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Except those few times. The only times in her life, before now, when Jade had felt lonely .

Not just because Arden wasn’t with her. Because the hawk didn’t circle her when she was alone.

Oh, Triada…how could I have been so blind? If the hawk had been protecting her , those were the moments it should have been most diligent, weren’t they? When she had no companion by her side? But no. Those were the moments she was unwatched.

Because she wasn’t the one the hawk had ever been watching.

Arden. It had been Arden. It had always been Arden.

Her pulse galloped, partly in relief and partly in absolute, complete, total terror.

She looked over at Librus again, who had fallen silent and was once more watching the jellyfish.

Even after she swallowed, she wasn’t sure she could speak.

But she made herself, though it came out a whisper.

“How did you know, though, that it was me? And not one of my friends…or my sister?”

Librus turned toward her again, gaze warm. Fond. Possessive? “There was no question. Not when I saw you. Your beauty was a beacon proclaiming the truth. I don’t know how you ever could have doubted that you were touched by magic.”

She hadn’t, honestly. She’d wished it. Prayed it. But never quite believed it. She’d always felt, deep down, that her dreams were in direct opposition of the truth. A denial of what absolutely everyone believed her to be.

How could she not believe it, when they did? Even her mother, who had answers to the questions Jade had never asked about her father, had made comments over the years about her coming Awakening, researching recessive magic and how and when it might show up?

Geysers, she felt like a complete fool.

Arden had been in the water with her the day she was taken. Arden had cut herself too. There’d been a flourish, yes—but it hadn’t been Jade’s. It had been Arden’s . And who had the hawk dove for? Arden .

Which meant…she didn’t know. But Arden would have gone through her Ceremony yesterday. She’d know, now. They all would.

Her heart felt as though it split in two.

If she was right, then Arden would have been Awakened, and Jade hadn’t been there to watch the complete surprise overtake her.

To see whatever magic this was that kept a hawk circling her manifest for the first time.

She’d missed it, the most important day in the life of one of the most important people in her world.

Then the pain petrified. Because if it was Arden, then it wasn’t her, which meant…which meant…

They were going to kill her. When they took her to that island and cut her finger and saw nothing , they would kill her.

They wouldn’t even be appeased if she had the magic she’d always feared, the regular water magic.

That wasn’t what they needed from her. They wanted sky magic, and she was suddenly sure that she didn’t have it.

Librus sat up, swung his legs over the side of the chaise nearest her, and reached over to rest his hand on her wrist. Calm washed through her, her pulse slowing from its race, the acid in her stomach settling.

But she knew it for what it was—him. Not her own calm, not a peace given by the Triada. Another manipulation.

“I can see how much you miss your family,” he said softly, rubbing his thumb over her forearm.

“And I’m sorry for that. Truly. I am sorry that saving my family meant abandoning yours.

But it won’t be for much longer. I promise you, Jade.

Once we’ve Awakened you, once we’ve neutralized Mariana, we’ll return to your home.

You can visit with them, invite them here for as long as they’d like. Just a little while longer.”

She told her lips to curve up a little. And focused on the soft tingling where he touched her.

It wasn’t like the way her hand tingled when Storm held it—that was chemistry.

This was only magic. His, entering her body as it had done so many times.

She homed in on it, followed it. Testing.

Trying. When he initiated a bond like this, could she follow it back?

“Perhaps my mother will come for a while,” she said, needing to keep him distracted.

“But Papa wouldn’t be able to get away from his duties for longer than a few days.

And my sister—Arden is too claustrophobic.

She can barely stand to be inside a house on land, she’d go crazy in one of these domes where she can’t see the sky even through a window. ”

Would he realize what she did, what it meant? Would he recognize the mistake he’d made and kill her now?

No—because she did glimpse something, an impression from his mind. One, fleeting, foggy, fuzzy. But she knew it for what it was. What Electra had warned her about. Desire, bright and blinding.

He wouldn’t see the truth because he didn’t want to. He’d set his sights on her in more ways than one.

It would protect her, for now. But those blinders would fall when her blood only clouded again in the bowl, even on land. He’d know then.

And she would die.

Just a little while longer , he’d said. A little while longer to come up with a plan to survive the truth of who she wasn’t.