His face darkens. “No, your lover is very much alive and well. At least he was last I saw him.”
“He’s not my lover. You made sure of that,” I snap.
“Because you’re my wife, Taylan.” There’s a strained quality to his tone that throws me back into myself. And he used my name. Again. Sabina in front of the matron, Taylan the second we were alone.
I close my mouth, the fight going out of me. He’s trying to bait me. He wants me distracted. My throat tightens, and I slap my hand over my mouth as realization dawns. It’s not Brevan, it’s worse.
Lowering my hand, I lock my eyes on him. I swear I see genuine remorse in his expression but that’s not possible. He isn’t capable of that. “Tell me it’s not Anya in there.”
He lowers his head, and it’s as if all the fight has gone from him. This time, when I walk around him, he doesn’t resist. Instead, I feel him close to me as I step into the room.
Anya is almost unrecognizable. Both eyes are swollen shut, and bleeding wounds that look like claw marks slice down her face from her left temple to the right side of her chin. More scratches peek up from the high collar of the fresh nightgown she’s wearing.
My insides feel like they’re vibrating. I’m holding it together only because the other option is to lose it completely. “What happened?”
“We were attacked,” he says.
“By what?”
“Do you really want to do this right now?” he asks.
I’m still staring at her, unable to look away. “Yes.”
“Monsters from another realm. Brought in by an especially dangerous magic wielder,” he explains.
I let the answer roll around for a moment, then I slowly turn to look at him. “Brevan’s sister?”
He nods.
Blood rushes in my ears as my mind fights with where to go next. He took my best friend to a prison that held someone who could summon monsters?
But also…
Also…
She wasn’t just locked away there to keep Brevan in line.
I can’t bring myself to articulate anything. There’s a chair near the bed, so I drag it closer, then sit. Anya’s hand is like ice, but I clasp it between mine, then look up at Caiden. “Start at the beginning. I want to know everything. Especially why you thought my best friend’s life was worth so little.”
He drags another chair near the foot of the bed. “I was angry. I shouldn’t have sent Anya to that tower. But it was well protected, and she’d never harmed anyone who was inside the tower. Not a single guard. Not once. Even when my fatherdemanded she use her magic. The guards outside the tower on the other hand…”
“Keep going,” I demand.
“We got word that she’d killed most of her guards and left the next morning,” he says. “But we were too late. They were all dead.”
“And Anya?”
“She ran out of the tower and the monsters got her. I don’t think Rosalyn intended to hurt her. If Anya had stayed inside…” He leans down, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ve never seen anything like it, Taylan. The things she summons, they’re not like anything you’ve ever seen. Creatures with wings and fangs and claws. Black as night, fast as a jackrabbit, smart as a fox. Vicious, though. It’s like they crave violence.”
“What do you mean by,she summons them?” I ask.
“It’s her magic. Her curse.”
“She was born with it,” I guess, thinking of Nate’s daughter. Will she turn out like Brevan’s sister?
“Yes. Where she comes from, children who show the signs are killed,” he says.
“But Brevan brought her here,” I say.
