Bleeding Ink

Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Cleo stood on the balcony of her suite of rooms in the palace, watching as her grandmother and Adeena walked through the gardens below, talking and laughing and crying. She hadn't said a word to her sister after she came back from the brink of death. Not when she gripped her as tight as she could in a hug she never wanted to let go of, not when she knew she had to go through her kingdom and assess all the damage done, not when she had to meet with Urell and Janan in the council chamber to discuss more defenses to put up all along the Arloerin borders so nothing like what happened could again.

But now, the full weight of having her sister back dropped down on top of her, stealing the very breath from her lungs.

Adeena was alive.

She was Lady Addie Merlo, the female mage who Cleo had been furious with without having met her.

And she was the Lady in White, the leader of the Guild of Starlight and one of the most feared and respected assassins in all of Laria.

Cleo's knuckles went white as she gripped the balcony railing, dropping her chin to her chest as she tried to breathe, tried to tell herself that this was all she ever wanted...

Yet anger and resentment flared to life, directed at Adeena.

She'd been alive all this time and didn't even attempt to let Cleo or even her grandmother know.

And another person she was mad at? Malik. The bastard knew and never even thought to tell her.

Slow footsteps sounded behind her on the carpeted floor before pausing at the balcony doorway. A few seconds passed before she was joined by Kav. He touched the small of her back and looped both arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest as he leaned his chin against her shoulder.

"Are you all right?" he whispered to her then.

Cleo remained silent as she shook her head once.

Kav followed where she'd been looking, seeing Adeena and Renna slowly walking through the gardens below. "You haven't said much to her after everything that happened."

"I can't," she finally managed to choke out. "Even though I've wanted her here every single day over these last hundred and twenty years, now that she is..."

"I know," he whispered, tightening his hold on her as he kissed the side of her neck.

"Why didn't they tell me?" she asked. "Why didn't Adeena come home? Why didn't Malik at least tell me about her? Why have me thinking my sister was dead this whole time, knowing how much I was hurting because of it?"

"From what I know, and I'll admit it's very little, there wasn't a way for Adeena to. Dark magic tied her to my mother, a curse of sorts that's now broken. You know that necklace she always wears? That's how she kept control of her...and what bound her to that death god Fin. My mother..."

"Is it true?" Cleo asked him then, turning in his hold to grip the front of his tunic. She looked up into the same light hazel eyes he shared with his mother. "About Sophea, I mean."

Kav nodded, reaching up to brush her hair back behind her ear. "It is. Whatever magic that had hold over her, too, is now gone. She's...she's completely different than the female I've grown up with," he told her. "But about Malik and him knowing about Adeena...well, I think he never told you because it wasn't his secret to tell. He wanted to. I know he did. He just couldn't."

Leaning her forehead against his chest, Cleo heaved a sigh. "I'm still going to be mad at him, though."

His laughter wrapped around her as he drew her closer. "I don't blame you. I'm still pissed at him on your behalf as well."