“Fix it?” I echo. He never should have admitted to it in the first . . .
You’ve taken my sword-master. Lena’s words ring in my head. The room seems to spin. This whole situation is wrong. If Hison knows Kyol is the garistyn, why is he letting him stand here armed and unshackled?
Realization slides over me.
“No.” I back away. “No, Aren wouldn’t . . .”
Kyol grabs my arm, pulls me close, then lowers his voice. “You must stay silent!”
It feels like a knife has lodged in my heart. My blood roars in my ears, so loud I barely hear Lena order Hison and his fae to leave.
“Where is he?” I ask as soon as the room is clear of everyone but me, Lena, and Kyol.
When Lena doesn’t answer immediately, I face her fully. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” she bites out. “Hison doesn’t trust me. His men took him away until the . . .” She presses her lips together, and when she speaks again, her voice is tight. “Until the execution.”
“Why didn’t you stop them?”
Lena grimaces, then turns slightly away from me, staring at the antechamber’s closed doors.
“You didn’t try,” I whisper, interpreting her silence. “You sacrificed him.”
Her shoulders quaver when she draws in a breath. She doesn’t deny my accusations, though. She let them take him.
Horror twists through my gut. How could she do that? Aren fought for the throne for her. He fought for her family for years. He’s the only reason she’s alive, and she’s turned her back on him.
A litany of curses and accusations scream through my mind. The only thing that keeps me from saying them out loud is the expression on her face. It’s a mix of regret and self-loathing, maybe a touch of helplessness.
“Hison came to arrest us,” Kyol says. “It would have crippled Lena. She’d have no hope of becoming queen.”
“She’s never going to become queen!” I yell.
“He told us not to fight.”
“What?”
“He told us not to fight, McKenzie,” Kyol says again.
I lower my voice, make it as hard as steel. “And you both just listened?”
In my peripheral vision, I see Lena’s head lower. She says, very softly in Fae, “I’m sorry.”
The apology infuriates me. I just barely manage not to explode. Instead, I lock eyes with Kyol and say, “We’re freeing him.”
“We don’t know where Hison’s holding him,” he says.
“You can find out.”
He doesn’t respond to that, probably because we both know it’s true. The fae respect him, especially the palace fae. Someone will have seen where Aren was taken. They’ll tell Kyol. All he has to do is ask.
And he will ask.
• • •
I’M sitting on a bench in the palace’s sculpture garden, staring at the ground. I hate this, the waiting. The doing nothing. I shouldn’t be here, and Aren shouldn’t be crowding my mind. I should be focused on other things, like the false-blood, the remnants, or the Sight serum. I should be concerned about Lena and her fragile Court. I shouldn’t be worried about members of that Court executing an innocent man.
Aren shouldn’t be facing down death. No one should.
A sudden tension runs through Kyol. I tilt my head slightly, as if that will make me more in tune with him and his surroundings, but his emotions return to a warm, neutral simmer. He’s still in the palace, but he’s not moving anymore. Maybe he’s found Aren?
Or maybe men loyal to Hison have found Kyol.
“I heard what happened.”
Naito’s voice startles me. I look up, notice that his shadow is falling over me. “How long have you been standing here?”
“Not that long,” he says, then he sits next to me on the bench. An anchor-stone is in his hand. He runs his thumb over its surface. It’s smooth there, like he’s rubbed that same place over and over again. “What are you planning?”
“The assassination of a high noble,” I say, not surprised by his question. He wouldn’t expect me to sit back and do nothing any more than I’d expect him to if someone he loved was in trouble.
He meets my gaze, scrutinizing me as if he’s trying to figure out if I’m joking or not. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? It might be . . . difficult.”
“I’m being trained by the best swordsman in the Realm. Of course it’s a great idea.”
At that, he chuckles.
“Aren is more of a brother to me than Lee has ever been.” His thumb slides over the anchor-stone again. “I’ll do what I can to help you get him out, but we might want to start with something a little more achievable.”
“Kyol’s trying to find him.”
“Is he trying to free him?” Naito asks the question way too casually.
“If he has the opportunity, yes,” I say, lowering my voice. No one’s near us, but the fae have excellent hearing. I don’t want to take the chance that one of them can understand English. “I don’t think he’ll be able to, though. He can’t let Hison or anyone else know he’s involved with Aren’s escape. Once we find out where he is . . .”
I fade off, trying to identify the emotion that spikes through my life-bond. Kyol tames it within seconds, but I swear his heart rate is escalated. He hasn’t moved from where he was a few minutes ago. God, please don’t let him be in trouble. I can’t save both of them.
“McKenzie?”
I focus again on Naito. “Sorry. I’m distracted.”
He stares at the anchor-stone. “Kelia always said Lorn’s emotions were muted when they were in different worlds.” A small, nostalgic grin touches his lips. “So she preferred to be in the Realm when we made love. It was her revenge.”
I smile, too. You can’t force a life-bond on someone. Both parties have to want it. On some level, I must have wanted it when Kyol made the connection with me, and Kelia must have wanted it with Lorn. I’m not sure what he did to deserve her vengeance, but knowing Lorn, I’m sure it was something.
“There’s really no way to break it?” I ask.
“There were rumors,” he says, turning the stone in his hand, “but I promise you, we tried all of them. We tried hunting down fae who supposedly could sever the bond. They were all dead ends. Then Kelia attempted to form a new bond with someone she hated less. When that didn’t work, she tried exhausting her magic to the point I made her stop because I was afraid she’d turn tor’um. Death is the only cure.”
I bite my lower lip, refusing to cry. I don’t want Kyol to die, but I don’t want Aren to, either. And why would he do this? Why would he sacrifice himself to save Kyol when he hates him? He can’t be doing this just because he knows how much it will hurt me if Kyol dies.
My throat burns when I swallow. Kyol’s moving now, making his way back in this direction. Maybe he’ll have answers.
“What are you doing here?” I ask Naito. “I thought you were helping Lee test the serums.”
“Trev came back for us. He mentioned what happened.” He pockets the anchor-stone. “We’re finished for now, anyway. We have to wait a few hours, then see what the serum does to the blood samples. Theoretically, we’ll be able to match the changes in the test tubes to the changes that have already happened in Lee. Something like that, at least. He acts like he knows what he’s doing.”