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“It was unstoppable,” my mother said. “Your hearts called to each other and recognized each other at first glance.”

“That’s why I was immediately connected to your nightmares,” Adira said. “Your pain is mine, the same as your joy.”

I kissed the spot behind her ear. “So, he was the only one who knew Adira would return in the fiftieth weave?”

Gaina nodded. “Why do you suppose he was pretending to seek out a marriage alliance with some of the strongest bloodlines?”

Adira drew in a sharp breath. “He was looking for me.”

“He knew his scheme, but even his memories were blurred under his spell cast.” Gaina paused, then nodded. “He did not know exactly what season of the weave the Blood Sacrifice would return.”

“Destin took Arabeth’s heartstone, thinking it would save her,” my mother said, voice soft. “All it did was destroy him.”

Pain was there, and doubtless we all understood. Destin had been an older brother to me. He’d taught me how to spear a fish. Along with my father, he was another example of how a man treated his wife. Arabeth laughed harder and smiled brighter whenever he was near.

We’d lost them both. One from disease, the other from despair.

“He sent the Immorti,” I muttered. “Didn’t he? That night at the cottage, the attack came from him.”

After Gaina closed her eyes to hear Destin’s response, she nodded. “He wanted to quicken your corruption. Immorti venom would’ve done that. He . . . he was close, waiting to take Adira once you were gone.”

I wanted to scream and lash and tell him I hated him. But the horrid fact was the pain of his betrayal didn’t come from hate, it came from the love I’d had for the man. It cut deeper.

For a moment we were silent until Adira spoke. “One of Kage’s nightmares was of you, Torie. You were telling someone to hide the crowns. I think it was you, Mam. How did you know to hide them away, or do you not remember?”

“I remember,” Gaina said, glancing at my mother. “Torie caught Destin casting a cruel spell.”

“I thought, at first, he merely wanted to overthrowus,” my mother said. “With Arabeth gone, the crown passes to you, son. I did not yet know he’d taken Arabeth’s heartstone, but I knew there was a chance your father and I would not survive. All I could think was how grateful to the goddess you were not here, Kage. Do you remember?”

I nodded, splitting through the fading haze of the past. “I’d gone to vìkingum on the Wildlands. My first after Adira’s sacrifice. Cy and . . . and Asger insisted. Then, they got Gwyn involved.”

Adira chuckled. She knew as well as I that Gwyn did not allow for refusals to her plans once she had them in mind.

“I pleaded with Gaina to take the crowns,” said my mother. “She resisted at first, but I suppose she saw something and eventually agreed.”

“That’s another question, Mam,” Adira said. “How did you not see Destin’s schemes?”

“He was already hiding his soul from me, but even then, I hear and speak only what the aggravating goddess allows, Sweet Iron.” Gaina smirked.

“So, you hid the crowns,” I went on. “And Destin released the degeneration to steal the memories of our people.”

“He crafted a new truth across the land,” Gaina said. “It did not take long for memories to fall in line, for pasts to be locked in shadows, and for people to look to the crown prince who brought them hope for when a Blood Sacrifice returned.”

I slumped in the chair. “I believed it, to my bones I believed the alternate versions of my past.”

“There is a reason it required such high costs to stop the cruel ones during the last war,” my father said. “Dark magic is powerful, son.”

“Why keep you both in a sleep?” Adira asked, looking to my parents.

“For these.” My mother reached for her bone crown. “Blood of the sitting king and queen is required to pass on the crown.”

More light flashed off his stone.

“He insists, he truly believed when Arabeth returned, they’d rule as though nothing had changed,” Gaina said. “But he needed theblood of the previous king and queen to pass them to their heir and daughter when she was revived.”

I closed my eyes. How did one get so lost in their mind?

“I’m delighted you brought up the crowns, though,” my father continued, taking hold of his. “For they are long prepared for new brows.”