“At the expense of what, Acheron?”
“Your small mind couldn’t begin to comprehend.”
“Continue to malign my brother and find yourself in your dear sister’s company,” Lexsea barked.
“Going to hurl him from the sky too, cousin?”
“I know you don’t really believe any of this, Father, Mother.” Ryquin’s hands turned up on his chair arms, but that was as far as they could go. “Why would I invite the silver tongues in to kill our people, and Aelloven? If I wanted her dead, and I did not, there are far simpler methods.”
Daire cast a guilty look at the gleaming silver tray before him. He clearly knew more than he’d said.
Sesto almost had the thread, but it was still too ephemeral to grasp.
“No, no, you both wanted Ellie here. Both of you sent me clairsights,” Taven said suddenly. His face, pained and colorless, examined each person at the table. “Acheron, you wanted to see us bonded, or so you said. But Ryquin... What was your purpose?”
Estelar’s forehead pinched. “Ryquin was sending you messages?”
“I thought the messages came from my intuition. My time magic.” He laughed bitterly, but Sesto saw the humiliation behind it, which was well-earned. Still, Sesto was glad to see him ask the questions he should have asked before Elloven had been murdered. “But no, just manipulations from afar.”
“Explain yourself,” Estelar ordered his son.
“I only want what you want,” Ryquin said lightly.
“Your father wanted Jesstin here, in Rivenholde? This bloodless heathen?” Taven asked. “Does he know you lured him here, just as you and your cousin lured me?”
Estelar was completely thunderstruck, and the anger spreading from his temples to his cheeks suggested he would not handle it well.
“So many lies flying around this table, I can’t keep track of them,” Ryquin spat.
Acheron cackled, joyless. “You’re a terrible liar yourself! Because of you... Because of your willful, selfish act, we may now have to wait dozens, hundreds more years before we have another chance!”
“Another chance at what?” Sesto couldn’t help asking.
“Acheron,” Tansea said in warning. “You walk a fine line. Ryquin, you do yourself no favors.”
“It’s too late now, anyway, isn’t it? Aelloven is dead. We have nothing.” Acheron’s head shook wildly. He flopped back in his chair. “Nothing.”
“I have a right to know what you both wanted from me,” Taven said. “My Ellie is dead because I heeded your call.” He slammed a palm onto the table, but no one seemed fazed by it. “I am living my very worst nightmare, and I deserve to know why.”
“Always you, right, Considine? Was never about her,” Jesstin said. “Take some fucking accountability for once. You didn’t bring her here because of voices or to help her. You did it for yourself.”
“And you don’t even know her, heathen! For that matter, it was your interference that made it necessary for us to come here, because she had to break her bond with you, which only happened because you invited her into that den of ill repute!”
“She did break it.” Jesstin’s tongue lashed the blood drying on his lips. “And still died.”
“A shame.” Ryquin whistled.
“You want to know why she broke it? Why she was here in the sept when those traitors put a dagger through her heart?” Taven’s red eyes welled with tears. “To free you. To help you. Poor Ellie cared more about the feelings of a pathetic, discarded bastard with no moral center than her own safety and well-being. Her last act was to save you, and it disgusts me. Its repellant!”
“We agree on something,” Jesstin spat. “But you know what you did before she died. We all know what you did.” He closed his eyes, tilting his head against the back of the chair.
“We’re off track! There is no reason for the silver tongues to be here uninvited. To even get in...” Acheron scoffed. “No, it was all too easy, and none of us even knew until it was too late to rally a proper resistance. This was the work of an insider, Pretor. Someone here had to not just let them in but arrange for unhindered access to the sept. Had to know precisely how to get them past all the esguard checkpoints.”
“Your aunt is conducting this interrogation, Acheron. You will address her,” Estelar said. He was not the same person Sesto had met the night before, who’d commanded the very air in the room. He was a husk of that man.
Acheron flung his hands to the sides. “Aunt?”
“We do not incriminate men on accusations alone,” she intoned.
