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He shrugged. “If it’s wanted, is it poisoning or helping?”

I scoffed. “Collin did not want you in his mind.”

“No.” Damien leaned back against his throne with a ghost of a smile on his lips. “But he did want Killian.” He spat his brother’s name like it tasted foul. “How easy it was to stage his dreams and pretend to be his lover. He told Killian everything, and never suspected any of it because he was so desperate for the dreams to last.” Damien looked down at the image of his crumpled brother and snarled. “Pathetic, but useful.”

“How much did he tell you?” I seethed.

Damien laughed. “Keera, why would I go to all this trouble of killing him if I were to tell you that?”

I flinched.

“Did you think I would spare him?” Damien waved his hand dismissively. “He was a tool. He had his use and now he is better to me dead. It was only a matter of time before you put together Collin was avoiding sleep just as you had. Thankfully, he was so desperate to do somethinggoodthat he didn’t even notice I had planted the ideaof bringing Maerhal to Silstra in his head. The dreams had been so short, he didn’t know he’d been sleeping at all.”

Damien’s eyes trailed over me hungrily, taking in my fear.

“That’s what this was?” I narrowed my eyes in disbelief. “You lured him out of the Faeland to kill him?”

Damien grinned with glee. “You have no idea how happy I was to see you along that trail.” Damien’s black eye flashed with amber. “One trap and I managed to capture five prized hens.”

“Five?” I echoed. Even if Damien had managed to captured Collin and Maerhal, Killian and I only made four.

Damien leaned forward in his throne and licked his lips in anticipation. “It seems that the Shadow couldn’t stay away. He decided to chase that damned Halfling himself.” Damien giggled like an excited child. “Years of him slipping through the Crown’s fingers and all I had to do was bait a single Halfling.”

I crossed my arms. “It isn’t possible. The Shadow did not know about any of this.”

Damien’s lip twitched upward as he looked down at Killian again. “Yes, I was told that the Shadow wasn’t present in Volcar. A curious decision. Unless his powers had been drained in some other way. Unless he was healing somewhere in the Faeland when your message came and he decided to answer the call.”

I swallowed thickly. I had no way of confirming any of it. I had been miserable with the thought that Riven had died the moment I broke that seal, but what if Feron’s theory had been correct? What if the closer magic came to balance, the easier Riven’s burden was to carry. Maybe he woke the moment Volcar was broken, not cured, but well enough. If he had thought Nikolai’s mother was in danger, he would have done anything to get her back safely.

But none of that meant it was true. And I was not going to believe another lie from Damien’s lips.

I spoke through clenched teeth. “I don’t believe you.”

Damien waved his hand dismissively. “But you will.”

Killian coughed onto the floor. I took a step toward him, even though I knew it really wasn’t him. Just the image Damien wanted me to see. He pushed Killian onto his back with his boot.

“Don’t touch him,” I barked. I imagined a different scene and the room disappeared, taking Killian and Kairn with it.

Damien smirked at the change of scenery. It was the first place I had thought of. Somewhere I felt safe and in control that wasn’t in the Faeland. Damien took a seat behind the desk of Hildegard’s office. “You’re so protective of my brother.” Damien’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I wonder howhisbrother feels about it? Do you drift from one’s bed to the other?”

I froze.

Damien huffed a laugh. “Of course I know my bastard brother has a bastard brother of his own. That lovesick Halfling never stopped talking about it. I think he hates the Shadow almost as much as he hates you.”

“But you let Killian in and out of the palace?” I shook my head. “When you knew he was working against you with the Shadow? Why?”

“It served a purpose.” Damien crossed his leg, tightly folding the left over the other. “The more people working against my father the better. And once I took the Crown, it served a greater purpose.”

Damien drummed his fingers along the armrest with a smug grin on his face. “Would you rather go into battle with an opponent you’ve spent years studying or a stranger?”

I cocked my jaw.

“The Fae were strangers to me, but when they let my brother into their ranks that gave me a way to glimpse their logic. I becamea master at guessing their next moves. And then you joined them. And you are nothing if not predictable.”

I closed my eyes. “Play so your opponents lose, not to win,” I whispered Damien’s own words back at him.

“I told you life was nothing more than a vicious game.” He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward in his throne once more. “A game that you must now play.”