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Reyla

“ L orant.” My hoarse cry echoed in the room as I grabbed his shoulders and dragged him onto his back, shaking him. His head lolled.

I pressed my ear to his chest, and the steady beat of his heart reassured me.

He sucked in one breath of air. Another. And barked out a groan, his hands jerking up to palm his face.

“Get out of here,” he snarled. “Can’t…see me like this.”

“You’re hurt. What happened?”

“I am fine .”

“You don’t look fine,” I snarled right back at him. “I thought you were dead.”

“It’ll take more than that to kill me. But don’t worry, Wildfire. If you stay around long enough, you’ll find your reward.”

“I don’t actually want you dead,” I said in a stilted way, sounding as prissy as he’d first assumed me to be.

He nudged me to the side and lurched upright, turning to sit, pressing his back against the bed. His sneering gaze met mine and pinned me in place. “I told you to leave.”

“You don’t get any say in this.”

One of his eyebrows jerked up. “Do you truly believe that? If anything, I have all the say in this.”

“Not if you hope to make use of your willing bride.”

“You should leave. Run from the castle and never come back. We’ll only ruin you, destroy you.”

“Forget that for now. I’m here. You’re here. And I still want answers.” My growl clawed through my lungs. “Are you two separate people or…” I couldn’t believe I was even thinking this, but I needed to know. “Or are you one person who’s been…I don’t know, split?”

He blinked but said nothing.

“Speak, damn you. Are you two individuals sharing one body because of, well, the curse?”

He stared right at me, unblinking, his face cratering, his mouth pinching closed. So much agony in his eyes. It was all I could do not to hug him, to tell him this would be alright.

I suspected it would never be alright.

Where had my fury gone, my rage?

It had been ripped out of me when he collapsed, and I thought he was dead.

I turned and settled beside him, leaning against the bed, our arms and legs brushing together. It was past time I found that dragon aerie, past time I climbed onto one of them and flew away from this wretched place. I wouldn’t leave forever, though the urge to do so kept roaring through me.

The thing is, I’d run after Kinart died and again to this place where I thought I could lock my past inside a box and pretend it never existed.

I suspected if I ran this time, there would be no compartmentalizing whatever this was between me and Merrick and Lorant. And while that made frustration drag its nails across my skin, I’d changed enough over the last few months to know that running never fixed anything. Whatever you fled came with you. It would still rear up and slash your heart wide open when you least expected.

“I’m going to tell you what I know, and you’re going to listen,” I said. If I wasn’t staring up at him, I would’ve missed his blink. “Indicate if I’m right.”

When my brother told a lie, he blinked. What, if anything, could a blink reveal about Lorant?

Maybe nothing or everything.

“If I’m correct with a statement, would you blink?” I asked.

His gaze remained locked on mine, and he slow-blinked. I’d take that as agreement—for now.

“You’re Lorant.”

“No longer Lore ?”

“The nickname doesn’t feel right any longer.”

His gruff laugh echoed around us. “How ironic.”

“Why?”

“I have no problem confirming your statement. I’m Lorant, but…” He tapped the skin beside one of his eyes and blinked.

“Then you can answer some questions.”

“Yes, some, and quite easily.”

“And others?”

He flicked his hand to the floor where he’d only recently laid, not breathing.

“If you try to answer questions about you and Merrick, and the curse, something cuts off your air to keep you from speaking?” I asked.

His sigh hollowed him out, and he closed his eyes and opened them once more.

“Interesting.”

“I prefer to use the word agonizing.”

“Why did you try to tell me if it hurts you that bad?” I held up my hand. “Allow me to rephrase that. You wanted to tell me. I suspect you wish you could tell me everything.”

His face tightening, he blinked hard. Over and over until I placed my hand on his cheek.

“Stop!”

None of this could be true.

Could it?

“A few of the staff have blurted out odd things,” I said, trying to think of the better way to phrase my questions. “A curse. All the Evergorne kings dying on their thirtieth birthday. When I question them further, they stare forward blankly. They eventually come back to themselves, but it’s like they never said anything. I’m going to assume, a big guess on my part, that everything is related to the curse.”

He blinked.

I hooted, and my grin pinched my face. But when his joined in, my smile fell.

“Don’t think you’re getting off easy,” I said. “If I’m going to forgive you, I need groveling, Lorant. Solid, heartrending groveling. You two kept this from me, and I feel betrayed.”

So. Bitterly. Betrayed.

“I’m sorry.” Big words coming from Lorant, a man I suspected was stingy with his apologies.

“Everyone’s bound by the curse as well,” I said.

“ Wildfire ,” he breathed, blinking fast .

To think I was actually starting to believe this.

Somewhere, deep inside them, everyone working at Evergorne must know, but the curse kept them from remembering except for brief moments. This must be why they were compelled to remain here, each generation repeating what the last endured along with the king.

