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I turned to her. “What?”

As Rae explained what she knew that Zeke and Rinlora hadn’t revealed, my blood boiled.

Cyn stood, his eyes flooding black as his anger got the better of him.

“Cyn,” Ezra warned. “You can’t do anything.”

“Why the fuck not? Dugorigi thinks he can take her away from us and give her to Kairian? I’ll kill them all.”

Ezra put his hand on Cyn’s chest. “If you go after them, Father will punish us all. He wants the alliance. If he approved of this, your actions would be an act of treason against him.”

“With all due disrespect, fuck your father.”

“Cyn’s right,” I said. “If Cornaith is behind all of this and it’s not Rinlora’s mother or the Sephra clan acting of their own accord, then we can’t trust he cares even a little about our interests.”

“He never did,” Cyn sneered.

While true, I’d hoped there was at least some respect for us underneath his need for power. He cared about the Elyrdin people, so I hoped that perhaps he wouldn’t go so far as to sacrifice us for the sake of his desires.

Years of abusing Zeke proved he’d at least allow us harm. But death? I’d been naïve.

I’d spent years believing there was a line. Cornaith could manipulate us, threaten us, use our responsibilities against us, but some part of me still believed being useful to Elyrdin meant something. That our position and duty to our people meant something to him.

Even if he only saw me as disposable because I was an orphan, I never realized his ambitions meant he’d see the others as disposable.

Cyn had understood Cornaith saw everyone who stood in his way as disposable long before I did.

Rae had been fighting against Cornaith’s control since the moment she arrived. She hadn’t spent a lifetime learning how dangerous it was to push against him.

I’d spent too many years surviving his game instead of trying to figure out a way to play it differently.

If we could alter the playing field, giving him the illusion of control while working toward the day we’d take over, maybe we’d all survive his reign.

I looked at Ezra. He’d said something similar once. I wondered if his compliance meant more than we realized.

“Rinlora doesn’t know about Kairian,” Rae said, looking at each of us. “Don’t go after her for that.”

Zeke angled his head, curious. “You still trust her?”

“In some cases, but not fully. I believe she doesn’t know. Her mother never brought it up around her.”

“She still was willing to let Ash die,” Cyn said.

“No, she wasn’t.”

“Explain.”

She glared at Ezra in response to his curt tone. “When she found out it was more than just breaking our tethers, she swore to do something to put a stop to it.”

I asked, “When was this?”

“A week ago? Maybe less?”

“When she came to us and admitted the truth,” Ezra said, glancing at me.

Then perhaps she didn’t have a clue after all. She was willing to break our bonds, but she’d thought we’d survive it with vallant magic.

She acted to save Roandra because of her mother’s urging.