Now, I had two Combat mages, two knights, and my head knight, Paige, to protect me from the dangers of my brother’s betrayal.
But they did nothing. They could not save me from myself. They could not spare me from the crippling shame that was eating me out from the inside. They could not hide the truth.
Derrick was dead.
It made no difference that he was a rebel, a traitor to the Crown.
Whenever I thought of him a cold fury slammed at my lungs. My hands balled to fists as I choked on a silent scream.
How could he? How could he betray us? How could he get caught?
How could he make me be the one to go home and tell them? Their youngest was dead. Derrick. The one with the dimples. The easiest smile. The one who made us all laugh.
I stifled a sob with a sharp, hitching breath and stared angrily out at King’s Road. I had the barest of two hours before I reached my parents. Darren had sent two envoys—one to my mother and father, the other to Alex and Ella in Montfort—telling them to expect me at my parents’ homestead in exactly one week. The journey for Alex and Ella would take a bit longer to reach.
Just enough time for me to tell my parents on my own.
I pulled at the leather cord at my neck. My skin there was rubbed raw. The copper ring glinted out in the sun. The “R” stared back at me, reminding me of everything I had lost.
A ring for each twin. A boy and a girl who couldn’t be more different. And then came Derrick, the feisty little boy with blond curls, three years younger but outspoken and always brandishing a stick in hand. He had stolen my heart the second he was born, and he had continued to steal it with every breath… until the end.
I had given him the ring meant for me. Told him that each of my favorite brothers had a part.
And now I had one.
The more the grief welled up inside, the way my parents looked as I told them when I arrived home that night. One thing was clear: the Caltothians had to pay. King Horrace had tricked Commander Nyx and her men, and my brother had died because of it.
I would not turn in the rebels. I had thought of it countless times in the day following his death, but I couldn’t. A part of me was ripped apart at the thought. Derrick had died for their cause. If I betrayed them now it would mean my brother had died in vain.
So I stayed silent. And I watched my parents fall. Dishes clattering, muffled cries, and puddles of tears. Angry, disbelieving shouts followed by stark betrayal and then grief.
I joined them. And another part of me shattered. I knew by the time Alex arrived there would be almost nothing left to break.
How many times can a person shatter?
At least one more.
****
Paige and the rest of the guards from the King’s Regiment remained outside. She was able to grant me that much when my twin and his new wife walked through my parents’ door.
“Ryiah,” Alex looked around the room, confused. His brow furrowed when he saw my parents in the corner clutching hands, their faces turned away. “What is it? Why were we summoned here?”
Ella caught my expression before Alex understood. “No.” Her arms went around her husband just as he noticed the cord on my neck. I had never taken it off.
“Derrick?” My twin rasped. “Where is he?”
I opened my mouth, but the words couldn’t come out. Tears started to swell at my eyes.
“Derrick!” Alex’s voice turned raw. “WHERE IS HE, RYIAH?” He broke free of Ella’s grip and crossed the room, shaking me while I struggled to breathe.
I can’t tell him. But you must. I can’t.
“Ryiah!” My brother was screaming in my face. “WHERE IS DERRICK?”
My father’s sob was all he needed to hear.
“NO!” Alex stumbled back; his eyes were streaming tears. “NO!”
“He’s dead, Alex.” My mother made herself reach out and catch my brother’s arm. “Derrick is dead.” Her voice caught, and my father’s hand shot out to her shoulder.
“What happened?” was Ella’s whisper.
“WHY DID YOU KNOW FIRST?” My brother’s eyes never left my face. “RYIAH, WHY ARE YOU THE ONE TO TELL?”
“Derrick was a rebel.” My whole body was trembling. All of the darkness—it was coming back. And it was threatening to take hold. “A-Alex, he tried to steal information to help them—”
“NO!”
“—He g-got caught—”
“NO!” Tears were streaking down his face.
“Alex, I t-tried to have him confess. I t-tried—” I bit down on my lip to keep from sobbing. “—But h-he wouldn’t l-listen.”
My brother sank to the floor, and Ella fell down beside him.
“The rebels…T-they broke him out.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Darren and I l-let him go but h-he still got c-caught by one of the g-guards—”
My brother was up in an instant. And then it was me being slammed against the wall, my back and shoulders flaring up in agony as he pounced on me, his voice a low snarl.
“Why was he a rebel, Ryiah?”
“Alex,” I whimpered.
My twin shoved me harder and my parents cried out in horror. “There’s something you aren’t telling us, Ryiah!” he whisper-shouted. “You wouldn’t look this guilty—”