Raphael barely stopped to let me process his words before he continued talking. “I mean, the last time I saw him he wasn’t looking so well,” he said as I stepped away from him. He leaned his head closer to mine before I could get too far away. “Blood oozing from a stomach wound really isn’t a good look for anyone, though I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the sight.” His tone was more hushed, making his words the more chilling. I backed away from him even further.

“It was you,” I commented, stunned. Raphael was the person who stabbed Andreas – my Andreas. This man standing before me that had just saved me from the man I hated the most in this world was the man who almost killed the man I— who almost killed Andreas. I started hyperventilating.

“I take it from your reaction you don’t think he looked so well either. Do tell me, was his death long and painful?” Raphael asked, a glint of satisfaction in his brilliant blue eyes.

That was all it took for me to calm down. He thought he had succeeded in killing Andreas. He didn’t know I had healed him. He had absolutely no idea what I was capable of. Maybe he knew I had magic, but he didn’t know how much. I smiled. “He’s not dead,” I said smugly. “I healed him. You failed.”

Raphael took in a deep breath as he tried to compose himself. He didn’t appear as upset as I imagined he would after hearing that the man he had tried to kill was still alive. “That really is too bad, it would have made me happier had he died. Never-the-less, my experiment served its true purpose.” He was smiling.

“And what purpose would that be?” I asked, my eyebrows raised. I backed further away from him, putting as much distance between us as I could muster.

He cocked his head to the side. “You really know nothing about me?”

I thought it over, my eyes narrowing into strips. He was right; I had absolutely no idea who he was. All I knew about him was that he stabbed Andreas and he was Raphael Argeno, John’s brother; neither facts made him very likable in my mind.

“Knowing you are John’ brother, is not really something that counts in your favor.”

“Coming from the girl who is set to marry him.”

“Not if she has anything to say about it. I would rather die a horrible death than become his bride. Anything is better than that.”

Raphael leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. “So tell me, what exactly did my excuse of a brother do to you in particular to make you hate him so much?”

“He tried to rape me,” I said bluntly. I was surprised at how easy it had become to talk about that event in my life. When I told Andreas, it had been a lot harder. What made it so easy for me to tell Raphael? Was it that I wanted to inflict pain on him for what he did to Andreas? At the moment, I wasn’t sure. The way Raphael reacted, though, made it seem like this wasn’t news to him.

“I’m sorry. I really thought he had been taught better, but it appears he hasn’t yet learned this lesson. I’ve tried to get him to behave, but I sincerely doubt he wants to listen to his younger brother, and my parents always take his side,” Raphael said, an edge to his otherwise indifferent tone.

“You are younger?”

“You couldn’t tell by my raging good looks, and his well… wrinkles?” he inquired with a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

“How much younger?”

“Eight years.”

“How come I have never met you? My family has been friends with yours for years.” I walked over to the opposite wall and decided to lean against it the way he was leaning against the wall on his side of the hallway.

He sighed. “As I have previously mentioned, I’m the black sheep of the family. I know, hard to believe, but it’s true.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a sorcerer. A Sorcerer of Light, but a sorcerer nonetheless.”

My mouth dropped open. “And they know this?”

“Of course.”

“And they didn’t try to have you executed?”

Raphael’s eyebrows furrowed. “That’s what happened to you? That’s how you ended up with Andreas?”

“He saved my life.”

His expression had darkened a smidgeon. “Andreas saved your life? That isn’t possible. He doesn’t do selfless. It’s not in his nature.”

“Then how do you explain me standing here alive.”

The corners of his eyes pulled strangely, but he made no reply.

“Why didn’t your parents turn you in the way mine did to me?” I finally asked. It was strange to think that the Argenos, of all the families out there, had a stronger bond than mine. I didn’t want to believe that anyone related to John could have honor, not with the lack he had shown.

“Before John or I were born my dad paid a visit to a village wise man. This was just after he and my mother got married and he wanted to make sure he had done the right thing in marrying her. He was young, full of hope and wanted to know he had the best possible future ahead. The wise man told him nothing but good things, except for one warning. He was told that he would have two sons, but that one will bring him great honor and the other would bring him nothing but humiliation and trouble. When they discovered my tendency toward magic when I was six, my dad assumed I would be the humiliation. But he couldn’t bear to give me up, so instead he had me trained in the arts so that at least I knew how to use what had been given to me. They’ve been hiding me since, making sure that no one knew about me except a select few. It’s also the reason we haven’t met until now.”

His words puzzled me. I was filled with a bitter hate, but not at him. I hated my parents for abandoning me when I needed them most. I hated my parents for thinking of family as expendable when John Argeno’s family did everything to protect theirs, even if it could mean their deaths should anyone find out. “So they hid you from the world, but still consider you as part of their family?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“Yes. And while they may be ashamed of me and what I am, I have managed to make a pretty good name for myself.” He paused, his expression distant. “I don’t think my father was right in assuming I was the bad seed of the family. Magic is not something we should be afraid of. How it’s used is what we should be afraid of. Everyone makes their own choices, and there are good and there are bad sorcerers. Just like there are good and bad people. My brother has proven to be one of the bad people, but I don’t think my parents have realized that yet. He’s a widely renowned knight, a fact that brings honor to my father. It makes sense that he assumes I’m the one who is nothing but trouble.”

