A Court This Cruel & Lovely (Kingdom of Lies, #1)(44)

“Keep your secrets.” I gave Lorian my best bored look. “Tomorrow, we’ll be done with each other.”

His eyes narrowed on my face. With a stiff nod, he turned and stalked away.





CHAPTER TWELVE





I practiced stopping time for most of the night. Even after the others had gone to bed, I continued to practice, stopping and starting Marth’s snores until my own eyelids grew too heavy to keep open.

I was the first to wake, a chill shuddering through me that had nothing to do with the cold morning. My stomach spiraled, and I sat up, hugging my knees to my chest.

“It’s going to be okay,” a gruff voice said.

Lorian’s eyes met mine. His eyes were still a little hazy with sleep, his jaw dark with stubble. And his hair was ruffled in a way that made me drop my gaze.

“You don’t know that.”

“You get to believe anything you want. Why would you choose to believe you will fail?”

“It seems so simple when you put it that way.”

He stretched, and I got to my knees, pulling Galon’s cloak tighter around me. Soon, we would be separated—likely forever. At some points in our journey, I’d longed for this day more than anything else. Now that it was here, I didn’t know how to feel.

I took a deep breath. “You said once I mastered my power, you’d tell me why I still have it. Why people like me are hunted.”

Lorian cocked his eyebrow in a way that told me in no way had I mastered my power.

I glowered at him. “Please.”

He gave me a slow smile. “Since you asked so nicely. Come closer, and I’ll tell you exactly how your lives have been altered, your destinies stolen.”

Given that I was desperate to hear his explanation, I complied.

“You believe the gods favor the king? Believe he is powerful because he has been blessed?” He shook his head. “Every time a mother hands over her child’s precious gift, Sabium takes most of it for himself. The gods play no part in your people’s suffering. What need do they have for more power?”

It was as if his words had stolen the air from my lungs. My lips were so numb, my mouth so dry, it took several moments before I could form words.

Maybe…maybe it was the king’s only option. He’d needed our power to protect us from the fae…

“He uses that magic to protect our borders,” I said.

Lorian gave me a pitying look. “Yes. But he still gives power to his councillors to keep them loyal. He gives it to the priestesses to ensure they continue the Takings. He gives it to his guards so they can hunt those whom he considers corrupt. And he keeps much of it himself.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“My father…” I licked my lips. I didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to know. Because I might not be able to handle the answer.

Lorian was watching me with those inscrutable eyes of his. “What is it?”

I forced myself to swallow around the lump in my throat. “My brother is a healer. If he’d kept all of his power, would he have been able to…”

“To save your father?” He gave an elegant shrug. “Perhaps. At least for a time.”

I had no words for this feeling. It was worse than betrayal. Greater than rage. It burned through me with no end.

“How…how do I still have my power, then? How does Asinia?”

Lorian stretched out his legs. “Eons ago, this world was divided into four kingdoms. Two human kingdoms called Eprotha and Gromalia. The fae kingdom in the south. And to the west—across the Sleeping Sea—was a kingdom filled with people who had once been wholly fae but had split from their people during the Long War. They became hybrids, mating with humans and producing offspring with unique powers of their own.”

When I could speak again, I sucked in deep breath. “The hybrid kingdom was on the Barren Continent?” There was a reason no one traveled to the Barren Continent. Nothing grew there. And any ships that attempted the journey never returned.

Lorian smiled. “That continent was never barren. No, the hybrid kingdom was beautiful.” His smile faded. “When the hybrid kingdom was invaded, many of its people traveled north, to the mountains. Some fled across the Sleeping Sea on merchant ships or winged creatures, landing on this continent where they crossed the Asric Pass. Hundreds of thousands died. Those who lived made it to cities and villages on this continent. And they’ve remained hidden ever since.”

All I could hear was a dull ringing in my ears. My instinct was to refute him. To believe he was playing with me. But it made a sick kind of sense.

“How come the…hybrids… How come we’re not discovered during the Taking?”

“Your power does not belong to this kingdom. It’s not Sabium’s to give away to the gods, and it’s certainly not his to keep and share among his court.” Lorian’s eyes had turned icy, and his voice was tight with banked fury. I almost shivered. But he seemed to regain control, his voice evening once more. “The oceartus stones may take all human magic. But that’s not how they work for hybrids.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re more powerful than humans and your magic is very different. At a hybrid Taking ceremony, the magic is taken, the stone glows, and the priestesses warble their prayers, but the seed of hybrid power remains deep within you. And it replenishes and grows as you age.”