mortal realms. Had to lay low until we found a way back."
Ada went still.
Not the stillness of someone accepting an answer. The stillness of someone deciding what to do with the answer they've been given.
"The mortal realms," she said.
"The portal scattered us. Milan didn't know where we ended up."
She looked at me for a long moment. I watched her read my face the way she always read it — methodically, thoroughly, the way she read everything — and I watched her find what she was looking for and set it aside. Not because she believed me. I could see she didn't believe me. She had never been easy to lie to, not even when we were young, and whatever I'd become in the last three days had apparently made me worse at hiding things, not better.
