Page 47 of The King's Weapon

"We need to tell her," Graeson said. Those five words should not have mattered, but the weight of Graeson's voice, the intensity of his stare as he applied pressure to Fynn's wound, meant something more. Whatever they needed to tell her, Graeson thought it could prevent things from proceeding in the direction they had been.

"No. We need to wait," Fynn bit out as sweat glistened on his forehead. "We've come this far already. We have to wait."

"Fynn, it's time. She could have killed you. If we continue down this path, one of you will get hurt far worse than a minor stab wound, and I don't know if I can. . ." He left whatever he was going to say hanging in the air around them.

As much as Kallie wanted to find out why a strange flicker of emotion flashed in his eyes when he looked at her, she couldn't. Another, more pressing question lingered between them.

"Tell me what?" Kallie asked as she regained her breath.

"Graeson." Despite the pain from the wound, Fynn's voice was stern, solid. And it reminded her of the way her father's voice would shift when he reminded people of his position.

Graeson looked between Fynn and Kallie, debating who to listen to. And when Kallie locked eyes with Fynn, anger rose inside of her.

If only she could reach him. Grab his hand, his ankle even, something to bridge the gap between them and would allow for her gift to flow through her and into him. She imagined the air between them, the breath that flowed out of her and into his, a rope between them. A connection invisible to the eye but unbendable. Her rage entwined within the space between her words.

She was tired of people keeping the truth from her. Tired of people thinking she was a simple princess with no true power, a woman men dismissed. Ignored. She was in the room. Her whole life she had beeninthe room but never at the table. Even when she played a role in the plans that would ensue, she never had been granted a voice. She had always been talked to and talked over. Forgotten and dismissed. But she would no longer allow that to happen.

Not among these men, not among her people. Not amonganyone. She would show everyone she deserved her seat at the table. She was done being the pawn of men. It was time she stepped into her role as a future ruler.

"Tell me the truth." Her voice was commanding and her gift stirred.

For a moment, Fynn stared at her as though he was fighting something inside of him. Then he said three words Kallie had never expected to leave his lips.

"I'm your brother."

Chapter14

Brother?

If Kallie's breath hadn't already been knocked out of her and if her head wasn't already spinning, she was sure it would be now. And Fynn's eyes were now murky, the effects of her gift stirring within them.

Strange,she thought.

She hadn't even been in contact with him. However, before Kallie could analyze why her gift had worked from a distance, she dismissed it as the foreign word—a word she had never thought would apply to herself—took over her entire being.

Brother.

The word sat on her tongue, unspoken. It felt wrong, too strange to belong there. Perhaps, he had meant brother as in a close friend. But no, that wasn't right either. These men weren't even her acquaintances. She was their captive, their bargaining chip, and they were her latest mark.

She had no brothers, no siblings.

When she opened her mouth to speak, air filled her lungs. Yet Kallie felt as if the oxygen refused to provide her organs the necessary levels they needed to absorb the information provided to her. Shades of violet slipped into her vision again.

This had to be a dream, one of her nightmares. There was no other explanation, for if it wasn't a dream, Kallie was afraid to think how it would change her mission.

She studied the two men before her: Fynn slumped onto the floor while Graeson hovered over him as they worked to stop the bleeding. Hanging at her side, her fingers clutched the dagger, blood smeared on the cold metal. Her enemy's blood.

There was one other possibility.

Her fingers tightened around the handle. Kallie pushed herself off the ground and raised the dagger, pointing the tip of the blade at the men. "Do you think me a fool?"

Graeson studied her, his gaze intense and piercing. Then it shifted.

“Kallie,” Graeson said.

He had never used her preferred name and it was a tactic to be sure, an attempt to claim friendship or alliance. Kallie, however, saw it for what it truly was: a threat.

His scimitars hung at his side. If he hadn't planned on using them against her tonight, if they were truly allies, then he wouldn't have brought them.

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