Page 63 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

His face pinched. “Odyssa, Rhyon has already passed. He died shortly after Emyl sent you that letter.”

“What?” I shot up from my place beside him, searching his face for a lie. Any sign of a lie. But there was none. My voice was a hoarse whisper, and the room spun around the edges. The images of Rhyon in what I now knew was the Beyond came back, him choking me, pushing me over the cliff, tearing through my flesh. His Soulshade on that balcony. I’d known in my heart he was dead when I’d seen it, but to hear it aloud, to hear that Emyl had waited… “No, that’s not possible. Why would…why would he not send it sooner?”

Tallon sat up, climbing from the bed until he rested on his knees before me, taking my hands into his. “I don’t know why he didn’t send it sooner, Odyssa. Perhaps Emyl realized he was sick, too, and that’s when he sent it. They were afflicted at the same time. But you must know getting Emyl the treatment for himself… it would never make him love you.”

I jerked back, his words hitting the raw wound inside my heart with stunning accuracy. “Don’t say that.”

“You don’t need to do this to get his affection.”

“No,” I snarled, yanking my hands from his. “He is the only family I have left. And if I save him, he will see that. He will see I’m willing to do anything for him, for our family. And youwillhelp me, Tallon. We have our own bargain, and you need to see it through.”

He sighed, sinking back onto his heels. “Give me a day. Let me discover when Eadric will certainly be away from his study, and I promise, I will take you there myself.”

I nodded my agreement, pushing back on my hands to scoot up the bed. The room was still charged with emotions, and I pulled a pillow into my lap, squeezing it tightly in a vain attempt to block them out. Tallon’s eyes were still silver, still set on my body, and still peering into my soul.

“I am sorry, Odyssa. Truly.”

“Why do you care, Tallon?” I finally made myself ask the question that had been burning against my tongue since he had pounded on the door. “Why have you sought me out?”

In a swift motion, one smooth like the silk of his shirt, he was on the bed beside me again, tugging the pillow away. I couldn’t give a reason why, but when he pulled me into his lap, tucking me against his chest and resting his chin on my shoulder, I let him. His breath was warm against my neck. “You gave me what I’d been looking for all along.”

“What’s that?”

“You made me feel alive.”

ChapterThirty

Tallon had left shortly after his revelation, telling me to rest while I could. Sleep came easily as the sun broke over the horizon, and I slept undisturbed by nightmares. I wouldn’t allow myself to ponder what that meant, that I had slept well after Tallon had murdered another servant and spent hours spilling gut-wrenching truth after truth.

Perhaps I would be able to move past it. Gods knew I wanted to. He had said I made him feel alive, but he made me feel the same. Being with him made me forget all else, and that was part of the problem.

What I could focus on, though, was what would come next. Rhyon was dead, and perhaps some part of my soul had known that, had understood what the nightmares truly meant.

While my heart ached knowing my brother had passed, the grief was manageable in a way I hadn’t expected. I’d expected to be angry at Tallon and the world and Emyl for hiding it, and in some way I was, but the grief felt cold, a frozen stone set atop a gaping pit of blackness rather than the raging and volatile inferno I’d come to know.

Emyl was my focus now. Despite Tallon’s insistence that he’d lied—and despite my quickness to believe Tallon over believing Emyl had simply made a mistake—I was more motivated than ever to get that treatment. He was truly the only family I had left in the world. The only person who wasmine. And he would not want me if I could not redeem myself in his eyes.

Pushing the blankets to the foot of the bed, I began to dress for the party. I wanted to trust Tallon’s assertion he would help me, especially after all he’d told me just hours ago, but until I had the treatment in hand or in sight, I would always be suspicious. Despite having all the power, he had none here, exactly like the rest of us.

Another part of me—the part that did not spend the entirety of my life aching for the approval and love of a family—might have forgiven him with just those words. But I could not. My mother had not been perfect, but she had been mine, and he’d taken her, no matter whose choice it had been. He had nearly killed me as well.

I had entered Castle Auretras with a mission, one that would not be complete until I had left it and returned home with the treatment for whoever remained.

Tallon had agreed to help me, and despite everything he’d lied to me about, last night there had been nothing but truth in his eyes. And I wasn’t sure what scared me more: that or the certain hells I would face going up against Prince Eadric and his possessed castle.

My steps falteredas I approached the kitchen entryway. Licking my lips and tasting no ash, I finally took the last few steps inside.

The others looked up, and the room was silent and heavy, Talyssa’s death hanging over us all.

“Is anyone else planning on doing anything stupid?” Maricara asked, pinning her gaze on me. Her voice might have almost been intimidating, if it hadn’t wavered on the wave of unshed tears shining in her eyes. In that moment, I knew Maricara better than she likely ever wanted me to.

“Nothing that will come back to any of you,” I admitted. This truth, I could give them. Too late, I had realized that Talyssa could have been an ally, that we could have made far more progress with each other than alone. I wouldn’t make that mistake again, not even for the risk of Eadric discovering our plans. I would give no details, but I could give the truth.

She startled at my honesty, covering it with narrowed eyes. “See that it doesn’t.”

A silent agreement passed over the four of us, and without any further words or any taste of ash and smoke, we gathered our things and made our way to the ballroom just as the music began.

Another night in hell, for everyone involved.

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