My friend places an arm under me, helping me to sit. But he looks past me, eyes locked on Kaelis, untamed anger burning in his gaze.
“What have you done to her?” he snarls.
Chapter 62
“Gregor—” My voice is too weak, it’s completely ignored, he doesn’t even glance my way. Doesn’t wait for an answer from Kaelis.
He bares his teeth and snarls, “I will kill you for hurting her!”
His cards are already in motion, magic sparking the air like flint against steel. The Ace of Wands flares with a flick of his wrist, glowing red. Fire bursts near Kaelis.
Kaelis doesn’t summon a card in defense—he doesn’t need to. He merely shifts to the side with effortless grace, dodging the fire before it can even singe his clothes. It’s like he knew exactly where Gregor’s attack would land before even Gregor did.
“I would die a thousand deaths before I hurt her,” Kaelis says smoothly, but his voice is pulled together by only a razor-thin thread of control, as if the mere idea of someone implying that he would hurt me is too much for him to abide.
“Lies,” Gregor snarls, another card already rising.
Kaelis had started toward me but finds himself stalled by anotherattack from Gregor. He dodges again, using it as an opportunity to step forward. He’s at the side of the altar now, only a few steps away. “Don’t make me fight you.”
I try to pull myself to my feet, my whole body trembling. My head feels as though it’s been split in two.What the fuck happened?I grab my temple, pulling myself together through sheer force of will.
“Let’s settle this once and for all. You and me. Draw your cards, you coward!” Gregor roars, fury unchecked. The mere idea of losing another person important to him has Gregor barreling over his better sense. “I always knew you were the worst among them,void-born.”
Kaelis tenses, his posture taking on an ominous pose. But he doesn’t move. Though I can tell it’s taking everything in him to hold back.
“Gregor, stop.” I step between them. I’m so weak from whateverjust happened, but I can’t let things escalate further. “Please. Listen to—”
“He infiltrated the Worldkeepers’ sacred space and attacked you!” Gregor takes a step closer to me.
“I did not attack her.” Kaelis’s patience is thinning, I can tell from his voice. The words are forced through gritted teeth. If not for me, Gregor would already be in several pieces. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was the one who helped get heroutof Halazar. Who’s kept her hidden and safe withinmydomain. Who’s spent years looking after her.”
“Yeah? Well, so have I!” Gregor’s voice raises. His hands ball into white-knuckled fists. “I knew her when she was fresh off the streets. You have known her barely a year and a half. Don’t think you can compare to me.”
“It’s not a competition!” I stagger, catching Gregor’s hand, stopping another card from rising from his deck. Instead, it falls harmlessly to the ground. “Gregor, stop, please—pleaselisten. This isn’t what you think. I don’t know what happened—I messed up somehow—but whatever it was, that magic wasn’t Kaelis’s.”
“You never mess up, Clara.” He frowns at me and then glares againat Kaelis. “Why are you always defending him even when he’s clearly not good for you?”
“Gregor, I—it’s because I—”Love him.But I don’t get to finish. He talks over me.
“The man murdered children!”
Kaelis takes a step forward, snarling a curse under his breath at Gregor’s accusation. A card rises over his shoulder. Shadows lick at its edges.
The whole world freezes, starting with the blood in my veins. “What’re you talking about?”
“He destroyed Clan Hermit, top to bottom, annihilated not just their ancestral home but any who had a drop of blood in their veins from the clan. You didn’t honestly think there weren’t innocents, did you?”
“I…” I look between Gregor and Kaelis. The prince stands with movements that promise violence. I don’t dare move from between them. “Who told you that?”
Gregor’s hands close around my shoulders, and he shakes me. The throbbing in my head threatens to worsen. “Isn’t it obvious? You’re smart, Clara, too smart to be taken in by him. What has he done to make you overlook all the atrocities he’s committed? Is your mind even your own?”
“Those words aren’t yours.” I stand firm and lock eyes with him. “I’ve known you for years. You’ve known about Kaelis and me for months, and thisnevercame up.”
Gregor glances away. “Does it matter?”
“It does to me.” My fingers close around his, still holding them to me, like a lifeline. I take a deep breath, and, miraculously, he mirrors it. When I speak again, it’s calm, little more than a whisper. “You are like my brother. We have washed blood off our hands together. I celebrated your birthdays into the small hours of the morning drinking way too fucking much of that cheap ale you like that tastes like piss and was just as warm, but it was the only damn thing we could afford.
“I know you,and this is not how you speak. You don’t say things likethat about people I care about—people you’ve worked with—when you could come to me first.”
