Page 70 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

“I don’t know what Magnus told King Sebastian and Queen Marbella about how I came to be there, because he’d already been working for them for decades at that point and was high up among the advisors and obviously couldn’t suddenly have a five-year-old child with no explanation.

He probably said that my mother was dead and he just learned I existed, or something like that.

Magnus is very good at weaving stories.”

It dawns on me that she’s calling him “Magnus” and not “Father.” That seems significant, but I don’t want to derail her and ask why—or rather, when—she stopped thinking of him as her parent.

“Magnus was convinced that the best way to gain power for himself would be to tie me to the existing royal family. I was betrothed to Prince Kastian more or less as soon as Magnus brought me to court, when I was five and he was three. By the time I was nine, I was being trained to be the perfect royal bride.”

“Perfect for whom?” I ask.

She laughs without humor. “That’s a good question, honestly. Kastian and I never really liked each other much. I was taught to be completely subservient and obedient, which never interested him.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I know.”

“Right, I suppose you do.” She frowns, looking pensive. “Anyway, the plan was that I would marry Kastian, his parents would meet a sudden and unfortunate end, and I’d be queen. Then, as my father and the former top advisor, Magnus would swoop in to help rule the kingdom.”

“And eventually Kastian would die too, right?”

“Exactly, but of course then you came and ruined everything.” She almost smiles, and I get the feeling she’s joking. Or at least, isn’t all that bothered by my “ruining” her plans.

“I heard you talking about it once,” I tell her.

She narrows her eyes. “You heard me talking about what?”

“Your betrothal…and your father’s plans.”

I hope she picks up the story from here because I don’t know how much I can say out loud. I’ve never wanted to test the boundaries of the vow I made to the sirens in case I accidentally crossed the line and something horrible happened as a result.

Thankfully, Lyra grasps what I’m getting at. “I wish you hadn’t heard that. Though, I suppose, it makes things easier. Obviously that plan failed too—Kastian didn’t die while you were all visiting Vernallis.”

“I know,” I say stonily.

I want to add, “because I wouldn’t let him,” but I can’t. Lyra doesn’t seem to notice my internal battle.

“As I’m sure you know, it took several years after that for Magnus to work out a new plan to take the kingdom, but eventually he did it.

By then he’d decided that it would be simpler to take the kingdom outright rather than through my marriage or some doomed war.

He spent years bringing courtiers and soldiers over to his side, until finally he had enough support to ambush the royal family in their beds.

I helped him do it.” She gives me a challenging look, as if expecting me to condemn her.

I’m uncertain how I should feel. On the one hand, I sympathize with Lyra, but on the other hand, she was enmeshed in multiple plots to murder Kastian and his family.

“Did you kill anyone directly?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I guess it’s a good thing Kastian and I knew each other, because without me he wouldn’t have lived any longer than his mother and sisters.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was the one who my father sent to kill Kastian the night of the coup. By forcing me to wear his face, Magnus could give the impression of being in many places at once, which added to his mysticism as a ruler. I’m sure you’ve noticed how loyal his soldiers are?”

I nod, thinking of the guard who slapped me. “Yes.”

“That’s because he’s got many of them convinced that he can be in multiple places at once. They think he’s omniscient, that he knows and sees everything they do and judges them even when they’re alone.”

I shake my head in disgust. I wasn't that far off when I said the guard must have thought her king was a god.

This information is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to learn by coming here in the first place. Whether Hydratta became an ally or enemy of Vernallis, Alix and Daemon need to know that the Hydrattan citizens won’t simply accept the removal of a king they’ve been brainwashed into worshiping.

It’s too bad that now I may never get the chance to warn them.

“So why did you spare Kastian?” I ask.

Her eyes dart to the side, like she’d also been lost in thought and forgotten what we were talking about.

It takes her a moment to return to her story.

“On the night of the coup, Magnus wanted to capture King Sebastian himself, so he sent me after Kastian. When I got to his room I must have closed the door too loudly because he woke up and looked right at me. After that, I just couldn’t do it.

Stabbing him in their sleep was one thing, but I didn’t want to fight it out or watch him die.

Kastian and I might never have liked each other much, but we’d still known each other practically our whole lives.

