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“What?”

I pause and take a deep breath. “That day on the battlefield… so long ago.”

Cambion glances at me. “Do I even want to know?”

“Listen. Whether you want to or not,” I reply dryly. My brother can be difficult. “I did fight beside Variant, but not willingly.”

“You’re telling me,” he starts but I hold up a hand to silence him.

“That day, you saw me beside Variantin body.”

“It wasn’t just you who fought beside him.”

“You saw me and my Unseelie army,” I correct. “But you didn’t see my mind and you didn’t see what was insidemy heart.”

“I fail to understand,” he starts.

“Will you just shut the fuck up and listen!” I clear my throat and continue. My brother can be absolutely exhausting. “We weren’t always close, you and I, but I always valued our kinship more than any promise of power or wealth or fame.”

“Then why…”

“You will never truly understand the entirety of my story, brother, because you didn’t experience it. But as I watched angels fall from the sky and gargoyles plummet to their deaths, I had only one thought... and that thought was riddled with the fear that you would never forgive me, even if you knew the truth.”

His shoulders relax and Cambion moves to stand in front of me. “I’m trying to learn forgiveness, but I need actions, Theren, not words. Prove to me you can be trusted. Prove you had no willing part to play in the betrayal that cost us the war and the infiltration of the Unseelie Court.”

“Once I’m free of this prison, I will prove everything.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Cambion asks skeptically.

***

CAMBION

Oronrel

I believe him.

After nearly an hour of Theren explaining his side of what happened during the Great War, I believe him. But I don’t trust him—not yet. There’s still much my brother must do before I can set aside the anger I feel toward him.

He sits on the bed, watching me as I pace, and I know he’s looking for forgiveness I can’t give when so much still remains to be seen.

“And what of all the things you did to Aima?” I hear myself ask.

Theren stiffens and he looks down at the floor with a wave of regret wafting off his figure.

“Aima knows I love her, but not in the way she wants me to.”

“She’s still in love with you.”

Theren nods. “We were together out of convenience and loneliness bred from the deceit of Morrigan.”

“I doubt she believes the same thing.”

“Aima chose me, but was already in love with someone else.”

I take a deep breath as I look at him. “Eilish?”

“Eilish,” he affirms. “She’s owned my heart from the beginning.”