“What do you mean?” she asked, glancing between the two of them. Micah just avoided her gaze. “Where is he then?”
It was Leighton who replied, “He’s been arrested for treason by the Thundersworn Brigade.”
“Treason?” Kestrel exclaimed. But then she started piecing things together. Efrem’s absence after their encounter with Thom in the tavern. Him slamming a loud, metallic door shut when they arrived to the sand-gliders. “What in the Hollows for?”
Beside her, Micah looked apologetic, and she could’ve punched him right in those big, bulging eyes. “He was helping the Corrupt Quee—your mother when she cursed the realm. He’s been wanted for nearly two decades. It’s why we were sent to Mutiny Bay, to retrieve him.”
Kestrel had forgotten that part. It was one of the many world-shattering confessions Leighton had given her before shoving her to her death. But now that there wasn’t a bloodthirsty beast rampaging after her, she was starting to think more clearly.
“Who sent you after Thom?”
Leighton answered. “By order of the Queen of Irongate, Queen Signe.”
“But—but Thom wouldn’t do anything like that. He’s been trying to figure out how to undo the curse. He’s told me!”
“Probably out of guilt,” Leighton reasoned. Seeing how his words cut her like a knife, he softened his expression a little, tried taking a step closer as if to comfort her. But Kestrel backed away, wincing as her foot landed directly on the knife wound. Leighton acquiesced, and said softly, “We’ve been charged with apprehending him and bringing him to court,where Queen Signe will determine the sentencing for his crimes.”
Kestrel’s heart shattered.
Surely, there was a mistake. Thom clearly had his secrets, but she knew his heart was good. There was no way he would’ve willingly played a part in something as evil as what had happened to Leighton’s father. And she didn’t even want to think about what this meant about her own mother; she’d have time to grieve over her dark past later.
But she couldn’t just let them have Thom. Couldn’t let them take him to a doomed fate as well. She had to do something. But what?
“She’ll want to speak with you as well, actually,” he said, pulling her from her spiraling thoughts and into something even more worrying. “After all, she is your mother’s sister, your aunt.”
Kestrel’s thoughts halted.
At first, she wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. But when she searched Micah for that signature smirk of his or any indication that this was a cruel and twisted joke, his flatness told her it wasn’t.
But that couldn’t be right. Kestrel had never heard about an aunt before, let alone an aunt who was aqueen. Then again, she hadn’t heard about her own mother being a queen either, and what that made her?—
Kestrel growled outwardly. “Thom and his cursed secrets!” She wanted to stomp her foot, but this time thought better of it.
But something didn’t make sense. Why would Thom have kept her hidden away in the remote desert if they could’ve been living in castles or palaces like royalty—asroyalty. As a princess to one land and a niece to another?
Unless he hadn’t wanted her to meet this Queen Signe. But then that begged the question: why?
Kestrel was beginning to lose track of all the questions she had hovering over her. And without Thom there to answer any of them, she’d have to make her own decisions with what little information she had been given.
If Queen Signewasher aunt, she didn’t think she would mind meeting her. After all, she had so little family in this world already. It would be nice to…
A confusing thought slammed into her. Leighton and Micah had said that their mother had gone missing, so Kestrel had just assumed their kingdom had no queen. But perhaps that had just been another of their lies, one meant to garner her sympathy and trust. Now she was finding out their kingdom had a queen—not only a queen, but one that Kestrel was also related to.
And with that realization, a sickening dread pooled in her gut.
“Wouldn’t that make us siblings!” Kestrel’s eyes bulged, horror threatening to implode her stomach. She hobbled the few short steps over to Leighton just to shove her hands at his strong chest. “But we kissed!”
“I knew it!” shouted Micah, jutting an accusatory finger at his brother.
Leighton held up his arms in defense. “We’re not related, just to be clear.”
“What do you mean we’re not related? If your mother is also my aunt, then?—”
“She is not my mother,” Leighton said firmly, his nose wrinkling as if the very notion repulsed him. And she supposed she was glad it did. He pointed between himself and Micah. “Our mother went missing years ago, shortly after the twins were born. That was the truth. And our father’s betrothal to Signe hadn’t even been completed by the time the curse came. It twisted them both though, so Signeremained, acting as the Queen of Irongate while we wait for…”
His voice trailed off, his eyes going distant. But she couldn’t afford the darkness to consume him. She still had questions.
Kestrel snapped her fingers before his nose. “And what happened to Queen Signe? With the curse, I mean. How was she able to stay at the castle, when your father wasn’t?”
