Alor sighs softly, and between one step and the next, she finds her composure. With a flourish of practiced movements, she places the dagger under my chin, not far from where she caught me the first time.
“Tell anyone any of this and I will kill you.”
I lift my brows. I know she’s lashing out and angry, but this is a surprising escalation, even for her. Alor’s eyes widen a fraction, but then her brow furrows again.
“I don’t care that you’re a professor.” Her voice takes on an ominous hush. “These are secrets that Clan Tower can’t have exposed, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep quiet. As far as the world is concerned—no, it won’t matter because Iwillkill her—Iam the heir to Clan Tower now, and I have powers beyond your imagining. So you and I are going to pretend that you heard nothing today. This never happened, if you value your life.”
“I heard nothing,” I barely manage to speak around the uncomfortable lump that I can’t swallow.
“Good.” Alor sheathes her dagger and collects her things. She starts for the door and pauses just before opening it, looking back atme. Her shoulders ease some, and I see a glimpse of the woman I knew. The woman I once considered a friend. “Thank you for listening, Professor.” She gives a slight nod that feels like athank youand departs.
The moment the door closes, I stagger. I bump into a desk, nearly collapsing onto it. My fingernails dig grooves into the wood as I draw shaky breaths.
Lord Moreus Ventall is my father.
Then Arina’s reading comes to mind. What she saw in the cards. The truth she wouldn’t tell me but knew it’d bring me back to her.
She already knows. She knows, and she’s been alone with this information.
I don’t remember leaving the classroom. My whole body still feels as though it’s about to rattle apart. Like I have a scream lodged in my throat that I can’t shake free. My feet carry me through the near-endless corridors and twisting stairways. All I know is that there isn’t enough air left in this whole place. That I can’t breathe again until I’m bursting through the door to where the Worldkeepers have made their new home. Thal and Arina sit on opposite sofas, enjoying a moment together in front of the hearth, where she is practicing inking.
Slowly, she sets down her long-handled brush, calmly turns to Thal, and says, “Would you mind excusing us?”
Chapter 72
“Of course not.” Thal’s eyes flit from her to me, and there’s a flicker of confusion in them given the crazed panic in my eyes. But they say nothing more, stand, and leave.
I don’t know where the rest of the Worldkeepers are. Maybe resting? Maybe exploring the remnants of the Stone Citadel? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.
I stand there, scraping air into my lungs like it’s the only thing that I have left—that I know how to do—and just stare at my sister. Arina studies me in kind with warm, honeyed eyes. Eyes that I now see Alor and Emilia within, that I see as a copy of Moreus Ventall’s. If I study us—well, her and my original form—how much of him will I find? Our hair is our mother’s, as are my crimson eyes. But our skin? It could’ve been either parent. My jaw is probably his; same with my nose. The shape of both of our eyes.
She gives a tired, knowing smile and gestures toward the sofa across from her. “Would you like to sit?”
Obviously, I would. I can barely stand. I practically collapse into the cushions.
“You already know,” I whisper. “You saw it.”
She nods.
I reach for her hand, careful to avoid the still-drying ink of the card she’s working on—it looks like a draft of the Star. “Why…why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid I was wrong.”
I choke on a laugh. “You’re the Star, Arina, you can’t be wrong. When you have a vision during reading, itwillcome to pass.”
She looks away. “So Thal mentioned. But my magic…” A sigh. “It’s not the same as it once was. Everything feels hazy and distant, forced, if I try to bring it to the fore. Uncomfortable, certainly.” A shake of her head. “I saw it, but I didn’t believe it—didn’t trust myself.”
“You shouldn’t have carried this alone.” I stare at her, vision blurry. I’m falling apart, and she’s composed.
“It wasn’t that long I bore the burden by myself,” she says in an attempt to comfort me. “What happened? Tell me everything.”
I do. I start with what I asked Alor to look for last year and what she ultimately found for me. I spare no detail, all the way to the end when I share what she said in the classroom word for word. “…And then I came here.”
Arina sits for a long moment, leaning back into her sofa.
“So, Lord Moreus Ventall is our father. Emilia and Alor are our half sisters, but they didn’t know, either, at least not until recently in Alor’s case, and we can assume the same for Emilia. When Lady Helena Ventall found out about the affair, she killed Mother…but couldn’t find us.” She summarizes everything I just said far more succinctly, as though laying it out for herself as well.
I nod weakly and hang my head, staring at the grooves in the wooden table. Our fingers remain locked even as we look in opposite directions.
