“I should have seen it, too,” I told him, owning up to my part in the mistake of our past. “I know my father blamed you as my Guardian for not vetting her, but as the future king, I shouldn’t have allowed her to lead me by my cock. As soon as I ascend, you’ll be reinstated. Actually, no, you’ll be higher because of the whole, uh, quad.” That would be unprecedented, but fuck if I cared at this point.
“I’ve been mad at myself, not at you,” Zeph admitted after a beat. “She hurt you under my watch, and that…”
“It happens,” I replied softly. “You didn’t fail me. We failed. But it won’t happen again.” I thought of Aflora while I spoke, pictured her sleeping beside him. “We’re going to do right by her, Zeph.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Somehow.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Because there wasn’t another choice. “She’s ours.”
“She is,” he murmured, his tone filled with wonder. I could practically see him stroking his fingers through her hair, the vision one that had my lips curling, only to freeze as a shuffle of a foot had my eyes flying to the side door.
The one I shared with Tray’s quarters, not the main hall.
I hadn’t heard it open.
Nor had I heard it shut.
And Tray stood just inside it, arms folded over his chest, expression furious.
“Shit,” I said, sitting up. “I need to go.”
“What’s wrong?” Zeph asked, immediately alert.
“Tray’s here, and from the glare he’s sending me, I’m pretty sure he heard most of our conversation.”
“Try all of it,” Tray replied, his tone telling me how he felt about me keeping him in the dark. “You enchanted the entire room but forgot the damn door connecting our suites.”
“Seriously?” Zeph sounded exasperated.
“I need to go.”
“Fix it,” Zeph said, hanging up.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied to the phone, tossing it to the side. “Tray—”
“You mated her, didn’t you?” he accused.
My eyes widened, going to the door I’d apparently forgotten to enchant. Rookie move, I chastised myself.
“I already enchanted it,” Tray said, referring to the threshold. “It’s just you and me. So no more secrets. No more hiding. Talk to me.”
I just gaped at him, unsure of where to begin.
And that was apparently the wrong response.
“You think I’m an idiot?” he demanded. “I’ve known for a few weeks now what happened in her room that day and the real reason you set it on fire. I could feel it, Kols. But I waited for you to come to me, to confirm what I already knew. And I had to hear about it through our fucking door?”
“Shit,” I repeated, clearly out of decent terms. “I didn’t want to involve you.”
“I’m your fucking twin,” he seethed. “You don’t think I can feel these things? We’re magically bonded by blood, Kolstov.”
I rubbed my hand over my face. “I’m sorry.” Two meager words that definitely didn’t help the situation, but they had to be said. “I didn’t want to risk you knowing too much. You know how bad this is, what they’ll do if they find out.”
“And you thought I’d turn you in?”
“No,” I replied without hesitation. “I was worried about what they’d do to you if they found out you knew and didn’t report me.”
“You think I’m afraid of them?”