Page 156 of Blood of the Stars

“You know you have to come back with me, right?” Enla’s words were barely above a whisper. “Prove to Mother and Father that you’re not actively working against them? If you weren’t the prince, your suspicious presence out here might be enough for them to throw you in a cell.”

“I don’t have to prove anything. They’ll just keep guards stationed at my room. Like always.” Gaeren led his horse past Enla. There was nothing more he could do for Daisy other than leave, but everything inside him resisted walking away. “Besides, it’s not about whether I’m actively working against them. It’s about whether they’re willing to work with Mayvus.”

“Don’t start this again,” Enla’s her words came out in small huffs as she worked to catch up with him.

“She practices blood magic. She used a brand on Durriken, but his is only one of many.”

Enla flinched but didn’t look as surprised as Gaeren had hoped she might. “Father and Mother are reconsidering some of their laws. Brands aren’t much different from bonds.”

Gaeren reeled back, and his horse nearly knocked him over. He leaned in until the horse blocked them from Enla’s guards.

“That’s not the only blood magic she does,” he whispered fervently. “Not according to the Recreants.”

“Whom you now trust?” The accusation in her voice stung more than the judgment on her face.

“The Recreants might be our enemy tomorrow, but today they would stand with us against Mayvus if we asked.”

Enla opened her mouth, but Gaeren cut her off before she could argue.

“We’re not just up against one Wyndren; we’re up against an entire army. They even have a name. Did you know? They call themselves Zealots, and there are thousands of them—men and women who want the Wyndrens ruling instead of us.”

The horse danced nervously beside them, clearly not wanting in on their argument. But neither of them moved, Gaeren’s words forming a barrier between them.

“Your loyalties put you in danger,” she said, her gaze losing focus. “Your thoughts will get you killed.”

“Killed? Who will kill me?” His question came out weary. He didn’t expect an answer. Her visions didn’t work that way. But the answer had to be his parents, and the truth of what they valued left him exhausted.

Enla reached out a hand to grip his arm.

“Why did you go to Lovers’ Falls?” Her whisper drove deep into his soul, the pain heightened by his lingering fear over the deal half struck with the sprites. But Enla could only see possibilities in his future, choices and moral dilemmas. She shouldn’t know the past.

“How do you?—?”

Her grip tightened on his arm. “The paths for your soul are dwindling. If you’d stayed away from there, the options were endless. But now… now too many of them converge or end.”

Gaeren glanced over the horse at the guards, but their stoic faces gave no indication that they’d heard.

“You’ve made yourself sick searching my future.” Gaeren pried her fingers from his arm, then held her hand to his face. “I’m here. I’m well. Stop torturing yourself.”

“Did you at least take Riveran with you?”

Hearing his name cross her lips brought shadows of memories flooding his mind. Tears and pained cries. Weeks spent sleeping outside her room to hush the name from her lips when the nightmares came. But then more recent memories replaced them. Placing bets on Orra’s next antics, laughing by the fire, teasing and training Felk together.

“He found a way to be present.” The stiff words were unfair, but they were as much as Gaeren could muster in front of Enla.

Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment. She nodded, then wrenched her hand away, slipping past him toward Elanesse. Once more her chin rose and her back straightened, making Gaeren wonder if her vulnerability had been in his imagination.

They made the rest of the way through the forest in silence, Gaeren stewing over all the half predictions Enla had spouted off. Past the mangrove trees, they joined a second set of guards, and they all mounted horses. When they reached the city limits, a third set of soldiers surrounded them, solidifying Gaeren’s suspicion that his days of freely coming and going were gone.

How had he been so blind all these years? In addition to being tyrants, his parents had been forming alliances with an enemy. They likely knew about Mayvus’ blood magic and did nothing to stop it. They’d split up Daisy’s family and exiled her to Lorvandas. His muscles tensed as he thought about what her childhood must have been like, all because of his parents.

Heat flooded his starlock, matching the way his body warmed with his anger. It no longer mattered what his parents or tutors had told him about the Wyndrens and Elanesses. He would protect Daisy with the same level of loyalty as he had for Enla. The guilty twinge in his gut twisted once more. Maybe even more if Enla continued to insist on working with Mayvus. Was this what the sprites had been warning him about?

He nudged his horse past Enla in the abandoned night streets, forcing her to catch up or be left behind. The guards followed too closely for Gaeren’s comfort, but the conversation couldn’t wait. Thankfully, Enla followed.

“I can’t tell whose side you’re on,” he hissed. “I need you to be on my side.”

“I am on your side.” The moonlight shone off her face as it crumpled beneath the weight of her burdens. “But I still answer to our parents. In some ways, I still answer to Mayvus. If you’d gone to Lenda, you could have broken your bond. With that last tie severed, you would have been free. You should have listened to me. I told you everything has changed.”

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