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“Get away from me.” I held my hand before me, fire lighting up my arm. “Get back.”

“The queens, they were in on it, Véa. Morduaine was in on it.” He raised his hands at his sides in surrender. “They made a pact. If Matriaza and Morduaine helped the maalaichte cnihme defeat us, if they helped them steal all the souls we created that day, they’d have eternal immunity. Both of them. Both Morduaine and Matriaza, they’d be safe forever from the soul eaters, and we’d be dead. All of us, they’d steal us all. That was what they agreed to. That was what they wanted, Véa.”

I shook my head vigorously, backing closer to the stairs. “You’re lying. Morduaine would never—”

“They did. As soon as your mother relinquished her crown, they did. Check my mind. I’m telling the truth, and Usui can tell you so—”

“Why?” I snapped, panting so hard and fast that I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t fainted.

“I told you. Immunity—”

“Why did you killthe people?!” I screamed that part. My heart shattered behind my ribs as I did. “Why, Lux?!Why?!”

He wasn’t sobbing now, but tears shimmered down his cheeks. He shook his head slightly. “I didn’t mean to.”

I stared at him in disbelief, praying if I gripped the handrail hard enough, that I would wake up. I had to wake up. This wasn’t true. This wasn’t possible. He couldn’t have killed entire worlds, could he have?

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m—”

“Get out of my house.” I tightened my jaw to a line. “Getout.”

He stared at me for a moment, lip still quivering, looking a bit like a sad child. But I had no sympathy to give if he was telling the truth. There was still doubt in my mind that this was true, that any of it was even real. I needed him to leave so I could check.

He gave a short nod, turned around, and walked to the door. Quietly, carefully, he spun the knob and left.

The moment he was gone, I ran to my bedroom.

There was a jewel in a box on the shelf above my fireplace. We’d created it when I first moved to this world, and Mum still lived on Morduaine. We checked on one another with it. I’d close my eyes, wrap my fingers around it, and then I could see what her jewel saw.

And I saw it. I saw it all.

I saw the capital of Morduaine in flames. I heard no screams; I saw no people running through the streets. I didn’t even see a draken in the sky. There were always drakens in the sky, but not today.

All I saw was black smoke and falling buildings.

Even the green grass in the distance was a scorched pit. The trees that framed the castle always lit up in a myriad of colors. The rainbow forest, we called it.

And it was nothing but burned branches.

I forced my eyes open, and my palm next. The crystal clattered to the hardwoods. My knees were right behind it, aches stretching through my body as my lungs collapsed in on themselves.

Stifling a sob with a hand over my mouth to keep the children from hearing, I searched for Nix’s mind, saying,Come home.

CHAPTERFIVE

NIX

“No, no, no,” Elira said between laughs, shaking her head. “That’s not what happened.”

“Thatiswhat happened.” Lapsus chuckled, taking the canteen from her hands as he sat beside her. Craning past her to look at me, he said, “I’d be cautious sitting so close. She’s one sip away from blowing chunks.”

“Yummy,” Osonia said on the other side of the fire. “Well, suppose it wouldn’t be a gathering between the lot of us if someone wasn’t lurching by the end of it.

“It won’t be me.” Elira snatched the canteen from her husband’s hands. “I have no trouble holding my liquor.”

“Tell that to the blanket Véa made you from your wedding dress,” I said, remembering the day Véa asked where it was, and Lapsus tattled on Elira.

“Alright, one time,” Elira said.