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The silence lasted so long that Alex didn’t think Maggie was going to reply. But then she did.

“To them, I was,” Maggie said. “Just as you were to me. Just as youareto me.”

Niyx flinched at her harsh words, the hurt on his face scoring across Alex like the lash of a whip.

What’s happening here?Alex called out to him.How do you know each other?

Again, he didn’t respond.

“I wondered, you know,” Maggie said, her voice almost too low to hear. “Over the years, I wondered if there had been a mistake. I knew it was wishful thinking, but there were times when I hoped—” She stopped abruptly and looked away for a fraction of a second as if to gather herself. Her eyes were like shards of silvery ice when she turned back to him. “Then I heard you had escapedTaevargand the first thing you did was kill our king, all in the name of that beast you call a friend. Youdisgustme.” She pulled in a ragged breath. “If I could have one wish, it would be that you had been killed all those years ago. Prison was too good for the likes of you.”

Seeing the raw pain on Niyx’s face, Alex refused to hear any more. She leapt between them, placing herself in the path of Maggie’s arrow, and hissed, “That’senough, Maggie. You have no idea what you’re talking about. If you onlyknew—”

“Kitten, it’s okay,” Niyx said quietly from behind her. “Mayra has more reason than most to hate me.”

Alex stilled and turned back to look at him before repeating, “Mayra?”

Niyx’s eyes didn’t leave Maggie’s, but he did answer Alex, shocking the air out of her once again when he said, “Mayra Raedon. My sister.”

Twenty-Eight

“Yoursister?” Alex all but shrieked, glancingbetween the two of them.

“I stopped being his sister long ago,” Maggie said, her voice hard. “I left Mayra Raedon behind and became Magdelina Llohilas right after mybrother,”—she spat the word like a curse—“the person I loved most in the entire world, abandoned me to follow a tyrant.”

Her phrasing prompted a memory for Alex, words Maggie had spoken almost a fortnight ago: ‘The day Aven killed those humans and fled the city was the day my brother lost his life following the cause of that tyrant.’

Alex had presumed her brother had died. But she now realised Maggie had meant something else entirely. Niyxhadlost his life—in the sense that he’d lost his freedom. But hehadn’tdone it following Aven.

“Niyx was wrongly imprisoned,” Alex told Maggie firmly. “He never approved of anything Aven was doing back then, just as he doesn’t now. He wasn’t eventherewhen theGarsethattacked the humans outside the palace—he was with me. His guilt was presumed based on his association with Aven, nothing more.”

“Then why did he plead guilty at his trial?” Maggie demanded, her cynicism clear. “Why not fight the charges?”

You had a trial?Alex asked him, not having known that.Why didn’t you prove your innocence?

This time, Niyx answered, offering just three quiet words.You know why.

Alex closed her eyes, realising he’d acted his part as the loyal follower in order to position himself for the future. All to help her.Oh, Niyx.

My only regret was leaving Mayra, but then our parents visited and told me there had been an accident. They said she was dead. I had no idea…His voice trailed off, but then he said,What did you mean about her being a fake you?

Alex quickly replayed the memory of Maggie sharing her story.I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you sooner, she apologised, feeling awful.It never even crossed my mind.

You had no way of knowing, he returned quietly.

While their mental conversation had been swift, Alex knew it was bordering on weird that neither of them had spoken for the duration of it, let alone answered Maggie’s question. So Alex hurried to do so.

“He had his reasons, reasons I’ve already told you. To help fightagainstAven, he gave up everything—including you. Though, if he was led to believe you were dead, then he didn’t realise what he was giving up and for how long.”

Maggie’s aim wobbled slightly, something that caused Alex’s breath to hitch since she was still positioned in front of Niyx.

“I don’t believe you.”

Tell her, Niyx, Alex begged him.She’s yoursister. If anyone deserves the truth, it’s her.

“And even if I did,” Maggie went on, swallowing, “I still wouldn’t, because even I know everyone left in Meya is Claimed by Aven now. Whatever you might think about the Meyarin you’re protecting with your life, Alex, guilty or innocent, all that’s left is a shell of a being controlled by a sociopath.”

Alex shook her head. “Aven didn’t Claim Niyx.”