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From Wren’s confidence, Thea deduced that her sister and the librarian had conversed on the subject numerous times before, but she quelled her annoyance. It didn’t matter, so long as Audra knew how to help her. With her guidance, Thea would be the first storm-wielding Warsword to walk the midrealms.

Wren was already impatiently tugging her down the hall. She skidded to a stop outside another door, rapping her knuckles against the timber.

‘What?’ Audra snapped as she yanked the door open, before her eyes fell upon the two sisters. ‘Oh. It’s you.’

‘We’re ready, Audra,’ Wren told her eagerly. ‘Thea wants to learn —’

‘Well, don’t just stand out there, get inside. Quickly.’ Audra ushered them into the room, her grey dress swishing around her ankles, her ceremonial daggers strapped to her waist as always. She rounded on Thea. ‘It’s about time.’

Thea folded her arms defensively over her chest. ‘So, youhaveknown all along.’

Audra didn’t seem fazed by her accusatory tone. ‘I only suspected,’ she answered calmly.

‘You didn’t think sharing those suspicions might be worthwhile?’

‘The longer you didn’t know, the longer you were protected. Delmira was not looked upon fondly in its final days. And when Wren discovered the truth, I thought it was her place to share that with you, not mine.’

Wren shifted awkwardly before reaching for Thea again. ‘Thee, you have to forgive me. I did it foryou.’

Thea scoffed. ‘Whatever helps you sleep at night.’

Audra cleared her throat. ‘This would go easier if you workedtogether.’

‘You should have told her thatbeforeshe lied to me,beforeshe used alchemy on me for years on end. And all that time, Wren, you told me not to think about who our family was. That they were awful for abandoning us, whenyou knewwho they were.’

‘Well, it sounds like theywereawful. And besides, now you know, what have you done with the knowledge?’ Wren bit back. ‘Have you even looked them up? Do you feel better about being a Thezmarrian orphan now?’

‘I’m here now, aren’t I? I’m ready to learn, ready to harness my magic.’

‘Now that it serves your purpose,’ Wren snapped.

Thea took a step towards her, fists clenched. Her fury was a living beast inside her, roiling through her, demanding freedom from its chains. And the worst part was that it didn’t rage for Wren alone, but for herself as well. For whathadshe done with that knowledge? She’d been too afraid to look up their family history, too cowardly to learn what her true name was, lest it untether her from the self that she had fought so hard to forge.

There had been a book in Hawthorne’s cabin,A Study of Royal Lineage Throughout the Midrealms… He’d left it open, practically marking the page for her. But Thea had closed it and shoved it away, unable to muster the fortitude to read it. She had lived in the shadow of it ever since.

‘That’s enough,’ Audra said with sufficient force that both young women’s attention snapped to her. ‘I am not here to mend sisterly squabbles. I am here because the pair of you need help. Or will you deny it?’

In answer, Thea’s magic simmered beneath the surface and an ache bloomed behind her eyes. Her sleep had been broken, haunted by dreams of the reaper in the Bloodwoods, and the vision her brush with death had shown her. That vision came to her again now…

The scorched courtyard smelt of blood and heather.

Bodies lay lifeless on the cobbles; seeping crimson into the ground while the wheels on an upturned cart still spun, mead flowing from broken barrels…

Darkness had descended upon Thezmarr, and at its heart was a copper-haired little girl, no older than six, clutching a necklace of dried flowers and a small scythe of Naarvian steel to her pounding chest.The last of the onyx power left the blade in curling tendrils, wisps of magic swallowed by rolling thunder that seemed to call her name.

Anya.

The little girl whose name chimed like a familiar, eerie bell at the back of Thea’s mind. So strange, what the monster had shown her. Thea shuddered at the memory and forced herself to picture something else: images of herself wielding lightning in the Great Rite, stronger than she’d ever been.

She met Audra’s expectant gaze at last. ‘I won’t deny it.’

The librarian pushed her spectacles back up her nose and gave a stiff nod. ‘Good. And you, Elwren?’

Wren was nodding. ‘I need help,’ she said, voice cracking.

Thea had to fight the urge to go to her. It had always been the two of them, together against the world. She hated the thought of her sister suffering, in pain without Thea by her side. But Wren had broken something between them, and Thea had been nothing but a fool for it, so she remained where she was, even as a tear tracked down Wren’s cheek.

‘Just as well,’ Audra was saying. ‘Today, we learn the history of storm wielders, of your family. Then in our next session, we’ll go somewhere safe, where we can endeavour to partake in a more practical lesson —’