Slender Or’myr gets up and rises to his full impressive height, then strides around the table toward me, extending his hand. Rendered speechless, I grip it, and he gives me another faint smile, his gaze piercingly intelligent. “It’s good to meet you, cousin.”

Cousin. Uncle Edwin’s son.

My emotions thrust into a tumult, I pick up a keener sense of Or’myr’s strong core of violet fire and earth magery, his earthlines forged from purple stone and crystal.

“We look alike,” I finally manage—my resemblance to this young man I’ve never met before is so much stronger than my resemblance to either Rafe or Trystan.

A sardonic gleam lights his eyes. “We do. Except you are not purple.”

“I’m not this either,” I note as I motion toward myself.

Or’myr loses his smile. “It’s good you’re glamoured, cousin.” His gaze slides over my grayed face. “How did you ever manage it?”

“A Smaragdalfar glamour.” I cast about for the words. “One of a kind.” I take in the amethyst-encrusted wand sheathed at Or’myr’s side before meeting his shrewd gaze once more. He radiates a reserved calm similar to Trystan’s, which loosens some of my tension. “You’ve wand magery, then?”

The side of Or’myr’s lip twitches. “A bit.” His gaze flits to Fain, and I sense from their shared, amused glance that this is a wild understatement. “I’m a Level Five Fire and Earth Mage,” he clarifies. “As well as a geomancer.”

I’m struck by the fact that Or’myr and I have the same predominant affinities as I note the slim chain draped diagonally across his military garb, the chain’s links holding small amethysts of varying lavender hues.

Or’myr smiles. “I work with your friends Sagellyn Gaffney and Tierney Calix. We’re all magical researchers at the Wyvernguard.”

Surprise snaps through me to find Sage, Tierney, and my newfound cousin connected in this way.

“And this is Or’myr’s mother, Li’ra,” Fain says as the willowy Urisk woman gets up and quietly approaches me. “She’s Edwin’s shonorin.” Fain smiles warmly at both Li’ra and me. “His geo-bonded mate. Which would make her your aunt, Elloren.”

An upswell of grief wrests hold as I look into the purple-lashed, amethyst gaze of the Urisk woman before me, then back toward my tall, look-alike cousin.

Here they are.

Or’myr and Li’ra.

Uncle Edwin’s whole other life. Perhaps his truer life. Not with Rafe and Trystan and me at all, but here in the Eastern Realm with this woman, his secret love, and their son. A son and mate he was separated from for as long as I knew him.

And he never told us. Never breathed a word.