The difference between his private space and Smith’s is staggering. There are no clothes lying around, no papers strewn anywhere—the room is obsessively clean. Alarmingly, it’s also lacking personality, almost identical to the guest quarters Cami and I have been given. There are no personal touches, no indication that this is Kael’s home and has been since he and his family left Lengard. Indeed, the only hint of color in the otherwise military-like space is a photograph mounted on the wall. It’s a picture of Kael in his early teens standing beside a strikingly beautiful woman, the candid moment capturing them both mid-laughter. The resemblance between them is so strong that she can only be his mother, Caroline. I look around for another photo, assuming I’ll find his father displayed as well, but there are no other pictures.

“What’s going on, Lyss? What happened?”

Kael’s concern pulls my focus back to him. I ignore his offer to sit in the wooden chair he pulls out for me, instead pacing around the room.

I’m not sure where to start, so I say, “It’s about my mum.”

“What about her?” he says. His body is tense, as if he doesn’t know why I would bring her up, let alone wake him in the middle of the night to have this conversation.

“Do you remember what you told me about her? About her ability?” When he nods, I go on, “I was thinking about that, about how you said she might have been the one to make me think I killed her and my dad,”—the words are still hard for me to say, my voice breaking partway through—“and from that, I started wondering what else she might have done to me. If maybe she also made me think that I never had a brother.”

The tension leaves Kael and his face softens, almost like he’s pitying me. “Princess …”

“Think about it, Kael,” I urge him. “If she’s as strong as you claimed, and if she really did manipulate my memories, then what was stopping her from manipulating more than just their deaths, but other things, too? And not just me—what if she used her ability on Riley, on you, on anyone who ever knew he was my brother?”

“We talked about this. Riley isn’t your brother.”

“He is, Kael. I know he is.”

Kael moves closer to me and places a hand on my shoulder. His voice is impossibly gentle when he says, “After all you’ve been through lately, it’s only natural that you’d be questioning everything, that you’d be uncertain and confused. But, Lyss, even if your mum used her ability on you, on all of us, don’t forget that Liana had a vision of your parents’ deaths, and she said nothing about a brother. Don’t you think she would have seen him there?”