Early in the morning, an hour before the sun will rise, I make my way to the tower, where I sent word, via Dorian, for the others to wait for me. I wind my way up a spire, and when I reach the top, it opens up into a large room.

Arched windows wrap around the entire space. A golden chandelier with crystals dangling from it hangs from the high ceiling. A huge rug spans out across the floor. And comfortable chairs and couches and pillows are scattered around along the walls.

I find Eshan, Alivia, and Ian on the far side of the circular room, not really saying anything, just waiting.

A big huff whooshes out of my lungs when I sit down and let myself sink deep into the chair. My eyes immediately slip closed.

I’m not sleepy, but I’m exhausted.

I have an entire Court to keep in line, and about a dozen people I think I can trust to help me do it.

And suddenly, I realize I haven’t fed in days.

“You’re handling this all way better than I ever could have,” Alivia says, attempting to lighten the mood.

I open my eyes, sighing as I stare at the ceiling. I’m too tired to even have a conversation, but I know it’s needed.

“It will be easier now that Dorian and Malachi are here,” I say. “This happens every time, to some degree. The Court doubts me because I look different, and it’s been a really long time this time that I’ve been gone. But they respect and trust the two of them. It will be easier and quicker to get this figured out with them here.”

I feel Alivia’s mood darken. “Well, that’s a load of bull shit.”

I actually chuckle. “Amen.” I sigh again, shaking my head. “Things change slowly in a place like this. We’re all so stuck in time and that’s the reality of it—they’ve never been led by anyone besides Cyrus.”

“I just feel sorry for the idiots,” Eshan pipes up. “Cyrus is pretty intense, but I grew up with Logan. She’s damn scary!”

Everyone chuckles. But immediately I’m reminded that I should be chiding him for swearing.

It finally, suddenly hits me.

My parents are dead. Eshan is my charge now, for forever.

Emotion bites at my eyes. My throat clenches shut.

I bite my lower lip to try to keep from letting out a sob.

“Hey,” Eshan says, climbing out of his seat and coming to my side. He wraps his arms around my shoulders and I immediately lay my head on his chest. “I’m sorry, Lo. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk.”

I shake my head. “It’s not you.” My voice breaks, but the tears don’t fall yet. “I just remembered. It all just hit me that Mom and Dad…”

Eshan tightens his grip on me and I feel a tremble creep into his embrace.

I’d forgotten for a little while. With everything else, with Sevan so present in my head, I’d forgotten.

I’m still Logan Pierce. I’m still a twenty-year-old whose parents were just savagely murdered. I’m just a girl who now has to be in charge of her sixteen-year-old brother.

All while trying to hold a Kingdom together.

A sob rips from my chest and I hug into my brother tighter. A moment later, I feel a tear fall from Eshan’s face and land on my ear. He cries silently, but holds me tight, keeping me together when it should be my job to comfort him.

But I can’t right now.

Mom. Who taught me how to do my makeup when I was eleven. Who was so excited to go with me to buy my first training bra. Who loved to gossip about all the boys I liked in middle school.

And Dad. Who never remembered to buy anything new for himself, because he was always spoiling Mom rotten. Who snuck me out when I was fourteen to teach me how to drive. Dad was always up for going out for piping hot Buffalo wings every other Saturday for lunch.

Because of me, because of something I was born into and had no choice in, they’re dead. They were brutally murdered by two men who have been hunting me for over one hundred years.

Alivia shifts to the chair next to me. She doesn’t say anything and doesn’t touch me. This is a world she can’t be a part of. She may have given birth to me twenty years ago, but she wasn’t there for any of those little moments. She doesn’t know anything about the bond between my brother and I, and our parents that we looked nothing like.

But she’s there. Just her presence screams her support.

I wipe my eyes after a while. I take a deep breath and straighten as Eshan releases me.

“We need to do it soon,” I say. “If we wait any longer the bodies will be…” I can’t say the words, but my training knows exactly the damage that has already been done to their bodies, and the state they’re slipping further and further into without being taken care of. “Will you both help me?” I ask, looking to Alivia and Ian. “We need to lay them to rest.”

“Of course,” Alivia says as she takes my hand.

Without further words, we make our way down and through the castle. Alivia seems to know where she is going as she leads us toward the side entrance that lets out into the courtyard.

She opens a door just off to the side. Sitting just inside, in the center of the room, there are already two caskets.

I know. I already know that opening those caskets to see my parents’ faces one last time to say goodbye wouldn’t do one bit of good with the state they will be in. So, side-by-side, Eshan and I step inside.

I place my hands on one coffin that reads Gemma Pierce on the top of it. “I love you,” I whisper. Trading places with Eshan, I go to my father’s coffin. Ethan Pierce. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I love you.”

Tears slowly slip down my face, and my brother’s. Together, all four of us, we first take my mother, and then my father, and carry them out into the courtyard. In one corner of it, there is a graveyard, where over the years, Cyrus and I have buried our closest family members.

The graves were already dug. I don’t know who did all of this, if it was Alivia or Ian, or maybe even Mina. But I’m incredibly grateful.

I don’t even speak words, and neither does Eshan. But they’re there, in the air around us. In our hearts. A lifetime of love.

And at the castle grounds, half a world away from their home, my brother and I lay our parents to rest.