“After I caught Kalvar and–well,” Helle begins and she takes a deep breath. “After I saw Kalvar with Sylvia and Ava together in that way, I just couldn’t shake the image or idea that they were doing something we’d never discussed in our relationships before. It’s not like I have policed how Kalvar and Ava do things, but I guess to have them join in on something without even asking me if I wanted to… not that I wanted to… but all them were involved in–”

“Alright, you don’t have to over-explain it,” I say, my cheeks blushing as I try to blot out what I’d seen and heard once again. I really shouldn’t have all the details of my brother’s sexual activities. “So you were upset. Then what happened?”

“I confronted Ava. Ava told me that Kalvar didn’t want to make love to me because he was having a hard time with the fact that I lost his baby. I ran away from the palace after that, decided to go back to my father. I know it was stupid to go out on my own, but I was so overwhelmed. I’d lost our baby and since that happened Kalvar has been so different towards me. We haven’t even had sex since the baby died and that Kalvar shared that information with Ava tore me up,” Helle says, her expression pained, “Anyway, on the way this old woman with a flower cart approached me. I was crying and she asked what I was crying about.”

“This old woman didn’t happen to be the Sorceress, did she?” I ask.

“You know too well,” Helle mumbles, “I told her I didn’t think my husband loved me anymore. That was when she offered to give me a flower from her cart, said it would bring love back into my life. She said she would give it to me for free because I was such a nice girl. I thought it was silly, but I took the flower anyway, in that moment the woman appeared to look exactly like me. It was so strange, like looking in a mirror. I knew right then who I was dealing with. Except it was too late. Whatever had happened during that exchange transformed my appearance to others… well, except you and Rift.”

“The Sorceress is using your appearance as her way into the palace. She threatened me in her natural form and provoked me so that I tried to kill her, then she took on your form and made me look like I’d gone crazy. So… I’m a fugitive now. Kalvar thinks I’m crazy and Dorth thinks I’m a murderer because of what happened with the crime lord we rescued Laurel, Scenna, and Dayna from.”

“I was filled in on that by Rift,” Helle murmurs, looking down at her feet. “Oh, Kyla, I’m so sorry… if I hadn’t gotten insecure this never would have happened!” She starts crying.

“Don’t blame yourself,” I comfort, nudging her with my long muzzle and wishing I wasn’t in my beast form so that I could give her a hug.

“What are we going to do?” Helle says through her tears, shaking her head hopelessly. “I cannot think of any way to make this right. I believe she has won. The Sorceress wins! She’s in the palace as the future king’s wife, right now. She’s caused everyone to think you are crazy and a killer. All of this chaos is only making her more powerful too. It won’t be long till she has Underlund and quite possibly all of Axus in her death grip.”

“We can’t give up, we won’t let her win,” I soothe her. “We’re still here. We still have the ability to do something.”

“She’s right!” Scenna says. “As long as we’re alive we’ll fight her.”

“Kyla, can we speak alone?” Rift says, stepping in between Helle and I.

Everyone looks to me and I nod at them. Helle, Laurel, Dayna, and Scenna descend through the door. Helle waits a moment.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

“Yes, I’m sure it won’t take long,” I tell her, shooting Rift a curious expression. What could he have to talk to me about? He doesn’t think I’ll just swoon into his arms right now, does he?

After they are out of earshot I look to Rift. “What did you want to talk about?”

“She wanted me to kill you,” Rift says, his voice so quiet I can barely hear him.

“Excuse me?” I say, blinking at him.

“That’s why I was in the palace when we met at that party. The night we danced. I was supposed to attack you with the drakon controlled by the Fe collar,” Rift says, “And make it look like the drakon had killed you instead of…” His voice trails and he reaches into his pocket. He unsheathes a small silver dagger with a ruby handle. “This is one of the only weapons that works against a Cursed, the same weapon that gave your father the scar he bears. I was supposed to kill you with it.”

I back away from him, the sight of the deadly weapon makes my stomach turn. “What? How–?”

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill you,” Rift admits, his expression made of stone, neither smiling nor frowning. “I don’t know why I couldn’t do it. It is what she’ raised me to do. My entire life she’s planned for me to do it and when the moment came I couldn’t. Of the two of us I’m the only one with the power to control a Cursed. I can bring you from one form to another. You remember.” His gaze snaps to mine, a darkness has creeped into the amber. “I never–I never felt anything until I saw you on the dance floor.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I ask, I swallow back the fire building in my throat.

“You wouldn’t have trusted me,” Rift says.

“And I’m supposed to trust you now?” I growl.

“You are a thing of beauty,” Rift murmurs, scrutinizing my beast form, “But you are indeed a wild thing and cannot be easily tamed.”

Rift’s eyes glow amber at me and I gasp, he’s making me change forms, bringing me into my human form. He keep his gaze from me as he takes off the black cloak he wears and throws it at me.

“Cover yourself,” Rift says, panting with exhaustion from the energy he’d just used on me. His eyes evade my nakedness.

I pick up the cloak and pull it around me. “I’m dressed,” I hiss at him, trying to seem brave, but I cannot deny how my heart pounds in my chest and how much I hate myself for wanting him because of the power he just displayed over me.

Rift approaches me with the dagger in his hand.

What is he doing? Is he going to kill me?

Rift kneels before me and bows his head. “Here. I want you to have it,” he says, extending his hands out and presenting the dagger to me.

I tentatively reach out, my body shaking while doing so. My fingers curl around the ruby handle and lift it cautiously away from him.

“Why are you giving this to me?” I’m breathless as I gaze at the small thing capable of ending my life.

“If you are going to be mine,” Rift says, rising from his position of respect and looking down at me with burning eyes. “I will need your trust. I want nothing more than to have you as my own, but you need to do so of your own volition. Not by threat of death or out of threat to your family. I will help you save your kin so that you can be mine, totally and completely.”