Page 182 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

Labyrinth is looking at Lusia with a face that says what I’m thinking: don’t.

“Will you protect a boy who’s been lying about being your sibling for your whole life?” she taunts Lilac, who looks at me like she’s contemplating the truth of this claim.

“Yes, it’s true,” I say. “My dad died when I was six.”

“That’s not possible,” Lilac whispers.

“I know,” I whisper.

“Lusia,” Labyrinth warns.

“The truth always comes out,” she says. “So what will it be, Lilac?”

Lilac turns to her mother viciously. “I have the power of your dead guards and every prisoner you held, so we’re going to answer my questions!” she yells louder than I’ve ever heard her before and turns to me. “Lucy?” she says, much more gently than she’d spoken a moment before.

“You’re my sister by heart, cousin by blood.”

She’s looking at Lusia again, and the only choice I have is to believe in hers. “You think I’ll side with you because you’re my mother? When have you ever treated me like your daughter!” she screams, her face scrunching up into the same configuration it always does when she cries. “I choose Lucy. Every. Time.” Her hand shoots back to me, and all I can feel is relief when I grab it.

What will she think of me when I tell her of Azaire?

“What do you know of the weapon?” Labyrinth asks with a hint of, is that fear, in his voice?

“Weapon?” Lilac echoes in question.

I stare at Labyrinth, challenging him. “It’s important, son,” he says, as he always has. As though he ever had any right to that word. I turn from him, a shunning act, and Lilac follows. “It’s not what you think!” he shouts. “You were only a contingency.” He sighs. “I loved my brother.”

Contingency? What is he talking about?

“Yet you did nothing of worthiness when he was killed,” I say without turning. He didn’t only do nothing of worthiness, he did something of disgrace. He banned the speaking of the very creatures that killed my father. He hid the truth and the dangers we’re facing. “As has been said today, Lilac isn’t my sister by blood, and yet I would never do to her what you did to him.”

“You’re projecting your current mind onto your future self,” he says too gently. “It’s hard to know who you will be before it becomes you.”

“Trust me.” For the first time, I look him in the eye. “You’ve taught me well.”

“Let’s go,” Lilac says, tugging on my hand.

“I’ll see you at your weddings, darlings,” Lusia calls softly to us.

* * *

I expect Lilac to berate me, to demand an answer, but she sits across from me on her bed in Visnatus, doing nothing more than stare.

I begin talking, “I was six when?—”

“I don’t want to know,” she cuts me off. “Too much has changed.”

“I’ll always be your brother.”

“There’s no need to say silly things when we both know them to be true,” she says wryly.

Before I can tell her Azaire is dead, I tell her I have something to do and venture out past the academy walls and down into the abandoned dungeon. Surprised to a degree to see Freyr still alive and surely starved. I drop a bag of pence at my feet and toss him bread and water.

There are puddles in his cell from the rain. I can see him drinking from those when I never came down to feed him after Azaire.

He devours what little sustenance I offer, and I unlock his cage. Watching him pull himself to his feet is difficult, and he falls against the wall three times before he can make it to me.

“You’re letting me go?” he asks groggily.

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