I didn’t want to kill him—I didn’t want to kill anyone . ”

“Thank you,” I say hollowly. “For not killing him.”

She laughs harshly. “Would you still thank me if I told you I wondered for years if I did the right thing? My father called me a coward and punished me for decades over it, and in the end I don’t think I really helped Kastian at all because he got sent to Dyaspora instead, and I’ve heard that’s worse than death. ”

I stare blankly at her. This is all so desperately sad and twisted, I’m not sure what I should think. I just feel numb.

“Why are you really here, Lyra?” I ask finally. “Why tell me all this?”

She sits up straighter, rolling her shoulders. “Because I want to help.”

I assess her. “Why?”

“Because my father is the definition of evil.”

I choke. “On that we can agree.”

She scowls. “He can’t be allowed to control the kingdom any longer. There’s so much more that I know that I could tell you…why he’s been obsessed with allying with Vernallis, what he wants to do with Ellender…”

“It’s for precisely that reason that I wanted to come here in the first place.

I never had any intention of getting married, but we—Vernallis, I mean—needed information.

I know Magnus can’t be allowed to simply exist beside Vernallis, and our court will need to do something about him, even if Kastian never wants to take his throne back. ”

Lyra winces. “He won’t be taking his throne back.”

“I know, he doesn’t want to?—”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” She looks pained. “Shit, I meant to get you out of the tower first before talking about this.”

“About what?” I ask dangerously.

She closes her eyes. “I came up here to help, yes, but also to tell you that you don’t have to marry my father to try and save Kastian…because he’s already dead.”

I hear her, but the words don’t penetrate.

The world reels. I hear her say it—hear the syllables, register the words—but my mind simply refuses to shape them into a reality that can exist.

That’s impossible. It can’t be dead, because I can still feel the bond pulsing in my chest. He can’t be dead, because most people don’t survive the severing of a bond.

“You’re lying,” I hiss. I shake my head, still not fully comprehending. “I don’t believe you. That’s impossible. I would have felt it.”

Lyra’s brow wrinkles. “Felt what?”

“The bond,” I say, clutching my chest, as if I can dig through bone and muscle and find the evidence Lyra has missed.

“It—it’s still here.” I press my palm harder, expecting to feel blood or maybe a name seared into my skin, but there’s nothing except the anxious, frantic beat of my heart. “I would have known.”

Lyra looks away. “Maybe you haven’t processed it yet. Maybe it takes time.”

“It doesn’t take time,” I shoot back, too sharp. “Bonds don’t just linger after death. They snap. They shatter. People have—” I falter. “Some people die from it. If he were dead, I would know.”

“I’m not lying. I knew he would be in the dungeon where my father always keeps prisoners. I got to him a few days ago, then I went and found some people to help…but when we got back he wasn’t responsive.”

“Wasn’t responsive?” I ask sharply. “That’s not the same as dead.”

“In this case it is—or, it will be. My father likes to use this sedative on his victims. It paralyzes your entire body while causing extreme pain.”

She shudders, and I’m suddenly certain beyond a shred of doubt that Magnus has used it on her before. I remember like it was yesterday, hiding under the desk while Lyra tried to say she didn’t want to kill anyone and Magnus warned her what would happen if she disobeyed.

Lyra swallows thickly. “If you use enough sedatives over time, or too much at once, the body forgets how to breathe and you suffocate, all the while fully aware of what’s going on.

That’s the point Kastian was at right before I came up here, and there’s no antidote to the sedative, so even if he’s not dead yet, it’s only a matter of hours. I’m sorry.”

My ears ring and I stare blankly into space.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel the bond break? Or maybe it’s just that I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel. Maybe I’m defective and our bond is broken, and now I’ll never get a chance to fix it. It’s too late.

“I’m sorry,” Lyra says again. “Really, I am. I didn’t want to be the one to tell you, but I thought you deserved to know. You shouldn’t get married because you think my father will let him go…that would never happen anyway.”

What am I supposed to do now?

I feel numb—distant—as if I’m someone else standing off to the side and watching myself sitting on the bed. I nod, or at least try to, but my head is too heavy, as if it might snap off my neck.

If Kastian is dead, then what’s the point of any of this?

My eyes land on the ocean, and I swear, it’s as if the water calls out to me, begging me to go home.