He gripped me by the arm, pulling me away from her. “Ara—”
“If you will not allow her to save her family, then I will do it for her,” I spat at him and he tensed, clenching his jaw. He studied me for a moment and I held my chin high, meeting his eyes. “I’ve already lost my mother. I will not allow another person to die because of me.”
His face softened.
“Fine,” he said, turning and stepping towards Thana. “But you better tell usexactlywhat to say to convince him. If anything happens to Ara, I will be back to fulfill my promise.”
She nodded quickly, and my gaze lingered on him, surprised.Promise?
“You need to tell him ‘she is asleep,’” she said and my eyes snapped back to her. “That’s it. Nothing else, nothing more. He gave clear instructions.”
Rogue scoffed, but my blood froze, my mouth falling slack.
“She is asleep? That’s it? Are you serious? Ara, you can’t possibly believe this, can you?”
My gaze locked on Thana, blurred with tears, and it felt as if time stopped. I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t will my eyes to move. Terrified that if I looked away, if I moved at all, the emotion welling in my chest would crush me. I couldn’t, so I pushed it down, frozen, looking without really seeing.
She is asleep.
When I was born, my father gifted me with a puppy, a gray wolfhound named Willow. She was barely a few weeks older than me, and from the moment I could walk, we were inseparable. We went everywhere together. I talked to her as if she could respond, and she always nodded as if she could understand. She was my best friend at a time when I had none, and I loved her like family. But on my twelfth birthday, a year before the war started, I ran outside to see my father carrying her limp body into the backyard, shielding her from view.
“She is just asleep, darling,” he told me. But I knew she wasn’t.
She is asleep.
My father tried to kill me.
He wanted me dead.
I believed it the first time Thana told me. I believed it when the note didn’t burn, proving my mother’s death. I believed it and yet… This somehow confirmed it, set it in my bones, and rewrote my life. I squeezed my eyes shut as every happy memory I had of him flashed before me, shattering and turning gray, twisting and distorting, until he was unrecognizable.
I took a deep breath, stifling the emotion as I exhaled.
“She’s telling the truth,” I muttered, my voice unnaturally flat. “Release her. It wasn’t her fault.”
“Ara…” Rogue began, but I couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to.
I turned, my gaze following my body, just as out of focus as my mind. I continued out of the dungeon, and he followed close behind, shadowing me. When we passed by the guard stand, I vaguely heard him give the orders, but I didn’t listen as I continued through the doorway.
My feet led me through the castle, up the winding stairs, and down the hallway, stopping at Vaelor’s door.
“These were Vaelor’s chambers,” Rogue said behind me, his voice distant.
I turned the knob and entered through the door without giving him a response. Rogue halted at the doorway as I entered. As soon as I stepped across the threshold, the fireplace lit, warming the room. I walked to the desk, pulling out paper and a quill. Dipping the quill in a small jar of ink, I slowly pulled it out and scribbled the words. Stalking over to Rogue, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the room, shoving the note into his hand.
“Send it,” I commanded and he gave a quick nod. As he sent it, my eyes followed the ebb and flow of the flames, imagining Evander finding the note and being relieved to know I was dead. Happy, even. I swallowed hard as my throat tightened and sat in the chair, raising my eyes to the painting above the fireplace.
I just stared. I was numb. Everything was numb.
Rogue sat in the chair adjacent to mine and followed my gaze to the painting.
“I’ve never been in here before,” he whispered. “It just… didn’t feel right.”
My eyes didn’t leave my parents’ faces. I couldn’t look away.
King Vaelor was my father. He would’ve been kind.
He would’ve made my mother happy.