Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

She nodded, her smile strained. “I know. You’re here helping me despite the fact that you’re the High General, and you should be in Arkalious with Trick, working. Trust me, I think about it every day.”

I heard the bite in her tone, and it caused my brows to pull together. “Are you angry that I’m here?”

“Nope, no. I’m not. That’s…” She ran her hands back through her hair before finally meeting my eyes. “Don’t worry about it, okay? Just forget it.”

But I was worried. I dealt with this a lot in my warriors, it was no different here. “Have I overstayed?”

“No,” she snapped and then shook her head again, releasing a frustrated breath. “Just…don’t worry about it, okay? Everything is fine. I’m fine.”

She walked over to the coffee table, organizing books stacked there too,fixing the blanket and pillow I had used the night before when I had slept. “Kyra, you should take a break.” She had been going nonstop. Keeping her mind busy so she didn’t have to think about what happened. About what’s next. That’s what it was, I realized. She hadn’t stopped.

Kyra worked her jaw, her motions becoming sharp and deliberate. “I’mfine,” she bit. “I’m fine, everything is fine, and I’m a good sister.”

And a small voice in the back of my head whispered,“There it is.”

She cursed under her breath shaking her head.

I slowly made my way over. “No one said you weren’t.”

“I don’t need a break,” she said evenly, shoving things from one side of the coffee table to the other. “I’m fine.”

“Tal—”

“Gods above, Cole!” she shouted, spinning on me. “What is it you want to hear? Do you want to hear that you’re right? Do you want to hear about how I went back to the house and found nothing but ruins? Did you want to know about the dead humans hanging on the crosses with threats written across them? What is it you want to hear? Because I don’t want to play this game, Ireallydon’t. So just fucking tell me!”

My eyes widened, not having expected that. “What?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I expected more from Trick, by the way. It’s kind of pathetic that he just burned the house down. With all of his obsessive talk, I truly expected something dark and twisted. That was just…that was just somundane.”

But I was sure Trick hadn’t been the one to burn the house down. Setting fires isn’t something he did.

“I guess that’s what pushed Evanora to nail a bloody sign to one of the bodies threatening us too,” she went on. “She was probably angry thatshedidn’t get to set that fire because all anyone in this whole fucking world wants ismorepower. More control. More. More.More. No one can ever just be fine with what they have. Nobody.”

“Kyra,” I tried as she turned on her heel and headed for her bedroom.

“They won’t get him,” she said, ignoring me. “I’ll kill all of them if I have to, and I’ll do it on my own if that’s what it takes, but they will never get my brother.”

“Of course not,” I replied, walking after her. “Of course not, we’ll protect him.”

“And do you want to know what the worst part is?” she asked, pausing in her doorway to look back at me. “There was another note to me. I don’t know what the game is, but it claimed that she wasn’t even my real mom. Like…” she laughed, lifting and dropping her hands. “What is even the point of that? What does that have to do with any of this?” she gestured wildly.

I shook my head, my shoulders falling. “I don’t know, Ky.”

Tears filled her eyes as she shrugged. “All it means is that Mark isn’t my blood.”

I closed my eyes at her words. Shit. “That doesn’t mean any—”

“Why did she even keep me?” she went on, her voice thick. “She told me all the time how much she hated me. How much she wanted me to just go kill myself, why keep me? She hated mesomuch, but shechoseto bringme home. She punishedmeforherdecision, and Imissher. How…how fucked up is that? Howtwistedis that? She beat the shit out of me every day, hated me, wanted me dead, and Imiss her. All I ever wanted was to be good enough for her. All I want is to be good enough for fuckingsomebody. I need to be a good sister, it’s all I have left.”

“Kyra, you are a good sister.”

She rolled her eyes, tears slipping down her cheeks, her lips pressed into a thin line. It took her several seconds before she spoke again, inhaling sharply before she said, “is that enough talking for tonight?”

My heart thudded numbly. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed her. “Yeah, Talons.”

Kyra nodded once angrily and wiped the tears away. “Great.” She shut her door with a finality.

Shit. What now? What were the next steps now?