Page 36

The Last Thing We Expected

P ella shakes her head. “No. We all bowed to Meren. You included, Father. You swore—”

“Of course I did,” Cainis snarls. “How else was I going to get in here and take back Aryd for all the true Arydians?”

My shoulders snap back so hard, he might as well have slapped me. “ I am an Arydian.” I point at Tabra. “ She is the firstborn daughter of Antiamos, son of Queen Altice, rightful heir to the throne of Aryd. It doesn’t get more Arydian than that.”

“So you say,” he sneers.

The hells?

Cainis turns in a circle, meeting the gaze of every leader in this room as he raises his voice. “You know my Enfernae power is the ability to see the truth of people’s words…and I say to you that these two supposed princesses have been lying .”

Lying?

Fury and disbelief sears down my throat and into my gut to swirl in a potent poisonous concoction. “We’re not lying—”

“They have no proof of who they truly are.” He shakes his head, his expression disappointed, as if he’s reprimanding a recalcitrant child.

No proof? Is he kidding me? I’m going to kill this man, bury my knives in him a hundred times the second I get the chance.

“How deliciously logical,” another Shadow comments.

And then another slides in with, “I never trusted the man.”

After that they all get too loud to pick out specific words. “I entered the land of death!” I snap at Cainis as I try to wrangle them. But I’m too angry, my control slipping more with every passing second.

“Only your sister and the old woman you claimed was the queen’s sister saw you.”

I point outside. “Bene follows me. He knows me.”

He openly scoffs. “Are we really going to allow a Devourer to vouch for them?”

“Our vizier, Ishaf—”

“On the way here, I found that old man dead in the streets wearing nothing but beggar’s clothes. He was the only supposed ‘leader’ from the palace to come to our talks with your faithful servant.”

“One less traitor for us to deal with,” the Shadows crow.

I don’t have time to register the lance of pain that pierces my chest at the news of Ishaf’s death before Cainis continues.

“And that is the biggest proof we have of your lies. I’ve known you since you were a child—a poor, city waif. And your twin, supposedly the princess, is in a relationship with her servant. No royal would ever lower themselves to familiarity let alone love for a servant. The ridiculous stories you two are weaving are as flimsy as spider silk.” He shakes his head. “Not to mention what I have the power to see.” His face contorts. “Every word you’ve uttered since my son brought you to me from the Shadowood has been a lie .”

Cainis scans the room again, the faces of our allies. I don’t need to look to know they’re as stunned as I am. The expression he aims at me is curled with satisfaction because no one else is arguing. No one is standing up for me.

“Kill him,” they urge me. “Show these fools what happens to those who stand against you.”

I reach for Eidolon’s power. The only power I have that can stop this bastard traitor—

A warm hand lands on mine, and suddenly Reven is beside me. His turquoise eyes glitter with anger, but he shakes his head at me. At me . “Easy,” he whispers.

But that only whips up my own mounting anger.

Easy?

Goddess damned easy?

I’ll show them all easy.

Darkness within the corners of the room rises around us, but the way those shadows rear up, out of control, it finally strikes me. That’s why Reven’s telling me to be easy. I’m doing it again. It’s happening again.

“You see!” Cainis’s voice rings with triumph and surety. “She is dangerous to us, and so is the Shadowraith she bonded with.”

The others probably don’t see Reven’s reaction, but his hand clamps down on mine so hard I have to keep from wincing or closing my eyes.

Now he knows.

Blast. That was a conversation I should have had with him in private.

“I bet he remembers everything ,” Cainis accuses. “These liars are all a danger to us. I know the truth. The true princess was killed by Eidolon even before the coronation.” He points a beefy finger at Pollux, still trapped in the metal chair. “ He will tell you.”

Pella takes a halting step forward but lowers her head, gaze on her feet as if she’s submitting. Her words say otherwise. “Don’t do this, Father.”

“Hold your tongue, Daughter,” the zariph snarls, “or I’ll cut it out of your mouth.”

“No.” She snaps her head up, and her eyes glisten with tears. “My power comes from yours. I don’t see truth…I see emotion.” She takes a shuddering breath, and because this is Pella, who has always yearned for her father’s love and approval all her life, I know exactly how hard standing up to him is for her. “Take it back or I’ll tell them the truth.”

Shock widens Cainis’s eyes before he surges forward. “I always knew you were a snake in the grass.”

“No—” Magda puts out a hand, but the zariph shrugs her off.

Pella closes her eyes as if she can’t stand to look at them. “My father’s emotions are a swirl of greed for power and…lies. He is the liar here.”

“Damn you.” Cainis’s body shakes with rage. “You are no daughter of mine.”

Pella’s shoulders fall as she rounds in on herself.

Cainis looks to Ledenon. “Take the false princesses and their cohorts to the dungeons where they will await trial for their sins.”

“No.”

The word—soft, yet hard as a boulder around which a raging river breaks—comes from Cain.