Page 87 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

It’s a grave marker.

“Why did you want to show me this?” I murmur. And then I actually read the engravings, and the earth sways beneath me. A low buzzing fills my ears.

“What…how can…what…”

Every sentence dies in my throat. Because the name on the grave marker? It’s mine.

Lark Axton

Beloved daughter and sister

Born the same year as me. Dead four years later.

I can’t move. Can’t do anything but gape. Somehow sensing my distress, Thorne squats beside me, rubbing his big hand in a circle on my back. “What is it? You okay?”

Shaking my head no, I point a quivering finger at the marker. When he reads, he goes utterly still. For some reason, the proof of his reaction allows my lungs to resume functioning. “How can that be? That’s the same year I was born.”

Thorne rocks back on his heels. “What do you think it means?” He turns toward me, his eyes fixated on my face.

“I don’t…I don’t know.”

My voice wobbles. Tremors overtake my body. With a curse, Thorne pulls me to my feet and wraps his arms around me. I bury my face in his cloak, inhaling his familiar scent and letting his warm embrace soothe me back from the edge of a nervous breakdown.

We stand that way until I stop shaking. Eventually, Thorne steps back, using his thumbs to gently wipe the tears from beneath my eyes. With the ever-light on the ground, it’s too dark to read his expression, but it almost seems as if he’s waiting on something from me. If so, he might be waiting for a long time. My mind is a wasteland right now.

Finally, he clears his throat. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”

“No.” Not when my brain is reeling like someone whacked me on the skull with the broad side of a sword. I pause. “Wait. Like what?”

His hesitation strikes me as odd. Thorne isn’t usually the type to choose his words carefully. “Perhaps…did you consider that you might be adopted?”

When he speaks, his voice sounds different too. Softer than normal. Maybe even a little cautious. I note those anomalies absent-mindedly, too focused on his actual words to rustle up much interest in how he says them. “Adopted. I guess that could make sense.”

Except, not really. If I’m adopted, why didn’t my mother tell me? Or Leesa? And why, for the love of the gods, give me the same name as a dead child?

With gentle hands, Thorne ushers me back to Zephyr. For the first few minutes of the return flight, I’m quiet while my mind struggles to uncover my earliest memories, searching for any evidence of my possible adoption. I quickly stop when my head begins to throb.

Grasping for something to divert my attention, I latch onto Thorne’s hypervigilant state. Tension radiates from his body into mine, and every time I peer over my shoulder, I catch his head swiveling as he scans the empty skies.

I try my best to remain patient. Surely, if I sit tight a little longer, he’ll fill me in. So I wait. Fidget. Wait some more.

In the end, it’s his barked, “sit still,” that makes me snap.

“Who was that man you spoke to outside the tavern? Is he the reason you were suddenly in such a rush to leave?”

Behind me, his body stiffens even more. “You accomplished your goal, and it was time to get you back. Unless you’d like Torno and Bigley to find out you snuck out.”

His last comment distracts me. “Wait, don’t you have permission to take students off the grounds? You’re the one who gives out the tokens.”

“There’s still a protocol to follow, so at the very least, we’re liable to get questioned. Is that what you wanted to happen?”

I twist my head over my shoulder just to ensure he witnesses my epic eye roll. “Obviously not. And don’t think I didn’t notice that you dodged the question.”

“Is it not true that we needed to return?”

Picturing his neck, I squeeze thick sections of Zephyr’s mane until my hands hurt. “Who was that man?”

“Just someone I used to know. Now, if you’re finished interrogating me, I suggest you take advantage of this time and pay attention to how I fly Zephyr.”

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