Page 173 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“That is the very definition, my dear,” she whispers.

* * *

I find Wendy at Azaire’s tree. I’m not sure why I am here. All I know is that I went to his room and he wasn’t there.

All I know is that I know nothing.

I sit here, staring at the trunk of a tree, both wishing it is and isn’t him.

“Why do you feel like guilt?” Wendy whispers.

“Because I feel guilty.” I pushed him to fight.

Wendy turns to me. “It’s because of Desdemona?”

“Desdemona?”

“Oh.” Her eyebrows rise and she turns away quickly. “It isn’t.”

“Why do you bring her up?”

“I,” she shrugs, “thought that you thought she was involved in all this. After your theatrics.”

“Do you?” I ask. “Think she is involved?”

Wendy runs her hands through the grass. “Yes,” she whispers. “She’s a smart liar.”

“How so?”

“Never once have I been able to catch her.”

“Perhaps she was telling the truth.”

“No.” Wendy shakes her head. “She just knows how to get around the questions.”

“As you know how to get around a subject,” I observe. “What are you not saying?”

She looks up to the sky and begrudgingly says, “There was a prophecy. It felt like… the end. I tried to kill her before it could commence. I didn’t try well enough.”

Every muscle in my body goes rigid. My heart beats too fast while my body freezes.

“Go on.”

“Then there was the kappa. I could feel it trying to communicate with her.” Wendy looks at me, in all seriousness. “If we can stop the prophecy at its source, we have a moral obligation to. And if she’s involved with—” she chokes. “Then we have to avenge him.”

I shake my head. I don’t believe that Desdemona had something to do with Azaire. I can’t believe it.

I can. And yet, no one will be laying a finger on Desdemona Marquees. Or whoever she is.

“That’s not a good enough reason.” There is no good enough reason.

Which is no good for me. What am I to do if she is involved?

“The end of everything. That’s what we’re facing, that’s what the prophecy was!”

“Tell me. What was it?”

Wendy shudders and shakes her head. “Time fractures with the stone. The one who leaves returns alone. When the cracks in the universe divide, love will be your demise.”

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