But instead of showing fear, Hawthorne only stands and stalks toward me, his own anger visible now. In a flash, he’s sliced through the ivy creeping toward Silene and Fionn with a beam of light, not breaking his stride. I don’t back down either, conjuring swirling water to surround me, even though the sight of his stony face hurts me more than I want to admit right now.

“Just like you decided unilaterally to keep critical information from us,” he sneers as he makes the water I’ve conjured disappear. If I weren’t so angry, his power would impress me. He’s taking my magic head on, matching my strength with his own. “Why didn’t you tell us that the thayar flower is declining?” There’s a severity to his tone I’ve never heard from him before.

My entire body tenses. I knew it was a possibility they would find out, an inevitability really, but I wanted to delay the conversation for as long as possible to avoid this moment. Avoid the decision I must now make. The conversation with Nemesia in Delsar replays in my mind.

And if he finds out more than he should? If he somehow sees something that puts Thayaria at risk, or discovers the declining thayar? What should I do then?

You should kill him.

Nausea and indecision wrack my body while the Prince continues his rant.

“This rebellion is about more than disagreement with your decision to keep Thayaria behind the mist.” I sit in silence, my heart and my brain at war with one another. “What, now that I’ve pointed out your own poor decisions you have nothing to say for yourself? These people are afraid, and you kept that from me.”

I snap, unable to keep my cool around this infuriating male and forgetting the conflict just wracking me. “So that excuses them attacking innocents and children, does it?” A wind whips around him as ivy crawls up his legs, but he doesn’t balk. His lightning strikes the air above me in response, though I know it’s more a demonstration that he’s not afraid than any real threat to me. Somehow, even now, with both of us angry, I know he won’t hurt me.