Page 9 of The Night Prince 6

“He’s infiltrated their royal house?!” Haera blinked.

“Of course, he has! He’s used that amusing and charming manner of his for something good for once,” her mother said tartly.

No one would accuse Eliana Vex of being amusing or charming. If her words could physically cut someone that would likely have pleased her most of all.

“Why do you suppose Uncle has sent him there? Does he intend to re-establish ties with the Aravae?” Haera asked the last question even as she couldn’t quite reason out why Vex would do that. His focus had been ever downwards. Deeper into the Under Dark. Searching for something. The Aravae certainly would not aid them in this downwards trek.

“Maybe he, too, hopes that Ailduin has been reborn in this new Sun King.” Her mother pursed her lips. “He’s gone to the Lieran Plane several times. To Illithor as well.”

Haera blinked at this. It was shocking to know that her uncle had done this and that her mother knew. She supposed that Vex-watching was her mother’s dearest subject second only to Blood Magic. But she had no idea that her uncle was leaving them to go up. She’d assumed when he disappeared from Nhamashel that he had headed down to find their next species to conquer or the next location of their capital city. But no. He’d gone to the Lieran Plane. He’d gone to Illithor.

Illithor!

Her veins thrilled with just the name of that glorious place. How she had dreamed of setting out for it with Rhalyf by her side. Brother and sister braving all the dangers that the Under Dark could throw at them only to reach that fabled city of purple towers and crimson mystery.

And Vex would be waiting for us once we got there. A smile on his lips. Not displeased at all that we had found what he had hidden. But satisfied that his kin had the strength, the intelligence and the daring to return to Illithor…

But that dream had died when she’d thought Rhalyf was dead.

But he wasn’t dead.

He was on Earth.

“I don’t know why you look so pleased at the thought of Rhalyf being alive,” her mother’s voice cut through her reminiscences.

She blinked slowly. Her grief and then the shattering of that grief had caused her to be careless around her mother. Reeling in her emotions now and behaving as if she hadn’t cared at all would simply cause her mother to dig deeper.

“I was thinking of… the family,” she said carefully as she leaned against the front of her mother’s desk. She disturbed a spellbook and her mother made a sound of displeasure. “I thought that it would come back on us if he’d done something, or rather, if it was thought he’d done something.”

“My brother is well aware that if I were going to overthrow him I would never ally with fools like Ashryn.” Her mother’s lips writhed back from her white, sharp teeth. “But it matters not if Rhalyf allied himself with Ashryn or my brother. The result is the same.”

Haera stilled, frowning. “I don’t understand. If Rhalyf is working with Vex–”

“Then he is equally as dead to us, dear,” her mother chuckled darkly.

Haera mentally flinched. But he’s not dead! Not to me! She wanted to shout that, but she didn’t.

“He’s made his choice,” her mother’s voice was tart and bitter. “He chose Vex so he chose poorly.”

“You assume he had any choice in this at all, Mother. Vex is our king,” she reminded her stiltedly.

“Oh, you think he would have chosen differently?” Her mother’s laughter sounded like shards of broken glass. “From the time he was a boy, he has been obsessed with your uncle. Wanting to be noticed by him. Wanting to be with him. Now he is. And Vex has taken something else from me.”

“Why do you hate Uncle so?” The question slipped out before she had a chance to think better about it.

But her mother was in too foul a mood to notice and actually answered her with another piping, shattered laugh, “He killed our parents, you know? Slaughtered them. All our friends. Almost all of them. Anyone who had been loyal to my dear father.”

“But he let you live,” Haera murmured. Again, it was a question she had never dared to ask, but that slipped out so easily now.

“Yes!” Her mother slammed both hands curled into fists against the table. The spellbooks jumped like frightened kittens. Her red eyes blazed. “Yes! He made me seem like a traitor! But I was loyal! Loyal!”

“Then why didn’t he kill you, too?” Haera met her mother’s gaze.

Those red eyes shimmered with tears. Angry tears. Vengeful tears. Selfish tears. “Because Lysanthir asked him to. That’s what he claimed. Lysanthir! Soul bound and silent! Unable to speak! But Vex claimed…” She swallowed convulsively. “He did it so that he could look upon me and remember how he slaughtered our parents and let Last Light fall!”

There was so much that Haera wanted to ask her mother. So many more questions that she had, but they stuck in her throat. She knew better than to ask more. For her mother was focused on her now in that predatory way that she knew all too well. Her mother stood up behind her desk while Haera took a step back before she stopped herself.

“Rhalyf is a traitor now, Haera. He has chosen Vex. No longer does he deserve our protection or our mercy,” her mother said.