His voice carried a hint of sadness, one he hid very well. Under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have been able to pick it up, but being around Kalen and Andreas had taught me a few tricks in reading people. He was facing the same struggle I was. Raphael probably understood what I was going through a lot better than anyone else ever could. Both Kalen and Andreas grew up with the notion that the magic they wielded was good and something to be proud of. While their lives might not have turned out perfectly, at they didn’t hate themselves for having magic. I did. Raphael did. Both of us have been made to think that we were somehow wrong because of what we were. I didn’t want to share that connection to him. I didn’t want to feel like we were kindred spirits. I wanted to hate him for trying to kill Andreas.

Thinking about Andreas made me remember what Raphael had said earlier about stabbing him. “You mentioned earlier that your purpose was not to kill Andreas when you stabbed him. If it wasn’t, then what was the purpose?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowed.

He smirked. “And here I thought I could get away by changing the subject. I’ll give you credit where it is due. The true purpose, my lady, was to test you. I had a theory, and I wanted to see how correct I was. So far, it appears I may have been on to something.”

“What are you talking about?”

Raphael chuckled. “He hasn’t told you then, has he? There is a prophecy given by the great Almahalc himself.”

“What does stabbing Andreas have to do with some prophecy?”

“If you would let me finish, perhaps I could tell you.” I gestured for him to continue. “The prophecy states that there will be a girl, one with power beyond what is expected of her, and she will be both Kalen and Andreas’ undoing. As a sorcerer of light, well, that was something I liked to hear. However, when I paid Almahalc a visit years ago, he wasn’t quite clear about what the girl’s name would be. He was about to tell us her name, and then he passed out. You really should’ve seen the condition the poor man was in when we found him. So, I wanted to test your powers. I had been observing you from the moment I saw you in the town market, at first on your own, and then again with Kalen. That’s how I put the pieces together. You have a connection to both of them. That seems to correlate with the prophecy, as the girl would be the undoing to them both. The one thing I needed to test, was if you had a hidden power. As it turns out, my experiment worked. You have hidden power in you that I’m not sure even you know about. This all leads me to believe that you are fated to bring down two of the darkest sorcerers in history.”

A prophecy. There was a prophecy? This couldn’t be possible. Of all the things that could have happened to me, why did it have to be a prophecy? While I missed the comfort of a well-planned out life, I didn’t long for something to tell me what was going to happen. I didn’t want to be told what I had to do with my life. And undoing? That was too vague a term. The multiple meanings behind that word had me on edge. There was still a chance Raphael was wrong. He said himself that he wasn’t sure I was the girl the prophecy was referring to. “It can’t be me, you are wrong,” I replied defensively.

“I don’t believe I am, Lana.”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“I’m not the only one that thinks it’s you.”

“What are you implying?”

Raphael raises his eyebrows. “Isn’t it obvious? Why do you think Andreas saved your life? He must’ve sensed something from you. Why do you think Kalen showed such a sudden interest in you? Ever since they got wind of the prophecy they have made it their mission to find the girl. One task in mind: find her, sway her to the dark side and chance fate, or kill her if they couldn’t.”

I shook my head frantically, my legs giving out beneath me. “No, this isn’t true. You are lying to me.”

One look at Raphael’s expression said otherwise. The sincerity in his eyes only confirmed I was in denial. I didn’t want to believe that Andreas had simply been playing a part in trying to sway me over to his side in order to keep a prophecy from being fulfilled. That would mean everything that had happened between us had been a lie.

But if that’s the case, why did he push me away only to pull me back when Kalen came into the picture? Why do all of that? It didn’t make sense or add up in my mind. It was too much to take in.

“I know this might be difficult for you to process, but think about it Lana. You are light, they are dark. And light and dark always are in a constant battle for harmony. It makes sense that you would be their undoing. And the only way for them to stop that from happening? They have to make you dark.”

I was still in denial. If Andreas’ goal had been to make me dark, it all made sense. Why he hurt me the way he did. Why Kalen came into the picture only to make me hate myself for still being under Andreas’ spell. Raphael had a point. But then again, why should I be so quick to believe a man I had met earlier that day?

“Why should I believe you?”

“I’m the leader of the Followers of Light. I’m like you, Lana. We are on the same side, and my goal is not to trick you. I want to help you.”

My head was spinning. This was too much. Part of me believed Raphael, while the other part screamed he wasn’t to be trusted. He could be wrong about me being the girl in the prophecy, but then again, that could also mean Andreas and Kalen had the same suspicion about me but were wrong as well. I was torn. I kept trying to remind myself that my source of information was the man who had stabbed Andreas.

The man who was John’s brother. And regardless of what he said about his complicated family dynamics, I wasn’t ready to trust him just yet. Every time I had blindly trusted a man it had turned out disastrous. Raphael would have to prove himself first. He had to.