"What do you mean?" The lies that left his mouth made no sense at all. He was the ruler of Icrodeia? Mace looked like no king or prince to me, nor could Kayne have ever killed someone. "Kayne hasn't even left Racaea before, that's impossible."

"He doesn't need to leave his kingdom in order to slay one of our own. Our queen took an arrow to the chest, shot straight through the border and into her heart." Anger flared in his eyes at the memory. "That arrow was shot by your little pet."

"And how can you be so sure of that?" I spat. How dare he accuse Kayne of murder when he was innocent in this mess. "Do you have evidence or proof, your highness?"

"Oh, please, there's no need for formalities when you haven't been using them until now." He rose from his crouch, stretched out his back, and motioned over one of the people watching us. "Ridley, could you let the poor lady know what you discovered?"

"Of course." The woman who had tackled me to the ground and tied me up in front of my parents' home stepped forward, a wicked grin on her face. "The whole Racaea royal family were present when your prince killed our queen, meaning there had to be several guards present too to protect them. It didn't take too long to find one of these guards and give them a few wounds here and there to get them to talk."

Bile rose in my throat. They had to be wrong. That guard had to have seen the wrong thing, or perhaps they just told them what they wanted to hear so they would stop torturing them. Kayne would never kill anyone.

"She still doesn't believe you," laughed another cloaked figure. "Those fae have had her tightly wrapped up in their lies."

"As long as she knows the truth now." Mace shrugged, pulling out his pocket watch to check the time. When I had first seen it when he pulled it out at The Lost and Found, I had wondered how he could afford such an expensive piece. Now it all made sense. He had access to Icrodeia's royal coffers.

"What about the king?" I questioned. "You only mentioned the queen dying but Icrodeia had a king too."

"The king didn't die that day, but his love for Queen Iona was so strong that he couldn't live without her." He didn't have to explain further for me to understand what had happened. The king couldn't live without his wife around, so he didn't.

"When did this even happen?" I panicked for pieces of information to pick at, for questions I could ask so his lies would unravel. They had to be lies. "And why had nobody even heard about the royal family of Icrodeia dying? Surely the deaths of such important people would have left a mark on your kingdom."

Mace brought a hand to his chin in thought. "This happened just under a decade ago, if I'm not mistaken." He turned to his friends to make sure he had gotten the timeline correct. They all nodded in agreement. "It was a few months before King Vandran of Racaea passed away."

Kayne's father. This had all happened when Kayne's father was still alive.

"What about my other question?" I pushed. If nobody had heard of the royal family dying, then they had to be making it up, right? They had to be fabricated lies to get me to join them.

"It was kept a secret. Everyone in Icrodeia still thinks the king and queen are still alive, that they're just cold and don't want to appear in front of their people." Mace sheathed his dagger back into its cover on his belt. "The council members in charge at the time couldn't let our people know. They'd demand a war in retaliation and, with the Idaphite being stolen a few years prior, we didn't have the power to win."

"So, what changed now? Why are you attacking Racaea now when you've had a decade to do so?" With each answer I received, my heart sunk further and further into an endless pool of hopelessness. There had to be a misunderstanding somewhere.

"Because we've had a decade to build up our strength, little traitor. Now we've found some shards of Idaphite for our strongest users to wield." He motioned to the people around him. "We've prepared weapons and soldiers for our cause. Nothing has changed, well, aside from the fact that we now know the specific killer of our queen."

I pulled against the ropes binding me again out of pure frustration. "Kayne would never kill anyone, he's not like that!" He wanted peace for Racaea, not this war that was on the way. Kayne wouldn't do anything to cause it.

Mace raised his brows. "He sure looked like he was going to kill me when I was trapped in The Tower. You think too highly of him. That fae has been in your life for so long that you can no longer see the shadows that kind brings to everyone's lives."

"You're wrong." Tears built in my eyes and threatened to spill, but I pushed them back. "What are you telling your army? Have you told them the reason you're attacking is that your magic stone was taken and your monarchs are dead?" He mentioned that the Idaphite was another secret being kept from their people, so that didn't leave many options behind.

"I've told them the fae need to be wiped out. They trust me and my judgement so much that they'll blindly follow me into battle." A smug smile rested on his lips. "I'll ask you again, Sabre. Join us. I could make it worth your while. You really don't want to head back to a murderer, do you?"

"I've already told you that my answer is no." Suddenly, everything felt like it was useless. That my fate had already been decided for me. It didn't matter if I agreed or not, I was already being held captive by them. Perhaps Mace and his lackeys weren't liars either, maybe the one who was lying was Kayne. But he had no reason to keep it a secret from us. Unless he was protecting someone? Did he know who actually killed Queen Iona?

"Let him explain what's in it for you," Ridley demanded, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Why? You've already got me bound and unable to escape, you can just take me and force me to join you."

