Page 89 of A Clash of Embers

“I think we are but—” I licked my lips gripping the reigns of the horse tighter. “Friends don’t keep secrets.”

She leaned back slightly accepting what I had said. Her long, curly, blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders with her stark white wings tucked in behind her. She nodded slowly once before she said what I needed to hear.

“I didn’t want you to worry, Clara. You already have so much going on. It’s just that Consul Loveridge is pretending to be something she’s not.”

I pursed my lips, “Really? Well, who is she?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, “Are you mocking me? You don’tbelieveme?”

I clicked my tongue at my horse as I started walking my horse forward making her follow me, to trail after me.

“Wait. What are you doing?” Bethany called after me.

“I’m making sure you understand your place. Because I think you’re forgetting something important.”

When she finally made it back to my side, I stopped the horse’s stride and we halted once again. This time everyone else fell back with Bethany and me side by side as the first line.

“What am I forgetting, Clara?” she asked me in an irritated voice.

I smiled, “You are forgetting that not only am I the Queen of Bolzana, I am also a goddess and you are not. You don’t get to make decisions for me. I make them for myself. So, with that, I will give you an opportunity to tell me the truth. What is it that you aren’t telling me,Bethany?

She looked down at her hands rubbing them together as if they were dirty. I watched her closely, waiting to see what she would do.

“Consul Loveridge is Athiana,” she said with a huff of breath.

I smiled, “And how do you know this?”

She scoffed, “I heard it from someone that she was. So I wanted to make sure you were aware of it. Especially since the truth about her came to us after you were taken to Ingria.”

She is doing exactly what I wanted her to do.

I said, “But you didn’t make me aware of it. You kept it from me. And who was thesomeone? Who else is there on her side? No one believes Athiana anyway. She is just a desperate woman who wants others to pay for her mistakes.”

That perked her up. I could have sworn I saw a flicker of fury in her eyes when she quickly replied.

“What would you have preferred me to do?”

“I would have preferred you to come to me directly and tell me the truth,” I said.

She laughed, “You’re ridiculous. You aren’t the only important being in this world.”

“And who else is important? Who else ismoreimportant in this curse? No one. You didn’t tell me because you are feeling subpar. You are scared that everyone else will choose me over you. That Leo and Luke will choosemeover you. Isn’t that true?”

Her expression was stoic but her eyes gave away the answer. I called her out on her shit. And she didn’t like it.

“I thought we were friends, Clara? Friends don’t talk to each other this way.”

I tilted my head and closed my eyes, fluttering them in slow blinks.

“Friends don’t lie.”

“Seriously? Every person in this group has lied to you at some point in your life. You can’t be serious. Look at them. Look at everyone. They have all lied to you. They have all betrayed you, yet you still stand by them. You still allow them to be in your life. How can you do that? How can you allow people who have destroyed you back into your life?”

My eyes softened because the truth was starting to surface. What I needed. Thetruth.

“What do you know about betrayal, Bethany?”

She straightened her spine and pushed her hair off her shoulders. “I just watched you go through it so much and I didn’t want you to keep getting hurt.”

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