CHAPTER FIVE
“You can’t be,” Alexi says, his voice little more than a croak. “We don’t have a sister.”
I’ve wanted this moment for eleven years, to finally look my family in the eye and have them see me for who I really am. My mother isn’t here, but my brothers are. Alexi is. Alexi, who has been the bright half of my dark ghost for so long.
But I didn’t want this moment to be like this. I wanted joy. I wanted love. I wanted the pieces to click together perfectly.
Elvar took that from me four years ago. He turned our home into a battleground and snatched away the joy we could have had.
And now we’re here because of him. I’m doing this because of him. I exchanged joy for this.
“Rickard was my teacher,” I say. “If he agreed to teach me and I’m not your sister, he must have broken the vow he made your father.”
Bear doesn’t even hesitate. “He would never have done that!”
“Then it must be true, mustn’t it?”
“B-but,” he stammers, “but our mother, she’d have told us if we had a sister! Why would she hide it from us?”
General Saka’s expression has transformed to horror; now that she knows I didn’t cheat, she has to face the unthinkable possibility that Alexi Rey might have an equal. “You have the same eyes, Alex,” she says.
It’s not just the eyes. Alexi, Bear, and I are a patchwork of the generations that came before us. Bear has more brown in his skin like our mother, while Alexi and I are a light bronze that’s closer to the paler skin tone our father once had. We all have copper in our brown hair, but Alexi and I have our mother’s gray eyes and Bear has our father’s blue. And then there’s Bear’s eyebrows and Alexi’s nose and my small, sturdy frame and all of the other little details I’ve traced back across years of our family.
“How long have you known?” Rama asks. He’s using that lazy drawl again, but I know him too well. I’ve hurt him.
“A long time. Amba told me when I was six.”
“So that’s why she sent you to the schoolroom,” King Darshan says, a puzzle at last solved. “She wanted you educated like a royal because you are one. Extraordinary.”
Alexi shakes his head. “It makes no sense. No one’s ever heard of Alexa Rey. There are countless records of my birth and not one of them mentions a second baby.”
“No, but the records also make it clear that our mother refused all medical treatment while she was pregnant and only our father was with her when she gave birth. Didn’t you ever think that odd behavior for a queen? She did it because she knew she was pregnant with twins and she didn’t want anyone else to find out.”
Alexi is silent. Bear stutters a protest, but then gives in and says, “But why? Why keep you a secret? Why would Mother send you away?”
“There was a curse. I don’t know who cursed us or why, but I know it said that my birth would destroy us all. Amba says that our mother cried bitterly, but she gave me up in the hope that the curse would never come to pass. She begged Amba to take away her memories of me, and our father’s memories of me, so that they would never be tempted to seek me out.”
“She cried bitterly?” Max says slowly. It’s the first time he’s spoken in several minutes. “She asked for her memory of you to be removed so that she would never be tempted to seek you out? None of that sounds like Kyra.”
Bear scowls but doesn’t contradict him. No one seems to know what else to say. I watch Alexi. He’s so pale and quiet. This isn’t how I planned this; I wanted to speak to him before the competition, prepare my brothers so that we could act this scene out together, but I failed and now I’m performing this part alone. The show must go on.
“So what now?” Alexi asks me quietly. “You’re my sister, but you competed against me. I can only assume that means you’re not on my side.”
This is the hardest part, the final move in the game. “I’m sorry,” I say. “Don’t take it personally. I just want to go home.”
Alexi’s smile is slightly grim. “You want to take Titania to Kali. You want the kingdom they took from me. You’ve chosen their side.”
My heart aches. I hate that he thinks this of me. I wanted him to leave Wychstar after all this knowing he had a sister who would fight for him, even if she had to do it in secret, but it’s too late for that now. I have to let him believe the worst. I have to let them all believe it.
It was like they said in the dock. Titania is an unbeatable warship, but she is ultimately a ship. She can’t be beaten, but she can’t be everywhere at once either. With or without her, Alexi needs help from inside Kali. He needs help cutting our uncle down from the inside.
And there was only one way I was ever going to convince my uncle that I was on his side: I had to compete against Alexi. I had to show them all just how valuable I am. I had to make Elvar and Max and every other traitor on Kali want me.
And now that they do, I have my way home. I have my teeth firmly in their throats. And when it’s time, I’ll rip them out.
And win this war.
“I want to go home,” I say again, “And I’ll do what it takes to get there, even if that means joining our uncle. I’ve been a ghost for seventeen years. I want my home back.”
There’s a ringing silence when I finish. I let it hang in the air, then turn on my heels and walk quietly out of the room before I burst into tears.