Page 6 of Lies That Blemish (The Ember War #3)

Aisling

I played the role of the newly engaged bride very well. Alek and I held hands and even shared a public kiss, which sent the crowd wild with clapping. We ate and drank and danced as if our country weren’t currently at war on two borders.

When it was all over, Alek was there, like a loyal puppy, asking again if I wanted his company to camp out at the entrance of the Wilds to wait for Valor.

I couldn’t help but think of Kohen’s letter.

I see you married to Alek and me married to Anika. We are at peace in our own separate countries. You are decently content, having chosen duty over love. In this future, Luska is still a threat and you fight them until the day you die.

I noticed he said you are decently content, having chosen duty over love. Not we are content. Did that mean he would regret marrying Anika for duty and heirs?

“I think I’d like to be alone, if that’s okay,” I told him.

He nodded as if he expected that.

“I had fun tonight,” he told me, leaning forward to plant a kiss on my cheek. He gazed down at me, eyes blazing as if asking for more than a cheek kiss, and I stepped back a little. “Me too.”

He nodded, looking a little dejected. “See you soon. Send word when Valor makes it out, so I don’t worry.”

Because he was an amazing guy and worrying about my sister who he knew was important to me. Ugh .

“I will,” I told him, and then he left as I met Elaine outside with my packed duffle bag and got into our waiting car.

“Have you checked on the girls?” I asked. We’d moved them back in town when everything quieted on the Luska front. They were in the new willow tree house, and I requested to work out of Riverine as often as I could now that Sky Reach army base was basically dead. Luska wasn’t fighting, which made me nervous. Were they building stockpiles? Preparing for a big hit? I didn’t like the quiet. Half of our military was on leave, just waiting for orders.

The other half was in a watered-down war with Imbria.

“They’re worried about Valor. Gwen is going to let them stay up late in case you send word.”

Victory and Virtue had never slept a night away from Valor their entire life as far as I could remember. This would impact them all, and I hoped my sister was doing okay in the Wilds.

“Has Valor sent up any flares? It’s been several hours.”

Elaine nodded. “Green flares every hour. She’s moving north.”

Okay. That was good. I felt my body relax. “Let’s camp at the northern entrance, then, and be ready to assess any injuries when she gets out.”

Elaine relayed that to the driver, and we set off that way. Liana flew above us as Vespa curled up on the seat in front of us. It was already near midnight. We wouldn’t reach the northern entrance to the Wilds for a few hours. I might as well sleep in the car.

Elaine lowered her voice: “Do you believe Kohen can see the future?”

I chewed my lip. “Yes.”

She sat back in her seat and relaxed.

“Why do you look relieved?” I asked her.

She snapped her head in my direction. “Did you read his letter?”

“Not the whole thing.”

Her eyes widened. “Aisling, he said at the very end not to worry about Valor, that she would bond a powerful creature and come out alive. That he’s made sure of her safety.”

Shock ripped through me, and I sat up straighter. “What?”

“Would he lie?” Elaine asked.

“Of course he would! He killed my father,” I snapped. But it didn’t seem like Kohen to randomly lie about my sister. Unless… I didn’t ever really know Kohen in the first place.

“Probably not about this,” I amended, feeling a little better myself. “What do you think he meant by him making sure of her safety?”

Elaine shook her head. “I don’t know, but we’ve sent seven firebombs over the border since Valor stepped into the Wilds, and Kohen hasn’t sent any back.”

I frowned. “Stop sending them until she makes it out. Maybe that’s what Kohen meant about keeping her safe. He’s not going to fight us until she gets out.”

Elaine looked honestly confused. “Why would he do that, Aisling?”

But she looked nowhere near as confused as I felt. If you were to look inside of me, I’d be twisted into knots. Nothing made sense anymore.

“I don’t know.”

‘Because he loves you.’

‘Funny way of showing his love,’ I snapped back to Liana. I hated that we argued now.

“Can I ask you something, Elaine?” I peered at the woman who raised me.

She simply nodded. I glanced at the partition to make sure it was raised between us and Verik.

“Do you think my father would have hurt me? When I left for boot camp, you seemed like you wanted to tell me something. Like a warning.”

