“I saw an estate much like Waisley though also like nothing else I’d ever seen. I was on a bridge in a garden. I crossed the beautiful visage toward the mansion home and found a giant of a man. He was in some kind of white dress draped across his huge figure. He stood proud over my father and beat him near to death. Someone was screaming from inside the house, begging him to stop. I could do nothing to stop it myself, but at the last second, the man turned, and he saw me. I screamed and was launched out of the dream.”

Fordham, who was normally so stoic, looked truly shocked by her words. “But that makes no sense.”

“I’m aware.”

“You never saw Tieran? You never faced the three challenges with him?”

“No.”

“You never chose each other above all else?”

“No,” she repeated.

“Then… how are you bound?”

She frowned and looked down. He inhaled sharply, as if suddenly everything made sense. All the pieces of the last week fit together for him.

“You’re not,” he whispered.

“No.”

“That’s why you’ve been failing all these months. Why you seem off during training.”

She met his gaze head-on. She had told him. He knew the truth now. She wouldn’t back down from it.

“Yes. We’ve been faking the bond all this time.”

“How?” he gasped out.

“The spirit plane,” she said.

“Like the raven psychopomp in the forest during our final trial in the tournament?”

“Sort of. Zina showed me how to access the spirit plane and find the signature of another’s magic. I can locate Tieran and speak to him anytime I want. We faked the second test that way.”

“So, what’s stopping you now?”

“We have to exit our bodies to enter the spirit plane. We can’t be present and on the spirit plane at the same time. When we try, I end up slipping off of him or not making the turn fast enough. He can fly just fine, but I can’t lead him.”

Fordham nodded. “That explains so much.”

“I guess so.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and sank lower. She didn’t want to answer that one. “I think it’s my turn, princeling. You’ve asked a few questions.”

He straightened, as if forgetting they were still playing a game. “Of course. I simply meant that I could have helped you through this. You didn’t have to do it alone.”

Kerrigan nodded, her throat tight at those words. “Thank you.”

“We can still figure this out.”

“Fordham,” she whispered. His eyes were bright on hers. “Who is Dacia?”