“Rakkel.” I turned my back to the others, making sure no one could see her face. “I… I can’t imagine what losing your third and fourth feels like, but you were hurting before this. Everyone could see it. What’s happening to you?”
There were no emotions on her face, as if feeling anything was too much. Her eyes were as dull as her hair, and I resisted waving my hand before her face to see if she was aware of what was going on.
“Rakkel?” I tried again.
“My brother chose them for me,” she said in her strange voice. “They were his friends. I was supposed to be bound to them. It’s what we’d planned.”
“Okay,” I replied, confused but trying to keep her talking. “Did you send a letter to tell him what happened?”
“He’s sick,” Rakkel said. “He wouldn’t understand.”
I vaguely remembered Guner saying something about it during those first few days. “Is… is there anything that can be done?”
“It’s his mind,” Rakkel said, twisting her hands so hard the skin on them went red. “It’s gone.”
“Hey.” Ivren joined us. “Are you two all right?”
Rakkel mumbled something, her eyes staring unseeing ahead and her body trembling.
“I don’t think she is,” I whispered. “She’s not been good for a while.”
Whatever this was, it was worse than grief. It was something deeper.
“These fucking attacks,” Ivren hissed before pulling Rakkel close, so her shoulders settled beneath his arm. He lowered hisvoice into a calm, soothing one that I almost wished was directed to me.
“Fedic and Stefen will keep you safe,” he said. “They won’t let anything happen to you.”
When my brows furrowed, he added. “She chose Fedic as her new third.”
“Good,” I said. Fedic was kind. Honorable. Stefen seemed fine, too, but given Rakkel’s state, she needed everyone around her to be more than that. She needed people she could trust implicitly.
Wariness expanded in my chest. We were about to go into a new, life-threatening trial, and I also needed to be able to trust everyone around me to have my back. Kilia and I were slowly finding some common ground, and I wasn’t worried about Ilse, but Darcke…
I swallowed. I didn’t know what to think. I trusted him. I think. But he also made me question everything and everyone I’d ever met.
A little color returned to Rakkel’s cheeks under Ivren’s touch, and the Solsken heir smiled. “Even our outcast here agrees that you made a good choice in Fedic.”
When I scowled at him, Ivren gave me a nudge. “Only joking. You’re obviously super popular.”
Rakkel let out a hoarse, quiet laugh, and I shot Ivren a quick smile.
“What do you think you are doing?” Guner shouted. “All heirs should be in their assigned spots.”
“We should probably get back before Guner loses his mind,” Ivren joked.
The air left Rakkel once more, her body shrinking into itself.
“Get the fuck over here before I disqualify all of you,” Guner continued.
“It’ll be all right,” I told Rakkel as we hurried back to the middle of the dock, squeezing her shoulder when Ivren ushered her back to Stefen, who looked almost as sick as his heir.
She didn’t respond, but when Stefen dragged her close, placing his hand on her back to keep her standing straight, her eyes seemed to focus a bit more.
Ivren lingered for a second, leaning in close as he whispered, “My mother told me the Rafenskols’ oldest son—Rakkel’s younger brother—has been ill for a while. They have a sickness impacting the mind in the family.” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I can ask Fedic to keep an extra-watchful eye.”
“It might be good. Stefen doesn’t look well either.”
I waved to Fedic standing on Stefen’s other side. Rakkel’s new third looked grimmer than I’d ever seen him, his lips thinned into a line as he nodded back, before turning his tight face to Guner.