“Please ask all your questions,” he said gravely. “I’ll answer them if I’m able. Death is a cunning thing. It stalks a person and attacks when they least expect it. You’ve drawn your weapon. You’ve braced yourself for the attack. But like all the others, and despite every desperate thing you might do, you also succumb.”

There was a hidden meaning in his statement. “You mean die . All the past Evergorne kings died on their thirtieth birthday, and you have no way of stopping it from happening.”

He blinked.

Ah, answers. Sort of.

I wanted to ask him everything, but I had to take care with how I formed my questions. If a curse was controlling this court, it might not even want him to blink.

I didn’t want to lose Merrick. I didn’t want to lose Lorant. And that was the most bitter thing about this entire situation.

“It would be better if I didn’t care for either of you,” I said, sadness bruising my heart.

“Yet you do?”

A question, not Lorant’s usual drawling, snarly, cocky way of assuming everything. The vulnerability shadowing his eyes stunned and confused me. More facets of Lorant I wasn’t sure my heart could handle.

“I’m angry with you,” I said. “Still very angry.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when I grovel.”

Because he made me want to smile again, I smacked his arm. “Don’t tease. ”

“While I do enjoy teasing you, everything I say and do contains a measure of truth.”

“Truth as you see it.”

“Truth you’d do well to pay attention to.”

“Back to the curse. Why can I mention it without ramifications? I don’t blank out, staring off into the distance, and I don’t—” I gestured to the floor where, too short a time ago, he lay, nearly dying.

“Some people travel considerable distances to reach this court.”

I paused, trying to reveal the twist in his words. “You’re saying that I can speak of the curse because I’m not from Evergorne.” Or perhaps this continent. “But we’re all fae.”

“In one way or another. As for your earlier question, please delve deeper.”

“The question about you being two separate individuals or one who has been split?”

He blinked.

I tapped my chin. “We didn’t settle that yet, did we? Let me think about how to question you.”

“Is there a difference between spice cake and butter cake?”

What an odd thing to ask. “They have separate flavors, but they’re both still cake.”

He blinked.

Confused, I tipped my head back and spoke to the ceiling. “Cake is cake. Nothing else.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re saying that you’re both cake but with different flavors?”

He blinked.

I pondered that for a moment before speaking. “I’ve only seen you at night. Him during the day. Two flavors of cake but still the same sweet confection. ”

“I believe they left the sugar out of my share of the confection.”

My laugh spurted out.

His crooked smile rose to join in with mine. “You’re clever. You hold the world in your hands, Wildfire.”

“I watched as Merrick changed into you, yet you two look different.”

“Does the moon look anything like the sun?”

“They’re both balls, one too bright to stare at.” Merrick. “And the other is eclipsed by the night.” Lorant. “I’m thinking out loud, here. You control this body at night, and Merrick’s in it during the day. Are your minds connected all that time?”

He stared down at me.

“No, then. But you can communicate, at least sometimes,” I said. “I heard Merrick talking, and I assume it was him speaking with you and then you with him after the switch.”

He blinked.

Night.

Day.

“You can only communicate during dusk and dawn?” I asked.

He leaned over and kissed me.

I reeled back before my body could melt into him, and jumped to my feet. Racing across the room, I swept my blades off the floor and spun to face him.

“I don’t recall begging for your touch, Lorant,” I snarled. “We made a deal.”

He chipped out a nod, though he grumbled. “I apologize.” Rising to his feet, he strode close enough to loom over me.

Naked.

Totally, brazenly, gloriously naked .

I stumbled backward. “Don’t kiss me again.”

He kept his predator’s pace with me and would soon pin me in a corner if I didn’t take care. “I can no more stop kissing you than I can stop breathing.”

“Clichéd sentiment, Lorant. Don’t think your dubious attempts at seduction will work on me any longer.” I kept backing away from him, brandishing my blades between us. But let’s face it, for now, I wasn’t as eager to swipe them across his throat or gouge them into his chest.

“Nothing I do is dubious ,” he spat. “Everything I do has purpose.”

“So snarly.” After sheathing my daggers, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared up at him. “If you tried a little charm, you might actually make friends.”

“I don’t want friends.”

“None?”

A growl rumbled in his throat. “I can be charming.”

“Show me.”

Keeping his sultry gaze locked on mine, he bowed deeply. “Speak with me, my queen. Ask your questions, and I will answer them in the most charming way possible.”

“Blinks will do for now.”

But the longer I let all this churn through my mind, the harder it was to think of what questions to ask. There were thousands, but they were tangling together, and I couldn’t grab onto any of them long enough to spit them out.

My brain felt like it was drowning in mud. My arms and legs twitched from crawling across a freakin’ castle to get here.

There was only one way I could handle this now.

“I’m going to leave.” I met his gaze squarely. “Tell my staff that Farris and I will be away for as long as it takes.”

“As long as what takes?” His hands lifted as he stalked toward me .

Huffing, I backed into the wall. “Don’t try to follow me.”

He bellowed as I flitted from the room.