Page 18 of Cursed Shadows 5

The earnest look she gives him goes unnoticed.

Father only looks at me. His nod is faint. “You outdid anyone’s expectations of you, Narcissa. You made usproud.”

I chance a look at the babe.

It is so still that it’s either a wonderful babe who sleeps all the time, or my sister has soaked a thimble in wine and let the babe taste it. My gold is on the latter.

I say nothing.

Pandora’s stare doesn’t waver. She aims it at me and holds with the glitter of desperate hope. “You developed something in the spectators, you know. Folk cheered for you. Not many, but enough that I tell folk you are my sister.”

The look I fling at her is fierce enough to tense her shoulders. “What you really mean is that you are shocked I survived.”

Father’s mouth swells as he runs his tongue along his teeth, a twisted mesh of impatience and guilt.

If I was wrong, he would say so.

“But you did survive, Nari,” Pandora urges. I don’t need her to urge. I know that I am here, alive, and I know what it cost me. “You should be proud of this. You have made us so.”

“Have I?” My voice is dull. “And you are so keen to tell everyone I am your sister? That it isourblood that saved me?”

“Nari, please. Do not do that. I am proud—that is all.”

I scoff, deep in my chest.

She takes credit. Announces that I am her sister only once I deceive and slaughter in the Sacrament. Before that, I was the sister to send off like I meant nothing.

Father tuts, hard. The glare he swerves to Pandora is enough to silence her.

Slowly, he brings his gaze to me, and it softens—but there is an edge to his voice as he asks, “How long have you had your ability to lie?”

I flicker my gaze to the warmth that sneaks up into my peripheral vision. It comes from around the next carriage over. Honeyed gold in a male, tall and lean, amber eyes and perfectly fine braids, all complimented by his leathered trousers and a simple, dishevelled blouse.

So effortlessly beautiful.

I loosen a breath at the sight of him.

And I just… stare at my brother, my Eamon.

He hovers on the edge, an urgency in the way he looks at me, like he fights every instinct to rush at me and sweep me into his arms. The greeting of true family.

But he waits.

I return my tense stare to Father. “Does that matter, or does it only matter that I can?”

Pandora steps forward, and it’s a movement tensed with hesitation. “Come home now, Nari. Come home and rest. You ought to have a healer thoroughly examine you. We can discuss more at home.”

My smile is grim and bitter. “I fought for my life on that mountain. But that means I allied with the dark ones. I don’t think I’ll be very welcome in Licht anymore, least of all in the Queen’s Court.”

Father drops his stare to the ground. The truth of my words strikes him silent.

Pandora only flattens her mouth.

The babe is still motionless in her arms. Definitely a laced thimble.

“Welcome or not,” Father starts, and his hands fist at his sides, “you are to come home.”

“No.”

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