Page 138 of To Fight and To Fold

Aaryn processed Thea's words slowly, blinking. Then she glanced at the nearby barrier, shimmering softly in the night. "Don't the barriers block magic like that already?"

"Yes," Thea agreed, nodding too quickly. "If you're inside the barrier, which you aren't all the time."

"Like when I was at Skymore?" Her eyes narrowed, stomach sinking. It was the only other time she'd left since she'd arrived. "Why do I need to be protected against scrying?"

Thea's fingers tangled together in front of her, clasped awkwardly. "One of the healers can read magic residue, and recognized that type of magic on you. We…" She released a breath. "Vaelen and I think it was the prince, and that he cast the spell to find you in Skymore."

A shiver went up Aaryn’s spine, and not the fun, magical kind she'd so been looking forward to. "Scrying? On my location?"

"Yes. It works better depending on how well the caster knows the target. And it helps accuracy if the caster has something physical. Hair, saliva. Blood."

Aaryn's nails dug into her palm, an echo of that day in the library, when Aaryn had pierced her own skin at just the idea of something happening to her scar, her brand. She recalled the smudge of blood on the back of the prince's hands, the embarrassment she'd felt as he'd retrieved the kerchief and wiped it away, tucked it back in his pocket.

She suddenly felt sick. "How does a scry work?" she asked, heart beginning to race. "I mean, is it like, a thing that he does once, and it sticks, and then…?" What? Aaryn didn't know how magic worked yet. "A—a bell goes off, like a customer walking into a store? Hey prince, ding ding ding, Aaryn's right here!"

Thea's eyes were a little too sad as she shook her head. "A scry only works for a short period of time."

Aaryn slowly sank to the ground, and Starspark was there, behind her. "So what are you saying? How did he know to cast it?"

"Because he knew that if he made a big enough problem, we would send everyone we could to help."

"Why would he assume Vaelen would trust me so much to—to fly with Starspark? I feel like—there's no way, right? It would make no sense to attack Skymore just for—" Aaryn's heart sank at the idea that the prince would do something so… so evil. Hurt so many innocent people for—for what? Me?

"He knows me?" Thea offered quietly, and there she was, in front of Aaryn, on her knees in the grass, within reaching distance. "That I'm from Skymore. So maybe he assumed you would be there because he knew I would." Because he knows we're something, Aaryn filled in. "Maybe it's just as much my fault."

Aaryn scoffed. "Because you were born there?"

"Because I took you from him," Thea said, something a little braver in the words than Aaryn had heard from her in days.

And suddenly it all made a sickening kind of sense, the twisted web finally connecting into a truth that wrenched her heart. Evergale hadn't bothered to return, because it wasn’t really about Skymore. It was fodder.

"How could he do something like that?" Aaryn asked softly, not expecting an answer unless the Great Dragon himself wanted to come down and tell her.

Had there been signs, and Aaryn had simply overlooked them? In the library, so full of secrets and hatred when he’d described the druids. At the ball, so tightlipped and tense and quick to cut her off when she’d brought them up. In Skymore, hands blackened from the rot of the magic he’d been wielding.

The idea that the prince had burned an entire city with dragon's breath, just to lure Aaryn out? Using her to possibly find the druids? No one in their right mind would do something so careless—except for a prince gone mad in his bid to uncover the druids who had "taken" his sister.

"He's gone mad," Aaryn realized. "That's the only explanation."

"I'm glad you don't blame yourself. I should've known—" Thea shook her head. "You're so much smarter than that. I'm sorry I lied. Please, keep the pin on."

"I won't take it off," Aaryn promised, and tilted her head, studying Thea. "Is that why you've been so weird lately? Pulling away?"

Thea flushed, nodded, and glanced away. "Yeah. I didn't want to—it didn't feel right to⁠—"

"Kiss me? Flirt?" Aaryn asked. Thea was ten shades of purple. "You didn't seem to have a problem with flirting in Evergale, and you were lying then."

Months ago, when Thea had worn a false crest and Aaryn had believed so many lies.

"That was different," Thea argued, brow furrowing with her conviction.

"I know," Aaryn agreed, something fluttery taking flight in her chest. They were different then. They were different now. "And that's exactly why I forgive you."

Aaryn had spent far too long trapped in a web of lies. Finally, someone was telling her the truth.

Thea's lips parted, then closed in confusion, in awe, with understanding.

"Thea?" Aaryn prompted, leaning closer, tapping into that tension between them. It felt clearer this time, freer. There were no more secrets in the way.