Kerrigan nodded. Right. Anything but the truth of what they had almost done there.
“Okay. Yeah. We can talk.”
Helly nodded, rising to her feet. “Now, sleep. You have a big day tomorrow.”
Kerrigan smiled halfheartedly. “Helly, did you ever find Basem’s killer?”
“No,” she said faintly. “We’re still working on it. Don’t worry yourself. Your number one priority is training.”
“Of course,” she said and watched Helly leave. Such a nonanswer and not at all satisfying.
It was only a few minutes before Fordham was at her side again.
“You didn’t tell her?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. How would I even begin?”
He nodded, understanding. The way everyone thought of the House of Shadows was already so set in stone. The monsters that Mei had claimed they were all those years ago.
“You can see my dilemma when I first arrived.”
“Clearly.”
“What actually happened when you blacked out, Kerrigan?” Fordham asked.
She debated on not telling him, but she could keep nothing from Fordham. Not when he had been there. Not when he’d saved her. Their relationship was complicated, but this bond was as true as it had ever been.
“I saw the wall go up.”
Fordham blinked, as if that wasn’t the answer he’d expected. “During the Great War?”
“Yes. And it’s not what you think. It was someone like me who put it up to protect the Society.”
He rocked back in the chair. “So, it is true. We were always the monsters they painted us as.”
“I don’t know. She believed it. Her name was Mei, M-e-i, and she had a soldier with her, Trulian.”
“I’ve never heard of a Mei.”
“Me neither.”
“But Trulian is a common enough name,” he said.
“It is. At least it gives us a place to start.”
“To start?”
She smiled at him with the last bit of strength as the medicine pulled her toward slumber. “I have an idea.”
“Gods help us all,” he said, but he was smiling.
“If we find out who they were and how she did it, then maybe I can figure out how to take it down without killing myself.”
“You still want to do it?” he asked in shock.
“Benton and Bayton are still trapped. Your cousins are still trapped. Whatever her reasons for doing it, they do not deserve to be punished for a thousand-year-old war.”
“And how are we going to do this when training starts tomorrow?”
But he wasn’t disagreeing with her. He could see the merit. He’d wanted out of there for who knew how long. How could he deny the rest of his people? Even if they could both see the consequences.
“As we do the best things—together.”
15
The Training
Kerrigan stumbled into the training facility behind the other four winners of the dragon tournament. The four people, who together, they would dedicate their lives to the Society.
She’d found black Society robes waiting in her room when she woke from her magically induced slumber with a note that read, Training robes. They weren’t the lush, almost-glossy robes, but a rough spun cotton. She’d slid them over her training clothes with a little thrill of delight anyway. Her entire life, she’d been surrounded by people in black robes with the dragon insignia on them, and now, they belonged to her.
Whatever medicine Helly had given her had worked wonders, but she still felt depleted. Her magic wasn’t a hundred percent recovered. Her body still ached. And even though she’d slept for more than a day, she was still tired. But she couldn’t be today.
“You made it!” Audria Ather cried, throwing her arms around Kerrigan.
Audria Ather, Third of the House of Drame in the line of Bryonica, had been one of Kerrigan’s friends when they were children. They’d played together before Kerrigan’s father sent her away to the House of Dragons. It was Audria who had realized that she was Princess Felicity and offered for her family to sponsor Kerrigan. She’d wanted them to be like sisters again. Fordham had given her an alternative—join him in the House of Shadows—and Kerrigan had taken it. Anything to not have to return to the Bryonican life that had been taken from her.
Audria wasn’t all bad. They were even friends. Even though she’d revealed Kerrigan’s identity to the entire court. Kerrigan still hadn’t come to terms with everyone knowing that she was Kerrigan Felicity Argon, once First of the House of Cruse, and her father, the great Kivrin Argon. She’d hidden it for so long that it didn’t even seem possible.
“I made it,” Kerrigan said, hugging her back.
“Oh my goodness, you look like the House of Shadows chewed you up and spit you out,” she said with a giggle.
Not far off.
Kerrigan laughed, releasing her. “How was your break?”
“Excellent! You know that the Season is starting now that the tournament is over. You’ll have to come to the parties with me since I can finally tell everyone you’re Felicity.”
Kerrigan grimaced. “You couldn’t drag me to a Season event.”