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Nerys made her way to Adelyna’s bedroom, where the new R?ll lay on the bed.

Color had returned to her cheeks, but Nerys knew all too well that Adelyna was exhausted.

She felt Adelyna’s pain herself, and Adelyna didn’t have whatever Vine did to help, the invisible weight that seemed to press on her soul, even as it strengthened her body.

The servants left the two of them alone, shutting the door.

“Nerys,” Adelyna said, reaching out a hand. “Come here.”

Nerys walked up to Adelyna and tried to bow. “None of that,” Adelyna snapped and tapped on the bed for emphasis. “Come here.”

With a nod, Nerys obeyed and took a seat on Adelyna’s bed and grabbed her hand.

Once seated, the two of them stared at each other, while the logs in the fireplace cracked in the heat.

What were they supposed to say, after all of this?

The peasant and the ruler? The curse-bound and the demon-bound? What was to come next?

“Are you well?” Nerys asked.

“I am.” Adelyna smiled. “Thanks to you.”

“I did nothing.”

Adelyna chuckled. “Except become a legend.”

“I don’t—”

“How many Sight Bearers have you seen with their demons?” Adelyna’s eyes flashed at Nerys. “There is a lot you don’t know. They’re like gods.” 221

Vine—and any hint to his potential power—was the last thing she wanted to talk about. “Like how Idris is your cousin?”

A pause settled over the room. Adelyna took a deep breath, as if weighing how much to tell her. “Why didn’t you tell me about Idris?” Adelyna asked. “Why didn’t you tell me he was involved? I could have warned you.”

Hot tears rose to Nerys’s eyes. “I thought you would hurt him,” she croaked. “And Qiana, too. I thought you would misunderstand… I was so so stupid. He’s from Cerdoran, an enemy. I didn’t think you would see past that.”

“You’re not stupid. You’re gullible.”

“Same thing.”

Adelyna met Nerys’s gaze. “No, it’s not. This wasn’t your fault. Not entirely—my father would have killed me with or without your involvement. As for Idris…I can’t pretend that the concealment doesn’t hurt, but I understand it. You did save my life when all is said and done.”

“So, he is your cousin?”

“Unfortunately. He’s the bastard son of my father’s now-dead brother. His mother is the Queen of Cerdoran. They do not care about bastardy there, unless its convenient.”

“Then…how…”

“How what?”

“The R?ll recognized him.”

Adelyna took a deep breath. “We weren’t always at war.

Father tried to have a relationship with him, for his brother’s sake, before…

the differences in our kingdoms pulled us apart.

Namely, Father was concerned that Idris would try to supplant me and my brothers, using his connection to our throne.

He is older than me. Father tried to befriend him, make him think the family tie was more important.

Or Father thought it could be exploited, at any rate. ”

“He’s a bastard.”

Adelyna snorted. “He is also an older son with royal blood. He could have caused trouble for us, if he made a mind to. And he did.”

“But he doesn’t have the stone eyes. He could never be accepted as Ca’mail’s R?ll.”

“Neither do I,” Adelyna said softly.

Fuck. “That wasn’t what I meant,” Nerys said. “It’s just, I’ve seen how much difficulty the court has given you, when there is no dispute that you are the R?ll’s daughter. I can’t believe that Idris would be able to manage the kingdom.”

“Maybe he wouldn’t have had the support.

Maybe he thought he’d be able to overpower any protests.

Maybe he didn’t think that far ahead. Maybe there was something that he could have arranged with Beleth to help him take power in the chaos.

” Adelyna shrugged and looked down at her hands. “I don’t know.”

Nerys bit her lip. She didn’t mean to aggravate Adelyna—there were just so many pieces of this that did not fit together. “I’m sorry. I hope you know I think you will be a great R?ll.”

“I do.” Adelyna smiled lightly. “I’m tired too. And…distracted.”

“Understandable.”

Adelyna’s eyebrow crept up. “You’re wondering something else, aren’t you?”

A lot of things. “I…how does Qiana fit into this? She knew Idris.”

“The two of them share a grandparent through Idris’s mother. She spent time in Cerdoran as a child.” Adelyna’s lips set in a line. “I should have expected that she would have kept some connections.”

There was so much that none of them told her. Idris. Qiana. It was all a mess, and Nerys was nothing but a pawn in it. Did any of them care about her at all? Did anyone?

“Don’t cry,” Adelyna said. She leaned forward and placed a warm hand on Nerys’s face. “We won. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore.”

“How can you say that? You’re still at war with Cerdoran. And the curse…”

Adelyna’s eyes darkened. “Don’t worry about the curse.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“I’m not my father. It will not rule me.” Adelyna shifted. “I don’t want it to claim you, too. Promise me you won’t try to break it. No matter what.”

Nerys hesitated. That Adelyna was now subject to the same curse that seemed to drive every other ruler mad with power was unthinkable, but so was Qiana, dead from some mysterious fluke.

“I promise. I will not try to break it.”

“Good,” Adelyna whispered as she brushed Nerys’s cheek with her thumb. Nerys’s heart raced and her breath caught in her throat. “But now,” Adelyna said, “I just want you with me. I have so much to do, and I want someone I can trust.”

“You’re the R?ll now.”

Adelyna smiled. “I am the R?ll. And I have a war to win.”

“A war.”

“Yes.” Adelyna’s eyes darkened. “I ask you, Nerys,” Adelyna said, taking her hand from Nerys’s face and cupping Nerys’s hands in her own, “will you stay with me?”

Nerys smiled. “Of course. Of course, I will stay with you. Always.”