Lie.
I froze. The sudden voice came from inside my head. But it wasn’t Thaan’s.
It was feminine. Ethereal. Sharp, but almost dreamily sharp.
Celestial.
Lie, Cebrinne. If you want to hide your future, you’ll lie.
I opened my mouth.
Lie, Cebrinne!
Thaan’s hold tightened, squeezing the answer from me.
Inside myself, I squirmed. “I couldn’t let myself develop feelings for him.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m planning to leave—”
The fine hair on my arm lifted as light blared through the window. Light so close to the tower Thaan shielded his eyes with an arm. It burned into my retinas, a vein of white branded behind my eyes. The sky cracked. Loud enough to rip the world apart. The tower vibrated under my feet. Thaan stood, straining to see through the tall glass.
The door of my apartment flew open.
“Cebrinne!” Pheolix blew into the room, his gray eyes wild. He paused at seeing Thaan standing next to me, though the stumble in his gaze recovered just as fast. In his arms, a lumpy shape lay under his black cloak. Warm air summoned steam from the wet fabric. It dripped a trail of watery red, and just over his shoulder, a crown of dark waves peeped under a hood.
The dots connected. My mouth opened on what should have been a strangled gasp. But Thaan commanded me; I couldn't make a sound.
Thaan turned on his heel, tunic flapping behind him as he walked. “Bring her here.” We followed him through the shared study, to his apartment on the other side. Pheolix laid Selena on the table. Her eyes rolled tothe back of her head, open and unseeing. Knife wounds shone crimson in her legs, her arm punctured with a blunt edge and something that marbled her flesh the way a burn sears through skin. But my eyes immediately targeted a gouge in her stomach, jagged and angry. Deep.
Thaan made a noise low in his throat. Moisture blurred the air around his fingers as he set to work, calling Selena’s blood to create fresh tissue, closing gaps and sewing them together. “Who.”
Pheolix’s eyes blazed. “Emilius.”
“Fool,” Thaan spat. “She was supposed to get him drunk.Youwere supposed to watch her.”
Staring at Selena, Pheolix’s jaw rotated, the square corners of it firming to rough edges. The drone cradled a fist in his other hand as though resisting the urge to bludgeon the table with it. But he said nothing.
Selena’s lungs stuttered.
The room dropped into silence. We all watched the slow fall of her ribs. Waited for the rise of it to follow. For the sound of her heart. Neither came.
Liquid terror propelled me to the table, reaching for her chest, static already sparking in my hand. Thaan shoved me aside with an arm. “Stay out of the way,” he snarled.
But I couldn’t stand the thought of just watching. Doing nothing. Condensation ran from my elbows, dripping off my fingers, my body begging to call to the water.
My twin lurched under Thaan’s command.
I watched a piece of myself dying on that table. One of the fractured shards of my soul, losing life one second at a time. Color left her skin, drenching her in white. The artery ticking in her neck lay still.
Thaan squeezed again. Selena jolted.
And then it was back. The soft flutter of blood between chambers.
“Selena,” Pheolix breathed, his voice heavy with fear and relief.
She moaned, legs shifting.
