CHAPTER 24

Tarron strode beside me, straight back and chin held high. I tried to keep my expression void of emotion, but I was confident he caught me side-eyeing him as we moved through the manor.

It was his ever-widening grin that gave him away.

"I feel as though it is only polite to ask how your stay in Aurelia has been. Although I am more than aware of the events that have occurred, which seem truly ghastly. And I admit, Lady Kelsey may have the same goal in mind as I, but I would never go so far as to threaten a guest in my home."

His arrogant tone had my hackles rising. "Lady Kelsey has not yet been put to trial."

"Do you believe she is innocent?"

"Until proven guilty… isn't that how the saying goes?"

Tarron clicked his tongue over his perfectly straight teeth. The sound made my skin shiver. "I know little of the humans and their ways, nor do I particularly care to know. But I admit you intrigue me."

"I'm not human," I retorted, wishing our destination would hurry up. "Not completely."

"Well, wouldn't that depend on your decision?"

Perhaps accepting Tarron's invitation was a mistake. Queen Lyra had made it clear that Tarron knew the location of Father's dwelling and was well equipped to guide me. It aided in confirming that he was clearly trusted by the queen, but something about him unsettled me.

As soon as we'd left them, grieving in their thrones, I wished I had listened to Erix. I wondered where he would be. What he would be thinking. Even now, I could still feel the lingering taste of his distrust and anger towards Tarron. Compared to Erix and his rather lacklustre ability to talk about himself, I placed my bets that Tarron would be easier to get answers out of. He was clearly the type who enjoyed hearing his own voice.

"I think my blood, and ears, would already suggest that my end decision has nothing to do with who I am."

"But you are not full-blooded fey. Not an uncommon occurrence among our kind. But you are not just a mundane human either. You are an Icethorn, if you wish to be. I still cannot believe an Icethorn would have found themselves entangled with a human, creating off-spring."

"You speak of me as though I'm cattle." Even I winced at the snap of my voice. "Don't. It's not very becoming."

"Becoming." Tarron repeated, chuckling as though this was a game. "I suppose it is not. I am simply trying to explain how this works and what makes you such an interest in my eyes. When word about you reached me, I knew I had to see for myself. I practically waited for the invitation at my borders. Then when I arrived and found you had gone, I felt some disappointment."

"Nice to know that I cause you discomfort, Tarron," I said coldly. "Even if I'm a little sorry about that."

Tarron slowed his pace as we rounded a corridor, approaching two closed doors before us. Without hesitation, he reached for the one on the right, as though he knew these pathways and rooms beyond like the lines on his palm. This was not his court, but he clearly believed it could be. He knew it well enough.

"Take my advice, Robin. Those of our standing should never apologise."

"So people keep telling me." I followed him through the door, the smooth ground giving way to a narrow, winding staircase. "I believed you didn't want to see me as an equal though. Like you said, you and Lady Kelsey have one thing in common. Neither of you wants to see me claim Icethorn as my court. It would ruin your precious plans of domination of the human realm."

"Domination?" Tarron pondered the word as he climbed the stairs first. The space was so narrow we could not walk side by side, which meant I could allow the torrent of faces to be made behind his back. "I do not see it as such."

"You do not deny it then?"

Tarron trailed his pale fingers along the curved, brick walls, rings glinting in the dull light that seeped through the many, narrow glassless windows. "You are right, I will not lie. I do not want you to claim Icethorn as your court."

His words should have made me feel unsafe, but the worry and nerves didn't greet me. If Tarron wanted to harm me, he would've done so. He could turn on me now and push me down the stairs where I'd have little chance to soften the fall. Whatever it was he wanted from me, it was not to see me harmed. Erix had left me with him, even if he did not want to; that told me enough.

"Then what do you want, Tarron?"

"To avenge my family."

It hit me then, as though the wall beside me crumbled and toppled above me, burying me in a memory, a story about Tarron's mother and brother being taken by the Hunters years ago.

I softened my voice, honest sorrow for his loss coursing through me. "I know the feeling of losing a family."

"I do not mean to offend you, Robin, but you cannot lose something you never had. Grieving the idea of a person you wished to know is far less painful than it would be if you knew her in blood and flesh. I was young when they took my mother and my brother. But old enough to still remember the pain as though the dagger stabbed in my heart shattered, pieces of steel still lost within me. That feeling never goes."

"And seeing the humans suffer will help locate those pieces in you and remove them one by one?" The question was blunt but honest. Flashes of Berrow covered in snow and torn by winds had me thinking of home once again.

"Maybe it will ease the pain, I won't know until it happens." Tarron paused, one foot resting on the step before him, hand holding his weight as he leaned against the wall as though he was catching his breath. "Maybe it will do nothing. How does it feel knowing the people beyond our lands also killed your family?"

My own breath caught and lodged in my throat as Tarron turned to face me. He was steps ahead, towering over me in the shadow of the stairway. His long, dark hair hung in curls over his shoulders, cloaking his face but not doing anything to hide the glow of his lightning blue stare.

"If I knew who was behind it, I'd happily hold the knife that would end them. But I wouldn't want to see thousands suffer in my search for that one person." It was the first time I had said it aloud, as though I'd not allowed myself to think of what I would do if I faced the person who was responsible for my mother's death.

"Then you are a better person than me."

I held his stare, my heart in my chest. Tarron leaned towards me, his loose tunic shifting to reveal the curve of a hairless chest. He was tall and narrow, like a weed, no doubt as stubborn as one. However, there was no denying he was beautiful. But then, the deadliest things often were.

