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“Soon.” He took another bite, chewing. The meat was tough, but the spices were good. “It should get easier soon.” He hoped. All their plans hinged on the Aion Gate opening. It was the only way off the island, and they just had to survive until then.

Aimee’s aether sparked blue around her gloved fingers, and a ribbon of water swirled through the air. “So what were you thinking about when I got here?” she asked, idly playing with that bit of water magic like one might a piece of string. “You looked worried.”

Aiden found his sister’s eyes, the same jewel blue as his. As their mother’s. “It’s nothing,” he lied.

Aimee’s lips thinned. “You frown when you’re worried, and it leaves these little marks between your eyes that look like italics.”

He snorted, saying around a mouthful of food, “Are you telling me I have worry lines?”

She nodded sagely. “Big ones.”

The ribbon of water formed itself into a hunched little man with a deeply lined face that he could only assume was meant to be him. Aimee had always loved molding water, creating little creatures to do her bidding. If their stepfather had allowed it, she could’ve done great things, maybeeven surpassed their father. As it stood, she’d only ever been allowed to study ladylike pursuits. Glamours. And she’d never fought back.

A small part of him still resented her for that.

Reaching out, he waved a hand through the spirals of water magic as they began to reform, turning them to mist. “It’s Skye.”

As expected, Aimee perked up. She was always more than eager to talk about the heir to Ghislain, though Aiden doubted that she loved him as much as she claimed. They had nothing in common, other than their parents trying to push them together.

“He’s not doing well,” Aiden went on. “And there’s a piece of information that I’ve been holding onto that I’m still not sure if I should tell him.”

“Let me guess—about Talya?”

He nodded. “When I was treating her for the harpy venom, I found something. Something big. I… I know why she left home last year.”

Aimee’s brows rose. Their aunt and uncle had never spoken openly about Taly’s departure, but it was clear to those that knew them just how devastating that loss had been.

“And you didn’t tell anyone?” she asked. “Why?”

“Because Taly begged me not to, and I couldn’t bring myself to betray her trust, even though I probably should have. For her own sake. Now that she’s gone, though...”

It didn’t matter. There was no trust to break. The information didn’t hold the same weight as it had before. The Sanctorum couldn’t hunt a dead time mage. They couldn’t execute the people thatprotected her, if only because there was nothing left to protect.

“Taly was having visions.” The words cracked out of him, and he hadn’t realized just how hard it had been to keep that secret inside. “Of the future. Fractions of a second, but still…” He took a breath, the few bites of food in his stomach turning to lead. “She had time magic, Aimee.”

Aimee’s eyes went wide. “That’s impossible,” she breathed. “Humans don’t have magic.”

“This one did.”

There was a pause as that information settled in, then she hissed, “And she told you?” The air around her sparked blue. “Why you? Why in Shards’ name would she tellyou?”

He wasn’t sure when they had started speaking in whispers, but the accusation in her voice was evident. “I forced her to,” he said. By telling him this secret, Taly had put his life at risk. She had made him a target of the Sanctorum, and that wasn’t something Aimee would forgive easily. Besides their mother, they were all the other had. “I backed her into a corner, and I forced her to tell me. She didn’t want to.”

That placated his sister—somewhat. Her fingers gripped the side of the wall in what was no doubt a white-knuckled grip beneath her black gloves. “That’s why you went to look for her. Because if she’s a time mage…” She shook her head, sneering. “Shards, this was all because of your stupid duty to that stupid Crystal Guard.”

True—to an extent. As a time mage, Taly had been the closest living link to the Time Shard. Which then made it his duty to protect her. But he’d also gone into that forest looking for a friend, and the way his sister was glaring at him, hercareless words, the memory of past arguments, and all those underlying resentments…

“Watch your tongue,” he snapped back. “The Crystal Guard was our father’s legacy.”

“And it got him killed!”

Aimee’s expression was thunderous as she stared him down, and how she did that, how she managed to look so much like their mother when all hell was about to break loose…

He looked away. Needless to say, his sister hadn’t been happy about his decision to join the Crystal Guard. She’d been even less happy when he’d signed away his claim to their father’s lands in Picolo, in effect making her a future baroness. He’d had to do it, of course. It was the only way their stepfather was ever going to let him go.

Not that any of that mattered now that Picolo and the Crystal Guard were literal worlds away.

He sighed. “I just… I don’t know if I should tell Skye. He’s not okay, and I don’t know if this information will bring him any comfort or if it will just make things worse.”