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So what possible reason could Aiden have had for keeping this information from the people that could’ve helped her? The people that loved her? The people that wouldwantto protect her.

The realization made him feel cold.

“You were going to hand her over to the Crystal Guard.” Skye’s voice was barely above a whisper, gaining volume as he said, “The first time mage—human or otherwise—to survive to adulthood in two and half centuries and you were going to hand her over to the Crystal Guard so they could use her to find the Time Shard.”

“We would’ve protected her,” Aiden insisted.

“You would’ve killed her the same way you did the last time mage you managed to get your hands on!”

“That was a child. The boy barely had more than a few sparks of magic, and he was already half-dead by the time the Guard managed to rescue him from the Sanctorum. It would’ve been different with Taly.” Aiden paused, tugging at his ear again. “If I had actually intended to hand her over.”

“What do you mean?"

“I was trying to convince her to tell you,” Aiden said carefully, regarding Skye the way a fox might watch a wolf. “I had to blackmail her into moving back into the manor—for her own safety—and I think if I’d had just a little more time, I could’ve persuaded her to tell you. Then, we could’ve figured out a plan together.”

Skye let a growl slip free, and Aiden’s own patience finally snapped. “What exactly would you have had me do then? What was the right answer here? She was scared. Terrified, not just for herself, but foryou. For whatyouwould do if the Sanctorum ever found her. One wrong move from me and she would’ve been out the damned window and our lives before you or me or anyone could’ve done anything about it.”

Skye’s anger guttered at that—just slightly. He was right. Taly was stubborn to a fault.

Still… Aiden had known. He hadknownand never said a damned thing.

“You need to leave,” Skye said in a low voice.

But Aiden didn’t move from his seat. “I think we need to talk about these dreams, Skye. And the hallucinations you experienced down in the tunnels. Regardless of what Taly was or wasn’t,she’s gone now, and you need to accept that if you’re going to start to heal. Why don’t we go back to the townhome, sober up a bit, and then I’ll examine you? This psychosis could be as simple as—”

“I saidget out,” Skye barked. He pounded a fist on the table, not reacting in the slightest when the wood cracked down the middle. The sound was satisfying and loud, and the air ward flickered as it filtered out the noise. “If you value your life, that is.”

To Aiden’s credit, he knew how to pick his battles. Holding up his hands in surrender, he kept his eyes to the ground as he slid out of the booth and quietly left the bar.

Chapter 25

-From the personal notes of Azura Raine

I always find it amusing how many people still believe in destiny. As if it doesn’t have any help.

Skye stalked through the streets of Ryme.

He didn’t know how long he’d sat at that table, waiting for the world to make sense again. Anger had given way to shock, then awe, then fear, elation, sadness, fear again.

He’d been feeling too many things at once, so instead of succumbing to the urge to rage and scream and curse the malevolent deity that had decided to shatter every single Shards-forsaken thing he’d ever thought he’d known—he’d clung to his anger, pushing everything else aside.

Because anger—anger was easy. Anger he understood. It helped him find his feet. Gave himthe strength to walk out of that bar without crumbling. It was a fire in his blood, a heat that wrapped around his very bones.

It kept him moving forward.

His breath steamed in the chill night air, and from the way people began scurrying out of his way, the look on his face must have been murderous.

She knew, he thought, the heavy wool fabric of his overcoat billowing out behind him as he turned another corner.

Taly had known how much danger she was in, but she hadn’t told him. Not when the visions started. Not during theyearshe’d spent on her own. Not when she was attacked by the harpy. Not even when they had found themselves under attack, holed up inside a compound with spies lurking within their ranks.

Every single time, she had just left him behind.

Skye bared his teeth and snarled, desperately clinging to that bright, burning anger. He was going to throttle her when he found her—shake some sense into that empty head of hers. And then he was going to yell at her for using her magic to come back and torment him in some damned tunnel. That had obviously been some future version just getting in one final laugh. Why else would she have said those things and worn thatdressif not to mess with his mind?

To pick you back up, some small rational part of him said. He had been so close to giving up in those tunnels, and she had kept him moving forward.

Skye shook his head, trying to refocus his thoughts. The variables had changed.Again. Whydid it seem like he was always working with an incomplete set of information?