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I thought she chose me.

How wrong I was.

“Come,” Roandra said, turning and stepping into the fog bank. “But I warn you now, she will say and do anything to save herself. The illusion still weighs heavy on you all.”

Zeke glanced around as the fog parted and we moved into another area. “How do you know that?”

“You question where she is. You worry about her safety.”

“That’s what a decent person does,” I said through gritted teeth, eyeing the dark vines and dead leaves that crunched beneath my feet. Where were the trees? I couldn’t see anything beyond a few feet around us.

Roandra sighed. “Perhaps you are right, Prince Cyriac, but you’ve never questioned the welfare of other traitors to the council.”

She had a point.

We weren’t unfeeling; we just didn’t think about them after trial. Those criminals weren’t human—they could survive in our world. Would I have worried as much if they were human? I wanted to say yes. I couldn’t.

Still, criminals were criminals. Even if Rae manipulated us, I didn’t see it as a crime against Elyrdin the way the council did.

A low growl stole my focus from Roandra.

Cyn clenched and unclenched his fists at his side as we followed the flagstone path. If he kept grinding his teeth, they’d turn to dust.

“Calm down,” Ezra said.

“I can’t,” he said, voice on the edge of feral. “She made a fool of me—of us!”

Zeke turned around, forcing Cyn to stop to avoid running into him. “Hey,” he whispered. Cyn’s amber eyes met his. “It’s over. Whatever it was… it’s over. We’re going home.”

Cyn’s shoulders loosened, and his hands relaxed at his sides.

Zeke told him what he needed to move forward, but Cyn still struggled with Rae’s supposed manipulation.

He wasn’t the only one.

Even if magic made us believe in a Nyrith bond, I held on to the moments we shared. The ones that felt untouched by anything but choice. Sharing meals. Laughing. Letting our guards down and talking about movies. Her love for her grandmother. I believed those moments were real.

I needed them to be. I knew Zeke did, too.

Roandra pursed her lips.

I sensed she wasn’t happy about Cyn’s response to Zeke. She never liked Zeke’s ability to tame Cyn. I’d warned Ezra about her fixation on Cyn, but he dismissed it. I suspected it was tied more to how she infantilized Zeke more than the other council members.

“Why won’t you let me talk to them?”

I spun around at the sound of Rae’s pained voice.

“Let’s go,” Ezra said, taking the lead, much to Roandra’s displeasure.

We rounded a stone corner draped in naked vines. I staggered to a stop, making Zeke slam into my back.

Rae knelt in a large iron cage before Ranthus, chains locking her arms behind her. Her eyes burned with unfiltered fury. I’d never seen her like that. For a moment, I wondered if this was the first time I’d truly seen her.

She didn’t have the Zhyfri crystal anymore. Was the illusion fading? The thought made my skin crawl. I hated questioning my mind. Hated not knowing if the woman I cared for had ever existed.

“Let me see,” Zeke said, pushing around me.

Rae looked up when she heard us. “I didn’t—” Her eyes widened, tendons in her neck standing out.