"That's yet to be determined," I replied. It was the first time I had not seen him with a smile as that was all he had done since meeting me. His lips were straight, eyes empty of anything revealing as he studied me.

"What if I told you that your mother was not the only thing you lost the day the humans sent their gryvern to attack?"

"What do you mean?" My mind could not comprehend what he had to say next.

"Like me, you lost a brother, but you also lost three sisters in the murder. A family you would have no doubt met one day down the line if that future was not snatched from you."

I looked to the floor, mind racing. "I did not ask for the reminder…"

"Of course, you did not. I trust you have not been told much of your home and heritage. Ignorance is bliss in the eyes of many, but I wish to know that no detail has been kept from you." Tarron stepped down, closing the space between us. I hardly cared or noticed as he placed a ringed hand on my shoulder. "There is much I can tell you that others may want to keep secret, locked away just like they are doing with you now, and the man who waits behind the door at the top of his tower. It is not long before the Passing when you are required to make your decision. No better time to become king then when seasons change, and autumn passes to winter. But the outcome, if you choose not to claim Icethorn, does not need to end in your demise, all of which I can explain if you give me the chance to."

I looked up through my lashes, body numbing as what he'd hinted at sunk in. Siblings. Something I'd longed for but also long had given up hope of. Did Father know? If he had loved Mother and she him, he must have. I couldn't imagine keeping anything from those I loved.

Unlike my father, who kept a lot from me.

The curling of power lifted its presence like a snake, uncoiling as it woke.

"You look so much like them," Tarron said, voice no more than a whisper. "Even if I had doubts before seeing you… they all disappeared the moment I saw you. It is like looking at a memory brought back to life."

I lifted a hand, touching my fingers to my cheek gently, then the vision of dark hair billowing in winds, and the lullaby voice returned. "You know, no one ever wants to talk to me about them."

"Or have you simply not asked the right questions?" Tarron asked calmly. "Secrets are only secrets because of selfish people and their selfish gain. I would ask yourself why you think those around you believed this information was not important to share. They all want you to claim the Icethorn Court but are not telling you what it is, exactly, that you are commanded to take."

"I wish to know everything," I said. Tarron's smile returned, this time void of arrogance or sarcasm.

"I am an open book, Robin. You simply need to turn my pages and read."

My father's room lacked the comforts of my own. This was a prison of brick and barred windows, high up in the tower with no other exit than the one door we had opened to get inside. A single guard was stationed, armed to the teeth with blades, though whether to protect what was inside or to stop him from leaving, I wasn't unsure.

"I thought you'd forgotten about me." Father's voice was rough, as though he'd not used it for a long while. But still, he stood from the bed, waiting with open arms. Reluctantly I let myself fall into them, wondering of all the truths that Tarron had revealed to me. Father pressed a breathy kiss to my hair and held me firmly.

"Never," I replied, my arms hanging limp beside me. "I left Aurelia for a couple of days. I would have come sooner, but…"

My voice trailed off.

"You were busy learning the side I've kept from you. I understand, Robin. You don't need to explain yourself to me. Just do your old man a favour and tell him everything you've discovered."

I slipped from his hold, turning my back on him to inspect the room. Trays of empty plates and scraps of food littered the floor, equally as forgotten as my father in this room. Tankards of water, some empty and most full, waited for someone to drink. They must have been here a while, for dust layered their still surfaces.

"Nice prison cell you have here," I said.

"Could be worse, son. The walls are thick, they do well at keeping the cold out. It might not look like much, but I've slept better in the days passed than I have in years."

"It's still a prison though."

Father stepped in behind me. "I can leave if I choose to. Return to Grove and await what is to come. Instead, I stay here. With you. For you. If this is a prison, then lock the door and throw away the key."

I could've laughed, but I didn't have the energy to spare.

I loosed a breath and let down the floodgates that kept in my thoughts. "Did you know I had siblings?" I wrapped my arms around my waist, hunching forward as the weight of my thoughts became too much to bear alone. "A brother and sisters?"

"I did."

The air chilled between us.

"And you decided that I wasn't welcome to that information as well?"

Father reached a hand for me, but I pulled away. It hurt him. His rugged, aged face showed signs that my rejection pained him. "I didn't want to give you reasons to go searching for them. I lost your mother. I didn't want to lose you too."

"It's clear to me now that the fey and humans share one thing in common. You all lie." I took a deep breath in, noticing the swell of my anxious heart. "You should have told me. I deserved to know."

"There is much I should've done. In hindsight, I wish I'd dealt with everything differently. But I can't go back and change the past now. Just know that everything I did was to protect you. Or at least that was my intention. I see now that what I should've understood was you didn't need protecting. You grew out of that a long time ago."

Father reached for me again, and this time I stopped myself from pulling away.

"All of this has been put upon me all at once," I said, voice trembling. "It makes thinking about anything of importance rather difficult."

"You can ask me anything. I'll never lie to you again."

I wanted to explain to him that the damage was done, but a shifting silhouette caught my eye. A shadow, for a brief moment, blocked the light of the high window at the wall far behind Father. I blinked, expecting it to be tiredness that caused the illusion. Maybe Tarron had come in to get me, or Erix had returned to check I was still in one piece.

But the person I saw, landing on soft feet upon the floor of the room, was not either of them.

Cloaked in black, they crouched down, ready to spring forward at the quickest of moments.

I tried to move Father behind me, but the figure was faster. A flash of metal glistened, brought free from the dark material that covered the intruder's body. Then they sprang forward, pouncing across the air like a cat chasing its prey, all before I could utter a single word.