“So why can you tell me this now?” I say, wondering if Leon has another excuse left to give.
“I was waiting until Gallis and I became convinced you could provide a cure for Fairon,” Leon says. “Then the life-or-death conditions would apply. The proctor has been getting more hopeful every day, but I’d already found ways I could get you to explore that idea without you knowing exactly why.” He drops his gaze again. “Then this morning?—”
He stops, clearly thinking about the attack.
“When I saw you in the library, I realized this was already life-or-death for you,” he continues. “Wherever you go, you’re being hunted, and you should at least know why you’re here in the first place. Gallis thinks you can provide a cure, and I knew it was time I used the loophole available to me so I could explain why we’re doing all this.”
So it took me nearly dying for him to conclude that it was worth enlightening me. And what’s worse is, I’m not really surprised. Leon is not an open person at the best of times. Now it turns out it’s only been a matter of days that he could really tell me anything about this terrible secret he’s been carrying around for years.
I pull my hands from Leon’s, grabbing the jar of salve and standing.
“I need to think,” I say.And I can’t do it with you right beside me,I don’t add.
Leon takes a step after me, and when he speaks, I hear something strange in his tone. Something I’m not used to: fear.
“Morgana, can you really tell me you would’ve said yes at the border, if I’d been able to ask this of you back then?”
“I said I need tothink,” I repeat. He sighs, but nods. He’ll grant my request. Still, he can’t resist one more turn of the screw before I go.
“You know, I believe the gods brought us together for many reasons,” he says. “But this is definitely one of them. You’re the only person alive who might be able to save my brother, Morgana. The question is whether you’ll try.”
Chapter 8
Morgana
“And then he said it’s up to me whether I’ll try.”
I pace back and forth across my bedroom, an echo of Leon half an hour ago. Tira watches me from where she’s perched cross-legged on her bed. The balm is soothing the sting of my cuts as we speak, but it hasn’t relieved any of my agitation from my conversation with him.
“It’s totally unfair for him to put that on you after everything he’s done,” Tira says.
“Exactly! And then he has the audacity to say he could find a way to tell that dryad in Hallowbane about all this, but not me? After he let me into hisbed.”
“Bastard,” Tira says, thumping her fist into her pillow for emphasis. “I hope the tips of his pointy ears shrivel up and fall off.”
I snort, feeling the blessed relief of having Tira at my side, making stupid jokes to brighten the clouds hanging over me.
“Thank you for not judging me,” I say. “About Leon.”
I filled Tira in on everything that had happened between Leon and me after we crossed the border. At first, I wasn’t sure how she’d react. EvenIthought I was a complete idiot for getting involved with the man who’d so painfully betrayed me. Yet she just made some wisecrack and told me we all make mistakes.
Now she shrugs. “There’s nothing to judge. To be honest, you and the Nightmare Prince is still much easier to stomach than you and my brother.”
She grins as I make a rude gesture at her, but even our usual banter can’t distract me. I sigh.
“He knew what my power meant to me, and he took it from me. He did the thing he knew would hurt most, and to add insult to injury, he did it while lying to me and hiding things from me.”
Damia was right that day on the boat. He really is a soldier—with a soldier’s ruthlessly practical mindset. Even after Gallis thought I could provide a cure, he wasn’t going to tell me about Fairon if he didn’t have to.
I suppose hestilldidn’t have to, really. The explanation may have come far too late, but he decided to tell me of his own accord.
“Would you have agreed to come here with him if he had told you everything?” Tira asks, echoing Leon’s question. “Did you trust him enough—care about him enough—back then to choose this over us squirrelling ourselves away in Gullert with Will?”
“Yes.” I hesitate. “No. I don’t know.” I throw myself down on my own bed, staring at the ceiling. “The point is he never even gave me the chance to decide. He took the choice away from me because protecting his brother was more important than respecting my freedom.”
“I mean, we all do crazy shit for our family,” Tira says tentatively.
“That’s the worst bit!” I say, rubbing my hand across my face before I remember the cuts there and hiss in pain. “Part of me understands why he did it. Of course I do. But it doesn’t mean I owe him anything, not after the way he’s handled things. Even if Icouldhelp his brother. Which I highly doubt.”