Elaine’s cheeks went pink, and she wrung her hands together. Even Vespa perked her head up and peered at me. “Yes, I think he would have hurt you to keep you from getting more powerful than him, but I don’t think he would have killed you like Kohen claims.”

I was completely thrown by her answer.

“I’m his heir,” I protested.

She nodded, meeting my eyes. “And there was nothing your father loved more than himself.”

Ouch . But was she wrong? Even I would admit I was terrified to get a creature more powerful than him going into the Wilds, because I knew it would be frowned on by him. I was terrified of a lot when it came to my father, and I was just now questioning how normal that was.

“Hurt me how?” I asked her.

Elaine flicked her gaze to me again, appearing more nervous than I’d ever seen her.

“Elaine, if you know something?—”

“I overheard him in his office… when you were in the Wilds. When word got back that you had perished, but that before doing so, you’d bonded a Talanagi.”

I leaned forward so that I could be sure to hear every word.

“And…?”

She chewed her lip. “I wasn’t eavesdropping. I’d been carrying a lot of the girls’ laundry down the hall, and a bunch of socks slipped from my hands, and I had to bend down and pick them up?—”

“Elaine, I don’t care!” I told her.

“I heard him tell someone to ‘Get the firebird and make sure she didn’t bond . ’”

I gasped, sitting back in my seat as her words sank into me. “You think he knew I would rebirth?” I asked her after a long time in silence.

We were on the highway now, trees passing by as we made our way north.

“I do. He had old books with knowledge in them of the Talanagi, and when he heard you bonded a firebird, I think he knew rebirth was possible.”

No .

“Do you think he was behind Liana’s kidnapping, to keep us from bonding and becoming too powerful?” I asked her, my heart racing in my chest. Why hadn’t she told me any of this before!?

She pursed her lips. “I do. But I don’t think he would ever kill you, Aisling.”

Holy crap .

My breath came out in short bursts as Elaine squirmed next to me on the seat.

“You should have told me sooner,” I said.

“I didn’t think it mattered. Once you were bonded and off to boot camp, it wouldn’t matter.”

But it did matter.

“Elaine, the men holding Liana that night had Marble Shore accents. But then, when we got attacked at the train during our boot camp final, Luskins showed up, and Liana remembered their smell.”

Elaine frowned. “What does that mean?”

No… no. This couldn’t be true.

“It means if my father was behind Liana’s kidnapping to keep us from bonding… then he somehow hired Luskins.”

She frowned. “No. That’s not possible. He hated Luska.”

I nodded, and then everything got really quiet. For the first time since hearing Kohen’s wild lies about my father, I became really afraid. Terrified that he might actually be telling the truth.

I was no longer tired; I was wide awake and going through every conversation I’d ever had with my father, every glare he’d ever given me, every correction to my behavior.

“Elaine?” She was leaning against the window, and I wasn’t sure if she was asleep or not, but when she turned to face me, I saw that she was near tears.

Did she feel guilty for not telling me that sooner? Was she also replaying everything my father ever did or said to me to see if he was capable of murdering me?

“When you had the movers clean out my father’s office, did you keep his things?”

She nodded. “In a secure storage unit, under guard. He had high-profile paperwork.”

“Have everything brought to my office at the house. I want to go over it all.”

I hated that I was doing this—that I had to. No one wanted to suspect their own father of hurting them. I felt sick to my stomach even thinking about it. He was strict, harsh even, but he would never plot to kill me.

Right?

I expected Liana to burst her way into my head then and tell me how she was glad I was finally looking into Kohen’s claims about my father, but she was silent.

‘I take no pleasure in your pain, young one,’ she said then, and my heart fissured. I’d been so hard on her for the past two months, constantly at odds and fighting against her advice.

‘I’m sorry. Kohen broke my ability to fully trust anymore,’ I told her honestly.

‘And he will have to answer for that. But he might also be right.’

I was not prepared for that. No way in any of the sixty days since Kohen admitted to killing my father and accusing him of a plot to kill me, did I think he could have been right.

I couldn’t even comprehend it, so I sat back in the dark car and let the numbness seep in.