"...That was your half-brother?" Cylea smiled, astonished.
"Yup," Theora groaned. "And he was a jerk."
Theora had barely been able to wait until she could spill all the beans to her cousin the next day. She had gone back to the Military Hall in a daze the previous day, insisted on having a sparring session with Kleis to get her mind off things, had been silent at dinner, and had an agitated sleep. If her teammates had found her jittery the next day, no one said anything. Theora had spent her whole shift nervous that Breorion would appear in the corridor, show up in the gardens, or summon her to his office or something. She loved Lady Venilla, who was the simplest target to guard when her nightmare cousin wasn't around, but she had darted out of the residence the second her shift had be
