He turns from me, his mouth thinning into a flat line as he curses at the twinkling stars. “Do you remember Madelynn?”
The name sounds vaguely familiar, but Aeron had a lot of women through the years. “Is she the woman from Barnacle Bay?”
He nods.
Aeron met a merchant’s daughter the same week I met Allette. The two of them saw one another when she would accompany her father to Kumulus City. He rarely spoke of her, but I always knew when he’d been with Madelynn because he seemed genuinely happy. And for Aeron, that is no mean feat. My older brother is wonderful once you get to know him, but at first, he can come off a little rough around the edges.
He heaves a heavy sigh. “During one of our trysts, she fell pregnant.”
So my brother has gotten not one but two women pregnant that he didn’t tell me about. What else don’t I know? Does he have a secret family down by the bay? Is he really my brother at all? Where do the lies and secrets end?
Not that I can blame him for keeping his cards close to the vest. I wouldn’t have confided in me either back then, not when I was so lost to my own grief that I’d become a liability.
“I went to Boris the day I found out and told him that I would not be marrying the princess.”
Hehadrefused…
“Three days later, Boris brought Madelynn into the throne room. Guards forced her onto the floor at knifepoint, pinned her to the marble, and sawed off her wings right in front of me.” A silent tear rolls down his stubbled cheek. He dashes it away with his fist. “I can still hear her screams in my head. Even after all these years, they haunt me every night. Boris refused to let me heal her, saying that if she wasn’t strong enough to heal herself after being exiled, then she deserved to die. I lost both Madelynn and the babe.”
My heart thrashes wildly in my chest, flooding my ears with relentless pounding.
Suddenly, everything in my star-cursed life makes sense.
Allette hadn’t been discovered by humans.
She’d been exiled by the king.
All because of her relationship with me.
If Leeri goes to Boris and calls off the wedding, there is no telling what our brother will do.
I was a fool for bringing her to dinner. I was a fool for thinking this castle would be safe. I was a fool for underestimating my own brother’s capacity for treachery.
There isn’t time to wait for the antidote.
We must leave the castle tonight.
“I am truly sorry for what you have lost and that I was too selfish to realize you were hurting,” I say, knowing those empty words cannot possibly make up for what happened in the past. “But I am in desperate need of your help. The woman you escorted to dinner? Her name isn’t Wynn. It’s Allette.”
Aeron’s jaw drops. “YourAllette?”
I nod.
“If the king finds out, he’ll kill her too.”
“He has already tried.” But my girl was strong enough to survive. If Boris learns that she still lives, he will not fail a second time.
Aeron rakes his hands through his short hair, swearing once more. “Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place? What do you need?”
“I need to find a way out of this castle without the guards tailing me.” Why didn’t I spend the last few years earning everyone’s trust instead of breaking it at every turn? Then I could fly right off this balcony without anyone batting a fucking eye. Now, I need a miracle. Not only that, but, “When we get out, we will need a place to hide.”
Fifty-One
ALLETTE
Senan sweeps into his room,holding a small black rucksack to his chest. “Gather your things, we’re leaving.”
I jolt to my feet from where I’ve been dozing on the bed. “Tonight?”