Page 56 of Wings of Betrayal

All right, then. Good night.

Night.

There is only one other person who may have the information I need. I leave my quarters, praying to the gods I don’t see Amaros as I pass through the castle corridors toward Lissian’s quarters. The last thing I need is for him to think I’m not going to take him up on his offer. But how in the gods could he think I would after everything?

I gently rap on Lissian’s door.

She answers it quickly, a wide smile tugging at her lips as she gestures for me to come in. “Zarla, dear, what brings you here?”

She leads me over to two armchairs, and I take a seat opposite her. She raises her brows in question.

Right, straight to the point it is. “What do you know of my real father?”

She frowns at me and shifts uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Interesting. So she doesn’t know, then.

“Harlum isn’t my real father,” I explain.

Her mouth gapes open as she stares at me in total disbelief. “What in the gods do you mean? Of course he is.”

I sit forward in my seat. “No, he’s not. In my mother’s journals, she described me as having beautiful green eyes, just like my father. Harlum doesn’t have green eyes. And Hethenosconfirmed it as well. She said that my real father, my mother’s true mate, was in love with Serona, but he filled them both with his seed. So Astelleismy sister, but she isn’t Harlum’s daughter, either.”

Her eyes flutter as she shakes her head. “That’s not possible. Are you sure Hethenos wasn’t lying to you?”

I chew on my nails as I consider it. But no, I’m sure. She was honest about everything that day. She wanted to hurt me.

“I’m sure,” I say.

She leans back in her chair and scratches her forehead. “Well, I never knew about this. I would have told you if I had. In fact, I’m surprised Serona never told me.”

I place my hand on her knee. “I know that. And I’m not blaming you or accusing you of keeping things from me, but I just had to ask you about it. I need to find him.”

She covers my hand with hers and gives me a gentle smile. “What do you know of him?”

“A memory came back to me. Several memories, in fact. I remember the night my mother was murdered. I was there.”

She squeezes my hand. “Zarla, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Well, it’s not, but it’s as okay as it can be. So I know Harlum, Hethenos, and Amaros were all there that night. It was Hethenos who killed her, though. Afterwards, once they left her quarters, a large male with these huge gold wings appeared out of thin air. He looked so familiar to me, and he seemed to recognise me somehow. He picked her up and then just disappeared again, leaving me alone.”

She covers her mouth. “By the heavens… I’m so sorry, Zarla. That memory is quite the burden. And to think, all this time, Harlum and Amaros knew the truth, but they allowed the entire Kingdom to grow hatred for Zarquon. To blame them for Serona’s death.”

I mull over her words and immediately think of Amaros and his reasons for taking the memory from me. To protect me, so he said.

“How did you lose that memory, and how did you get it back again?” she asks.

I shift uncomfortably in my chair as I think of the best way to explain it. She needs to know. She needs to know the depths of Amaros’s deceit.

“It was Amaros. The night my mother was killed, he stole the memory from me. He did it my entire life, when it suited him, or Hethenos, or even my father. That’s how I forgot about Kyle. That’s how they made him forget about me and his entire life.”

She gasps.

“Amaros knows I know. I have confronted him about it. He gave me a huge spiel about how it was only to protect me. Well, first he lied about it, though.”

She presses her lips together and rubs her chin. “And do you believe that?”

I shrug, get to my feet, and then start pacing before her. “Yes and no. I believe he has tried to protect me, but I think it’s been more for his own personal gain than doing it for me.”

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