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My back practically arched as if I was a cat backed into a corner. “Do I look like someone who knows how a murderous woman thinks? She's a fucking lunatic!"

“We don't know for sure if Gennel was the one who attacked you as Nebold. And that didn’t answer my question.”

“It did!” I tried desperately to derail him from this detail he’d latched onto. “Even if I can't prove Gennel did anything to Nebold, I'm telling you to your face she tried to kill me last night! What more do you need to bring him… her into custody? Who’s to say she’s nobility at all? Has anyone checked the legitimacy of her claim of inheritance as a Rhen, regardless, if Gennel is a man or woman? Where is the rest of her family?”

Irin pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, letting his head hang loosely on his neck. “This is… a lot, Haron. Accusing Gennel of trying to kill you is one thing, but saying he or she has been disguising themselves as nobility this entire time? Maybe you mistook what you saw in the alley. It could have been dark, and your senses were overwhelmed when you were attacked—”

I scoffed, not able to even comprehend the delusion he was trying to blanket this whole situation with. “That’s what you think? That I was so frantic I couldn’t tellthat Gennel had fucking breasts?And glossing over the fact someone—whether you think it’s Gennel or not—has attacked me twice in as many days? Is this how you serve justice?”

“Look, Haron,” he sighed heavily and lifted his gaze back to mine. Irin looked so tired and worn to the bone, over more than just this. “I just find it incredibly difficult for Gennel to have lied straight to my face without me knowing. Maybe there’s an assassin in Gilamorst who looks like him, which is a problem on its own—” I opened my mouth to interject, but Irin held his hand up to stop me. “—yes, I understand. But it would be a serious allegation to haul someone who everyone believes is a Highlan in for interrogation. He said his parents had died before he moved to Gilamorst. I checked the records of the nobles’ families, and there is an account of a Vornat Rhen who moved to the City of Scholars to study financing in the Covenant Library.”

I was baffled by his level of trust. “So, you’d take the word of this alleged man who says he’s a relative of a Rhen who moved away, and he conveniently died before he could confirm Gennel’s birthright?”

“I could tell he spoke the truth,” Irin said plainly.

“According to what, your truthsayer powers? The ones you unnaturally suppress by practicing beast walker magic? I’m sure that doesn’t affect its fallacy at all," I scoffed, not wanting to believe he would write me off so easily just because his special senses told him otherwise. Not that he knew how fallible those truthsayer senses actually were. I knew it was unfair for me to be angry with him, but I couldn't hold back the rampant fire already scorching its way through my veins.

“It’s the same with you! You say you moved here five years ago to join the Necromancy Guild, and I took your word because my truthsayer ability assured me. Are you saying I shouldn’t trust you, either?”

Disdain dripped from my words like venom from a snake’s fangs. I was just waiting for a reason to strike. “You really are quite ignorant, even for a royal.”

Irin blew an angry breath out of his nose, then pinched the bridge of it again. “That’snotwhat I’m saying! But if he were that conniving and untrustworthy, I definitely would have sensed it. So far, Gennel has been nothing but honest when we spoke. I just find it very hard to believe a woman would have that kind of capability as a spellcaster, to keep a farce like that going for so long.”

But then Irin’s brows creased, as if a thought popped unbidden from memory. Maybe something that contradicted his argument. I doubt he would share that with me, if only to save his delicate ego.

“Right, right! So just because she's a woman, Gennel is entirely uncapable of casting complex magic that she likely got fromkilling people, and fooling the likes of you!” My eyes rolled so hard I was afraid they would cramp in my head. “Never mind the fact you haven’t sensed a lie from me either, yet here you stand doubting threats against my life! I’m trying to warn you of a dangerous, shapeshifting practitioner using rituals to steal magic from innocent people like Trisne, and you’re shoving your head so far up your own ass you cannot evenseethe truth!” By the end, I was fuming, not even bothered by who could overhear our argument. Actually, I wished someone would come and bear witness to Irin’s immeasurable stupidity. He was lucky he was out of reach. I was close to wringing his neck to save us both from his willful ignorance.

“Haron,” Irin began, hands out like he was approaching a wild beast. “Let’s just settle down, you’re being irr—”

I jabbed my finger at his face. “You better not fucking finish that sentence.”

“Irrational,” he finished anyway. His brow was drawn low over those honey-toned eyes, darkening them considerably. “I wouldn’t have to say it if you were actinglike a rational person!”

One of us was bound to catch fire, with how intensely we stared into each other’s eyes. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was so adamant about Irin believing me. It went beyond simple justice. I wanted him tosee, really see, what was wrong in this backwards country he was about to officially rule. And it felt like taking down someone like fucking Gennel Rhen was the first step to dismantling the ridiculous concept that women couldn't be so nefarious and powerful. Never mind the fact I thought I'd proven over and over that gender had nothing to do with magical capabilities.

I thought we were the same. I’d fooled myself into thinking we had similar values when it came to finding the truth, no matter what. And now I felt like a fucking idiot putting all that faith in a flawed, totally normal human like Prince Irin Gailish. He hadn’tseen what I’d seen. He didn’t know anything beyond the walls of the palace he was raised in.

“Fine. I’m done.”

Irin’s mouth opened as if ready to counter but sputtered out quickly. “Wait, what?”

I was already reaching for the door leading out into the hallway. My fingers just barely brushed the cool metal of the knob when he snatched me back by my elbow. Still, I refused to turn and face him again. He didn’t deserve any more of my attention.

“Haron, can we please…” Irin’s plea cut off in a very animalistic whine. He sounded just like his rinhound when he was frustrated. And he thought women were unstable? He was the one struggling to keep his human form! “I don’t want us to part like this. It feels like… it feels like you’re going to do something dangerous. I… I care about you, Haron. Please…just stay and talk with me.”

The laugh that came from my lips was dark and bitter. He hadn't even bothered with apologizing for his narrow-mindedness and skipped straight to begging. With strength Irin obviously didn’t think I possessed, I ripped my arm from his tight grip and yanked the heavy door open. “If you cared about me as you say, you would listen when I tell you Gennel is a lying snake and a murderer you are willing to protect. Our values are obviously not the same. Our contract is void.”

The poor maid walking along the left side of the hall almost got barreled over with how quickly I marched from Irin’s chambers. Her exclamation told me Irin had also left the room and was chasing me out. “Wait, Haron! Gods damn it, woman, I said wait!”

“Prince Irin?” A man’s head popped out from one of the doors I had just passed by. “Oh, perfect timing! The council is all here now, and we’d like to review your bridal candidates if you—”

That well-timed distraction was all I needed to swerve out of his reaching hand and burst into a full sprint toward the grand foyer. Beolf was just rounding the corner, possibly going to whatever meeting Irin was supposed to be in, and a colorful curse burst from his lips as I barely avoided tackling him to the ground.

“What in the Gods’ names, Haron? What’s this about you breaking in? We’ve been looking all over—”

“Beolf!” Irin yelled, clearly pissed off now. “Catch her!”

“Not in your fucking lifetime!” I hollered back, already reaching the main doors to the palace. Beolf’s clunky armor clattered after me, clearly too far behind to have any hope of catching up. It was entertaining listening to him clang around like a kettle full of rocks being shaken.