A Court of Ash and Necromancy

15. The Truth Behind Actions

The artwork above is not mine.

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Estelle entered the townhouse silently. Her parents were no longer in the sitting room and only a few candles were lit in the hallway upstairs. Light flickered beneath Lysander's door as Estelle knocked softly.

"Lys?" She called. "What happened back there?" He didn't reply. Estelle tried the doorknob, but found it locked. She could sense the presence of shields around his room too. "Lys?" Still nothing.

She ran to her own room and went out on the balcony. Estelle flew over to her brother's balcony, but he had locked those doors as well. He'd even drawn the curtains over them.

Estelle shook her head with a growl of frustration. She backed away, siphons glowing with power. Lysander made strong shields, but luckily, she knew their one weakness he could never seem to fix. Lysander's shields had a primary seam where he joined them together. She just had to find it and rip the shields apart. She'd done it thousands of times before.

Golden light flickered around her palms as she reached for Lysander's shield. The seam was right where she expected it to be. Estelle tore into it using her own magic and felt the shield shatter. With half a thought, she heard the lock click and his balcony doors swung open.

Estelle pushed the curtains aside, entering Lysander's room. There was no sign of him. The shadows squeezed her arms, pulling her to a dark corner behind a tall dresser. Lysander was hidden behind it, his wings tucked over himself.

Estelle knelt beside him. "What happened?"

Lysander lowered his wings, swiping a hand across his eyes. "Usually when someone locks two sets of doors and shields their room, it means they want to be alone."

"And we both know that sometimes, it's not good for you to be alone." Estelle tapped his thigh and Lysander turned away from her. "What happened?"

Lysander swallowed hard, rubbing his eyes again. "She asked me to dance with her. I said yes. I thought I could handle it tonight. But..."

"But you couldn't?"

Lysander shook his head. "I was doing fine until she started talking. She..." his voice grew hard with anger. "She said she misses me. She said she wants to try again. She wants us to be together."

Estelle remained silent as he continued. "I don't know if she actually meant what she said or not. Calden told me about the other male she was seeing. He told me she'd gone out with him the night before they came to Windhaven. So...is she just using him too? Or did things go wrong between them and now she just wants to use me as her rebound?"

Lysander dug his fingers into his dark brown hair. "I'm so fucking tired of her games! She says one thing, then turns around and says another! She said she didn't feel any deep attraction towards me. She said she didn't think things could progress between us. It wasn't like that for me and she knew it! She knew I liked her."

"Fucking Cauldron." Lysander's voice shook with anger. "Fucking Cauldron, Essie. I loved her. I told her I loved her! And that's what she said to me."

Estelle's eyes widened in surprise. "You actually told her that?"

Lysander nodded. "I'd been considering it for a long time, but I didn't know when to tell her. One night, I just decided to. I told her I loved her and we..." he tilted his head suggestively. "And the next morning, she called off everything. She wouldn't even give me a real reason why, other than her feelings weren't as deep as mine."