Page 156 of Bound to the Shadow Prince

“Oh gods, Erynne.” I reach for her hands. My youngest memories are of Erynne and Isabella, always together. They were closer than I was with Erynne. I also knew they’d been lovers for some time, and I can’t imagine my sister’s pain. “I know how much you loved her.”

“Nurse died, too,” she tells me. “Iphigenia. She was one of the first to die from weakness when there was nothing to eat.”

It’s a punch in the gut. I choke back a sob, horrified. All this time I’ve been excited to see both Nurse and Riza—sometimes more excited at the prospect of seeing them than my own sister—and to realize that I’ve lost Nurse breaks me. Hot tears slide down my face. “Please, no.”

“Yes.” Erynne’s voice is cold. “She was lucky. She didn’t live to see the destruction of our kingdom. After we starved for two full seasons, it was easy for the Fellians to take over. Our navy was destroyed. Our men were gone. The people left in the capital were weak, and Lionel thought he was some great commander. They captured him on the first day of the siege and after that, I knew it was just a matter of time. But I held out for as long as I could, because I knew Allionel needed a kingdom.”

A sick feeling grows in my stomach. “Where is he? Where’s the baby? Where are both of your children, Erynne?”

My sister turns her cold, unblinking eyes on me. “You don’t know?”

I shake my head.

“The Fellians stormed our castle, destroying everything in sight. They put every man to the sword. It didn’t matter how old or how young he was. If he was inside the walls, he was killed. They saved my Allionel for last, though. I held him tight in my arms, and they—they pulled him free—” She chokes.

“Don’t say it. Please don’t say it?—”

“They took him from my arms and flung him from the walls, Candra. Because a male human was a threat to them. He was a baby. He…”

I wrap my arms around my sister, hating every word she says. I hate them because I know they’re true. I hate them because they’ve broken my sister. While I sat safe and sound in the tower, my sister was fighting for her life. My sister had her baby ripped from her arms and murdered. “Ravendor?”

I’m terrified to find out the answer, but I know my sister has two children. If Allionel is dead…

“I don’t know.” Erynne chokes on the words, as if they’re difficult to say. Her arms tighten around me. It’s not a hug, not quite, but I’ll take it. “Once they stormed Lios, they put a collar on me. They took the women. They gave my baby to another woman. I don’t know where Ravendor is, Candra. I don’t have my babies.” A sob breaks from her. “My arms are empty. My kingdom is destroyed. And I-I-I need a knife.”

The change in conversation is so sudden I’m certain I’ve heard her wrong. I pull back. “You what?”

“I need a knife,” she tells me, frantic.

“The enchanted knife you gave me?” I shake my head. “It’s lost, stolen?—”

“Any knife. Do you have one?”

“No. What for?”

A smile curves my sister’s lips. “I’m going to cut Ajaxi’s throat while he sleeps. He keeps me chained to his bed so I can serve him whenever he wishes. So I’ll kill him and anyone else that tries to stop me from leaving this place.”

Chapter

Seventy-Seven

Istare at my sister in horror.

The rational part of me knows that she’s gone through hell recently. That she’s not herself. Her husband and her kingdom are destroyed. Her true love—Isabella—has died. Her son has been murdered and her other child given away. She’s been given to the enemy as a slave. Any of these things would break me, and yet my sister has endured all of them.

But the way she’s looking at me now is terrifying. The calm, rational Erynne Vestalin is gone. The Erynne who would do whatever it took to ensure the Vestalin line and the safety of our kingdom has been destroyed, just like Lios itself. I cannot stop staring at her dead eyes, at the look on her face.

I know in this moment that if I had a knife on me, she truly would murder as many people as she could, as long as they were Fellian.

“Erynne,no. That’s not the answer.”

She laughs. “Yes it is. They murdered everything I cared about. Give me a knife and I’ll make them pay.” Her eyes gleam with an unhinged light and she studies my clothing. “Do you have one on you? Hidden somewhere?”

“No!” I slap at her hands when she grabs at my dress. “Stop it!”

Her hand brushes over my rounded belly and she goes still.

Dragon shite. Sheknows.

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