With a roll of her eyes, she grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me up into a sitting position. From there, another person came over and used a sharp blade to cut some of the ropes away. They freed my arms, but still kept my legs bound so I couldn't easily run away. I knew it would be no use trying to get the remaining ropes of myself, they'd just tie me back up again. They trusted me not to do anything foolish.

Trust. Maybe I could get it to work to my advantage.

"I don't want you to be a prisoner of mine — captors are boring. I need you to be cooperative," Mace explained.

Rubbing the soreness away in my arms and wrists, I hesitantly responded, "fine. What's in it for me?" I had to stop myself from reaching for the Idaphite sitting in my pocket, from revealing what I was hiding.

"First of all, I'll stop the soldiers from attacking the border of Racaea for as long as you're willing to work with us. Secondly-"

"Just the border? Who's to say you won't just attack another part of us instead?" It all seemed too good to be true.

"Apologies, my mistake." Mace smiled at the catch I had caught onto. "I'll stop my soldiers from attacking any part of Racaea as long as you're willing to work with us. Then, I'll give you somewhere to stay, a place to belong. You'll live in the Fortress with us and we'll be your family."

It wasn't a factor that made me want to join them more, but at least I wouldn't be thrown to the streets of Icrodeia and left to fend for myself. I didn't particularly want a group of torturers and rogues to be my family.

When I didn't make another remark, he continued. "And finally, I can give you all the power you could imagine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" With his evasive terms, he had to be trying to leave a loophole somewhere.

Mace pulled out a shard of Idaphite from his belt. It was bigger than the piece the Sephirans had left for me, and yet, the colour had almost completely drained from it. Instead of the rich, vibrant gold of the shard I had, his was almost grey in comparison.

"I'll teach you how to wield the power of the Idaphite stone." He waited for my reaction, for any sign of my eyes widening or gasps of astonishment, but I kept my features as still as possible.

This was what made me consider joining their group. The fact that they would pull their forces away from Racaea was nice, but I had faith that our own soldiers could hold up against them. I could learn how to wield the Idaphite like I was planning to and then use it to end this once and for all. Betrayal would taste sweet when I built up their trust and crushed it underneath them.

It felt too good to be true, like Mace was planning that I would think to betray them, that he had a backup scheme running through his mind just in case.

"Why would you teach your enemy the ins and outs of your most powerful weapon? That seems like a foolish move to me."

"Your eyes are almost as golden as mine," he began, his smile shimmering with triumph, "meaning your strength would be at a similar level to mine too." Mace brought the Idaphite shard closer to me so I could get a better look. "Think of everything that you could do with this."

As he stepped even closer to me, the gem in his hands began to glow and a warmth emitted from my pocket. It was reacting to the one I had on me. Shit. After everything, the Idaphite had just ratted me out to the people holding me captive.

"What's going on?" Ridley questioned, leaning forward to see the Idpahite stone. Genuine curiosity and confusion written across her face — an expression that matched Mace's.

"I'm not sure." He pulled the stone away from me for it to stop glowing and then brought it closer again. As he motioned it back and forth several times, each instance having the same result, his eyes lit up with delight. "It looks like even the Idaphite wants you to join us, little traitor."

Did they not know what caused the glowing? That I had another shard hidden on me? I couldn't help but exhale in relief. I was still safe.

Mace held out the shard for me to hold. "Go on, feel the power it holds. I trust you enough to not know how to use it just yet."

As I took the Idaphite in my palms, the warmth radiating from both the one in my pocket and the one before me grew tenfold. A burst of energy shot through my veins, as if the magic stored inside was calling out to be used. The power it promised was an almost addicting sensation.

"What would you be looking for in return for this? What does joining you actually entail?" I waited for the big reveal, for the heart-dropping task he was going to put me through, but he was interrupted before he could say anything.

"Mace!" A young boy ran through the trees, stopping in front of him with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "There are Racaea soldiers heading this way!" He explained between panted breaths. "I don't think they know we're here, but they're going to find us stopped here."

"How long do you reckon we have?" Mace snatched the Idaphite back from me and raced over to the boy. He rubbed circles on his back, helping his lungs to ease so more air could get inside.

"No more than fifteen or twenty minutes."

The miscreant nodded, deep in thought, before turning back to me. "In return for offering you all these things, I would like you to join me and show publicly that you support Icrodeia."

"What do you mean?"

"If you agree to join us — which you don't have too long to decide anymore as we need to get moving — we'll head straight to Racaea to announce that you're joining us. That should hopefully deter any of their plans so we can figure out what we're doing next."

A public show. That would mean Kayne and Auron would think I betrayed them to join Icrodeia. I would break their hearts. Would it be worth it when I learnt how to control the Idaphite and tried to take down Icrodeia from the inside?

There was only one way to find out.

"I'll do it. I'll join you."

Mace grinned. "Good choice, little traitor."