‘Jonas, just tell me,’ I snap, nerves fraying. ‘What the fuck is it?’
‘It’s about William!’
As the words fly from him in pained terror, my forehead creases but my pulse lowers by just a fraction. It’s not about Kay. Not about my family. She is still safe, even if she is with Artur.
‘William?’ I question. ‘Your father’s ward?’
He nods. ‘Yes … but that’s not who he is. Notallhe is.’
With a single step he stands in front of me and takes my hand, his fingers closing around mine as if he expects my legsto give way. As if he knows what this will do to me even before the words have left his mouth.
Heavy dread curls in my gut. What could he have to tell me about a boy I barely know that could make him fear such a reaction? The question has barely formed in my mind when he answers it.
‘He’s your brother, Rose,’ Jonas whispers. ‘William is your brother. He’s Florian.’
Chapter 2
My mind is oddly blank.
‘What?’ The word slips out of me, thin and useless. Jonas isn’t making sense. Florian is dead. It was the king’s decree that he die, in payment for the loss of his own child, and I watched my parents break under the weight of losing him. Those years… that darkness… I felt his absence like a missing limb.
My breath grows shallow as my mind scrambles for something solid to hold on to.
This has to be a lie.
Or perhaps a cruel misunderstanding – a mistake layered on top of too much grief but wrong all the same. There is no way Florian is alive. We would have known. On some level, we would haveknown.
Confusion creases my brow and my thoughts skitter and fracture, refusing to line up with any answer other than the one I know must be true: Jonas wants to hurt me. That is the only reason he would say such a cruel and callous thing.
‘No … No …’ I shake my head and my entire body quakes as I try to pull away, to recoil from his lies, but Jonas tightens his grip on my hand.
‘The king didn’t kill Florian when he was a baby, Rose,’ he repeats, eachword slow and deliberate, talking to me as if I were a small child incapable of understanding even something simple. ‘It was a lie.’
I shake my head again. No,thisis the lie. ‘No. No, that’s not possible. We were told?—’
‘You were lied to,’ he cuts in bluntly. ‘Your brother is alive,’ he says firmly. ‘William is your brother. William is Florian. Florian lives.’
The name echoes in my skull, refusing to settle, refusing to be real. My chest tightens, pressure building until it hurts to breathe.
It can’t be true. My father drank himself to death because my brother died. Florian can’t be alive. He can’t.
I yank my hand from Jonas’s grasp and wrap my arms around myself.
‘You’re wrong,’ I whisper as my feet stumble backward. ‘You have to be.’
‘I’m sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry you didn’t know the truth sooner.’
It’s as though the air has been sucked from my lungs. I continue to recoil, but I am barely a foot away from him when my knees buckle entirely and I collapse to the floor. A plume of dust rises on my impact, but my heart is pounding so hard that all I am aware of is the rush of blood in my ears as I fight to straighten my thoughts. And I need to straighten my thoughts. I need to make this make sense. But it doesn’t. Unless …
He’s lying. He has to be. As my initial thought resonates forcefully through my mind once more, I crane my neck upwards and look him in the eye.
‘You’re lying,’ I rasp. ‘You’re lying. I don’t know why, but you are.’
Jonas’s eyes are wide and glazed as he sinks down onto the dirty floor beside me and takes my hands again. I try to pull them away, but he holds me fast and looks me dead in the eye. ‘Rose, I swear it’s true. I swear on my life. On yours. On William’s. William is your brother. Heisstill alive. Please, you have to believe me.’
Burning agony consumes my chest as I struggle to draw a breath. And yet, through it all, somehow, I find that I do.
I believe him. I believe that William is my brother.
