Page 132 of The Gilded Cage

“Wakeup,Kiva!”

A hand was tapping Kiva’s face, and she groaned, wanting to shove it away, but her arms were still bound behind her.

“Good. Now open your eyes.”

Kiva groaned again, recognizing Rhessinda’s insistent voice pulling her from her unnatural sleep. A renewed surge of queasiness had her fighting the urge to vomit all over again.

Coughing and gagging once more, Kiva opened her eyes to find she was still in the warehouse, but the sunlight filtering through the windows was much weaker than before, the shadows across the ground longer, indicating it was now late afternoon. Combined with her time spent at Silverthorn, Kiva had been gone for hours, but with the plans for the masquerade in full swing, it was entirely possible that no one yet knew she was missing. ThatJarendidn’t yet know she was missing.

Casting her gaze to one side, she saw that Tipp was still unconscious, but in a different position, as if he’d woken and fallen back under again. On her other side, Rhessinda was kneeling next to her, the healer’s wrists bloodied after having torn her way out of her bindings. She immediately shifted to start working Kiva free of her own ropes.

“Who are you?” Kiva mumbled, her numb fingers tingling painfully as Rhess plucked at her wrists. Despite being knocked out again, she hadn’t forgotten what had happened with the burly men, nor Rhess’s reaction — or lack thereof — when learning about her family.

“You know who I am. I’m Rhessinda Lorin.”

“I didn’t ask your name,” Kiva said. “Whoareyou?”

This time, Rhess didn’t try to avoid the question. “I’m Torell’s second.”

Kiva’s mind blanked. “You’rewhat?”

“His second,” Rhess repeated. “As in, second in command. Of the rebel forces.”

“I know what second means,” Kiva hissed, struggling to process this news. “But — But you’re a healer! ASilverthornhealer!”

Rhess shook her head. “That was just my cover. Tor wanted you to have someone nearby in case something happened, and since we knew you’d be tempted by the healing academy, it made sense to send me in undercover. My parents were healers, like I told you, and I sometimes help the rebel medics, so I had the best chance of maintaining the guise.” She paused. “After Zuleeka’s abduction, it was simple enough for me to steal some robes and intercept the message from the palace. Dressed like that, I only had to show the royal summons to the guards and they let me right through the gates. It was all too easy to get to you, cementing a position in your life almost as soon as we learned that you’d arrived in the city.”

Kiva thought back over every interaction she’d had with Rhessinda, wondering why she’d never suspected anything to be amiss. Even yesterday, when no one at Silverthorn had heard of her. Hell, even last week, the Matron Healer herself hadn’t recognized Rhess’s name. And —

I’m here every day for the morning shift.

Whenever Kiva had found Rhess, she’d beenwaitingfor her. Just sitting on that same bench in the sanctuary, a coincidence Kiva had never bothered to consider, always too happy to have found her friend to question why she wasn’tworking. Never mind how she’d conveniently offered up herself as a tour guide to Oakhollow, and —gods— she’d evenseenthe magic burst out of Kiva and had said nothing.

Because she’d alreadyknown.

“Was any of it real?” Kiva asked hoarsely.

The healer —nota healer, Kiva reminded herself — paused her tugging, shifting to meet Kiva’s eyes.

“Everything between us was real,” she said solemnly. “Please don’t doubt that.”

“You’ve lied to me about who you are, from day one,” Kiva said, anger rising in her.

The look Rhess sent her spoke volumes. “You can hardly talk.” Kiva’s anger dampened, but she held on to as much as she could, saying, “That’s different. You knew who I was all along.”

“But you still lied to me that whole time,” Rhess argued, her attention returning to Kiva’s ropes. “So why don’t we call it even, and instead of fighting each other, focus on getting out of here?”

Any lingering anger fled from Kiva. Rhess was right — they’d both lied to each other, and they were both in this mess together. They could work out their differences later, once they were safe.

“Those were King Navok’s men, weren’t they?” Kiva asked, already knowing the answer, but showing Rhess she was willing to let everything else go, at least for the moment. “They’re after Jaren?”

“So it seems,” Rhess answered. “They said a few things after knocking you out again — they spoke in Mirravish, thinking I wouldn’t understand, but the village I grew up in was close enough to the border that I was raised bilingual.” As an aside, she said, “That’s where I met your brother, by the way. He saved me from those mercenaries who attacked my village five years ago. He’s been my best friend ever since.”

Kiva remembered what Rhess had shared about her tragic past, and how she’d been adopted by a new family.

She’d been talking about the rebels all along.

Frustrated anew at missing all the signs, Kiva forced herself to stay on topic. “What did the men say?”

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