I tighten my grip on his knee again, trying to ground him with my touch. “I have this under control. It’s all right.”
“You should tell me your true name.”
My breath hitches. A thorny silence hangs in the air between us. Probing. Prodding.
“Why?” Is it jealousy that has him asking? There’s a glint in Kaelis’s eyes that would almost make me think that’s the case. Not just a playful wound of me talking with Liam at the party, a genuine jealousy.
“If I know your name, then I know what to look and listen for. If I find out Ravin knows it—oranyoneknows it beyond Liam—I’ll handle them.”
“By going on a deadly rampage?”
“I have more finesse than that.” He scoffs.
“You can’t just kill everyone that’s inconvenient to you.”
“Said the woman who went off to kill the Hierophant.” He arches his brows.
I look away, pursing my lips, then muttering, “But Ididn’tkill him.”
Kaelis leans forward slightly, drawing my attention back to him. He cups my cheek. “Tell me your name, entrust me with it.”
I trust him, I do…
But how do I go against everything I’ve ever known? Keeping my true name secret was the first lesson I ever learned and the last of my mother’s commands that I’ve honored when all others seem to be shattered around me.
“Tell me yours first.”
“You already know my true name.”
“Were you Kaelis Revisan? Or did your mother call you something else?”
He doesn’t answer. Instead, at the mention of his birth mother, he stands, crossing to the hearth, and stares into the fire. With a few steps he’s a world away—in a different time and place entirely. Is this my answer? His name is Kaelis Revisan.
“Does your brother know?” Fear strings those words together. If Ravin knows, Kaelis will never be safe.
“I can only assume he does.” Kaelis’s attention returns to the golden cards on the table. “That must be why they put this fake card here. They know I’ve every reason to summon the World.”
Rather than comment on the forgery, I say, “But if that’s true, why did they put you in charge of the academy? Why put youhere,where the font of the World is?” The more I think about it in the context of all I’ve known, the less sense it makes. “Why even let you walk in here—back to the castle that was your mother’s and where you were likely to find proof of her that wasn’t expunged when the world was remade?” Even if Ravin doesn’t know everything about Kaelis’s history, his father certainly does. “Why let you get close to the Majors if they knew you had every reason to want to rebuild the world?”
“My father is far more stupid than he lets on,” Kaelis says dryly.
My scoff fills the room. I stand up with a posture that communicates my disbelief. He shrugs with a small smile that I know is nothing more than a shield. I give him an incredulous look that he’d dare try it on me, shake my head, and wander toward the fireplace.
“Your father isn’t stupid, Kaelis.” I speak as I approach.
He continues staring into the flames. “He has made his share of mistakes.”
“I’m sure he has, but none of them were enough to stop him from rebuilding the whole world to be just how he wants it.” I come to a stop next to him. Our bodies are so close that they nearly touch. I ache to hold him. Yet I refrain. Something about this conversation needs to be had without the distraction of shivers coursing under our skin.
“He thinks I’m loyal.”
“ ‘Discourage my son from his bold ambitions,’ ” I say softly and without moving.
“What?”
“ ‘I know what my son is.’ ” I repeat Naethor’s words. “He said I was the only one who could be with you—that I could ‘discourage’ you from your ambitions.” I drag my eyes back to him. Kaelis’s expression is unreadable. The voids of his eyes have never seemed more absolute; somehow not even the firelight flickers in them. “That was what your father told me when we danced during the Feast of Cups ball. And he said something else like it at Fate Hearth.”
Anger radiates off him in waves. His fists are balled and nearlyquivering. The muscles in his jaw twitch from clenching it so hard. This rage is only comparable to his reaction to mentions of Clan Hermit.
