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“Something like that,” I muttered.

Irin gestured to the chair he stood by, silently asking me to sit as he moved to take the one beside it. I appreciated that he didn’t press for more information, letting me start the conversation on my own time. Really, I wasn’t prepared to face Irin like this. I was hoping for a bit more time to collect my thoughts, despite the factI’dbroken into the fucking royal palace to talk to him.

Of all the lives I’d lived, my impulsiveness had managed to cling to me even now.

My steps were a little unsteady—I was still a little off from the drain of the shadow walking spell—as I moved across the study to take the seat angled toward his own. Behar pressed himself against my leg as if offering his own kind of support, staying with me even as I sat and plopping himself down by my feet with a little huff. Irin continued to watch with a look of deep concern as I sank into the chair and leaned an elbow on the armrest to press my fingertips to my temple. The pounding headache made it difficult to concentrate on anything.

“Do you always keep your study dark?”

It was obviously not the question he expected. Irin shrugged. “My beastwalker traits allow me better sight in the dark thanin the light. Rinhounds are nocturnal creatures.” He gestured to where Behar was rolled on his side between us. “Besides, Behar only stays in the room if it’s dark. Otherwise, he would burrow under my bedsheets, and the maids are cleaning my chambers today.”

I nodded, but my brain couldn’t come up with a reasonable response beyond that. Everything since confronting Gaion and Jessella this morning felt like an out-of-body experience, like I was just running on instinct to the one person I thought would take my words at face value. Someone who wouldn’t look at me with horror in their eyes, or call me an abomination and kill me on principle.

It was hard to tell how long he let me sit in silence, swept away in the swirling dark waters of my thoughts and every choice that had led me to this very moment, sitting in this chair now.

“Haron.” Irin’s gentle voice drew my vacant stare back to focus. “You can tell me anything. You know that, right? I’m… I’m sorry if I made you think otherwise when you told me about Trisne’s—” he stopped, and I could see the hard swallow in his throat before forcing himself to continue, “—murder, and what Jinon admitted about Forol. I was shocked, and I acted poorly.”

I scoffed, resorting to bitter humor to see me through this painfully awkward conversation. “Well, you’re about to be even more shocked.”

Irin waited patiently, leaning forward slightly in his chair as if to reach out and touch my knee before thinking better of it. "Whatever it is, you can tell me. You cantrustme."

His words lit a beacon in the muddled darkness I wandered through since last night. I wasn't sure what I expected from Irin exactly, coming here in this disheveled state. There was no way for him to know the magnitude of what that meant to me, showing him my weakness like this, but I desperately hoped it was the right choice.

“I was attacked by Gennel Rhen.”

Irin’s eyes widened in surprise, but he refrained from jumping in to fire off the questions I could already see piling up behind lips pressed to a thin line.

“Before you jump down my throat.” I pointed a finger at his face. “He was the one who attacked me! Oh, and to top it all off, he’s actually a woman!” I hoped I could get away with only revealing that much. If I had to tell Irin who I really was, he would definitely lock me in the dungeons under the assumption I’d lost my mind.

The silence that fell after my statement was not empty. I could see the buzzing thoughts in Irin’s eyes as he tried to understand the magnitude of it all. I was about a breath away from jumping up and bolting out of the window I’d crept into when he finally leaned forward again. He braced both elbows on his knees and threaded his fingers together as he stared hard at me.

“Ok,” he started, then shook his head. “Ok, um, so Gennel is running loose in Gilamorst, pretending to be a man, after trying to kill you last night?”

“Yes! I don’t know how she does it, but she’s an extremely skilled hydromancer. She uses some kind of…” My brain fumbled for the words to use when describing her magic. “It’s some kind of veil, maybe water, that she covers her body with and can change her appearance. And she can manipulate water in the air! I have… never seen anything like it. I think she gained her power from using some kind of ritual on Trisne to harvest her magic, along with gods know who else!”

Maybe that was the part that disturbed me the most. I had lived many lives, spending a hundred years studying everything I could about necromancy and meeting many talented practitioners, and I had yet to see a hydromancer who was able to create a whole illusion from water to that extent, much less concentrate it in the air to drown someone. The amount of focusit must have taken to control both spells while trying to kill me was beyond comprehension. And whatever dark ritual she used to gain that kind of power had to take a toll on her mentally. Gennel was quickly spiraling out of control.

Then another thought struck me dumb. The ‘Nebold’ I encountered at the guild who attacked me was not the real one either. Could Gennel have been the one to kill and impersonate him? Was she the one I encountered in Nebold’s study who escaped? Frustration sent a burning wave of heat up to flush my cheeks as I glared down at my lap, the wheels in my mind seeming to spin uselessly trying to piece everything together.

Irin’s gaze drifted to the unlit fireplace behind me. He may not realize it, but when Irin was deep in thought, his eyes narrowed to slits and his lips pursed slightly. If I wasn’t on a day-long panic attack, I’d think it was cute.

He finally spoke, obviously shaken. “That… that is disturbing. But I just don't see how it's possible.”

"What do you mean? Do you think I beat myself up and came to you?" I gestured to my face. "There was no mistaking it, she found me while disguised as a man! I don't know what else to tell you to explain Gennel is not who you think she is. I think she could have even been the one impersonating Nebold who attacked me at the guild too! Who fucking knows!"

"Wait, you wereattackedtwice? By someone who looked like Nebold?" He voice rose, obviously thrown by the news. "Where is the real one? Is he… dead?"

My hands shook in my lap as I stared hard at them. I should have known just reporting the incident to the patrol would result in nothing. They couldn't even be bothered to bring that information back to their king, likely because it came from a woman's mouth. I surely hadn't bothered to stick around and check their investigation after they interrogated me. For all I knew, a warrant could be out for my arrest on charges of murder.How Irin remained ignorant of it all was just another reminder of how loose his reign really was on Respar. He probably let Beolf manage these things and was none the wiser. Indignant rage like none I'd ever felt boiled up from my chest and threatened to spew from my mouth. How a ruler could be so out of touch with what was going on under his nose, in his very city, was infuriating!

Irin took a deep, steadying breath, like he was the one about to fly off his hinges. “So, whoever was pretending to be Nebold decided to attack you instead?”

“Well, killing me would keep anyone else from entering the Clifftombs.” As soon as the words left my mouth I choked on my breath, immediately cursing my scattered thoughts for not stopping me from spouting more incriminating evidence. Irin’s head tilted in confusion, but an intense fire burned in his eyes now. I just gave him a bone to chew on.

“What do the Clifftombs have to do with any of this? There’s no way anyone alive would be able to get inside, the last census from the Scholars reported its wards still held."

My lips pressed together tightly, pinned my by teeth in a desperate effort to dig myself further into this hole I've made.Why I even thought to come to Irin was beyond me, this was all a profoundly stupid idea and I need to leave right now—

“Haron,” he began, cutting off my internal berating. Irin’s eyes bored into my own, like he was trying to dig straight into my head. “Why would Nebold, or whoever was pretending to be Nebold, think you could get into the Clifftombs?”