Chapter 20

Twenty

Ifroze.

Ice pierced my blood at the words, my belly churning with disbelief. And yet…

I'd thought it myself once, hadn't I? The possibility?

Veras stepped up beside me, and I felt his warm hand on my arm.

"How…how do you know that?"

My sister's once-in-a-lifetime love exhaled a sharp breath though his nostrils before his eyes scanned the dark forest in front of us.

"Tell me," I demanded.

"Do you know where the portal to the Below is?" Veras asked.

"No," I said, still reeling from his confession. I didn't want to believe it…and yet it still rang true in my ears. "Of course not."

"I do," Veras told me. "And I've seen Lorik Ravael coming and going often over the years. I tracked him once. One of the best trackers in all of Allavar—Lorik never even knew he was there."

"Why did you have him tracked?"

"A stranger turns up in Rolara. No one knows him. No one knows where he came from. There's an air about him that told me he was different. Dangerous. Despite what you think, I do what I can to protect Rolara from outsiders."

"Oh, really? Like the Jetutians you brought on planet?"

"Marion," Veras said, gritting his teeth, a brief flash of anger flitting over his face, though he kept it controlled.

I glared.

"I had him followed," Veras said, ignoring my barb, "years ago. I saw him entering the portal. It suddenly made sense. Severs have been among us for years. Much more often than the ignorantly blissful villagers back there would like to think."

"What?" I whispered, my lips parting. "But…wouldn't they be noticed?"

"Did it ever cross your mind that Lorik could be a Sever?" Veras asked, cocking his head to the side. I pressed my lips together. "How about…your old shopkeeper friend? Merec? That was his name, wasn't it?"

"Merec," I repeated, dumbstruck.

Lorik had said…gods, he'd said that Merec had been friends with his father, that his debt had been to a Sever. He'd told me the truth of it, hadn't he? Only I hadn't really understood what he'd been telling me.

"Severs have been living among us for over two hundred years, and very few even know," Veras told me, his tone almost…gentle. "That is what power buys you, Marion. Knowledge. And it's a priceless thing. A veil lifted from your own eyes."

I stumbled forward a few steps, dragging in a deep breath. The sunlight from above the canopies was fading fast. Darkness was falling in the Black Veil, but I was rooted into place like the trees around me.

"And I think you deserve to have it lifted from yours," Veras told me. "So you can see him for he clearly is."

"Even…even if he is a Sever…he's not a Shade."

"Ah, so he has told you something," he murmured. "He might not be a Shade, Marion, but he's even more dangerous. Severs…"

He trailed off, and I looked back at him curiously when I heard his hesitation.

"It's in their best interest to make us all believe Shades are Severs. Monsters in the dark to help protect their world, their precious portal. Stories that have been circulating for years to frighten children and keep villagers on their toes. To keep them away from the Black Veil."

"There are dangers here," I said quietly. "I've seen them."

"I never said there weren't," Veras replied. "But Severs protect their world because it's better. Their magic runs freely, an untapped well of magic in the Below."

My lips parted, understanding dawning. Lorik was powerful indeed. Was that why?

"And they don't want the Above dwellers to know. As our magic fades from the land, as our crops fail and our talents begin to wither."

"That's not true," I whispered, though my voice held no true conviction. "They aren't taking it from us. We've just…forgotten how to channel it."

Veras smiled. "Is that what your lover told you? And tell me, Marion, what's in his best interest?"

I went quiet, my heart pounding in my chest with this influx of new information. Things I didn't want to believe because that meant that Lorik had lied about a lot more than I even imagined to believe.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Power, like I told you," Veras told me. "Lorik is dangerous, Marion. He's the right hand of the Below King—a powerful position. A hunter. A mercenary. And they're up to something, something even my spies cannot discern because it is kept close to the royal court. Don't let him keep you in the dark. In fact, it's better if you stay away from him entirely."

Veras came to stand in front of me. He tilted my chin up so that I met his eyes. I was reeling, so shocked that I didn't even react to his touch. I was frozen in place, and I felt…betrayed. I felt like a fool.

"I never had a sister," he said quietly. "I told you before—we are bound by our love for her, Marion. For Aysia. Forever. And so you are the closest thing to a sister I will ever have."

I swallowed hard, overwhelmed by everything. This was too much. It was too much.

"I know you don't want me to look after you, but I promised Aysia that I would."

"You…you did?" I whispered.

He nodded, his expression solemn. "So take my words to heart. This is not a path you want to travel. They are infinitely more powerful than us…and they have a lot more to lose. He hasn't told you anything else, has he?"

I jerked my chin back and took a step away. "I'm not one of your spies, Veras," I said, keeping my voice even, letting him know I knew what he was doing. "But no, he hasn't."

His sister,I thought. Or had that been a lie?

Either way, I wouldn't tell Veras that. Some habits died hard, despite his pretty words about Aysia. I still didn't trust him. And after this conversation, I certainly didn't trust Lorik.

"You're…you're absolutely certain of Lorik?" I asked. I couldn't help it. "I mean absolutely certain?"

Veras tilted his chin back. "On Aysia, I swear it."

So, it was the truth. Or at least a truth that Veras believed, and I knew that Veras wasn't a blundering fool. He was smart, cunning.

I said nothing else. There was nothing else to say.

Instead, I turned in the direction of my cottage as thoughts raced through my mind. And I kept on walking…because I wasn't sure what else I could do.