He watched her with pitying eyes, but Delilah didn’t look at him anymore. “BB,” She remembered that name. She remembered a time in a different castle when people cared about her. He called her that, her brother, but her real name was Isabella. She paced, aware of his eyes on her, but she didn’t care. She had to unravel this thread, had to know what had happened to her.

She had been that little girl, unwilling to let go of her time on the swing. She couldn’t make her legs do what her brothers did, but then someone lured her into the forest, and by the time she made her way out, no one believed her.

As if reading her thoughts, he said, “I didn’t believe you for the longest time. You couldn’t be my lost sister. So many…” he gasped for breath. “So many other girls had come, pretending to be you. I wasn’t willing to give one more a try by the time you came back. You had changed, but when you came to the castle and held my daughter, the baby. Do you remember?”

She did remember. She had cursed a child, her own niece to die when she turned sixteen. It was a horrible thought. She remembered using a device to freeze everyone in the room, everyone but herself and the child.

“Bb, I recognized you then, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t do anything. You look exactly like mother did. Do you remember her?”

Isabella did remember her mother, remembered meeting her in the market. She had been the only one who still believed in her after she had left the castle, after everything. She had met her in the market and given her money and food, but she could not go against her husband who was the heir.

She sat down on the floor of the dungeon, her brother hanging over her. She was the one who had cursed her neice, she was the dragon. She had terrorized villages, had destroyed the white castle that she grew up in. She killed an old man with dark skin and white hair. She had been trapped as a dragon, until that little mage had freed her. How had she done that?

She remembered fear coursing through her body when she realized that the mages could hurt her and the way she had killed men who tried to kill her, men that probably didn’t deserve to die.

She glanced up. “What is your name?”

He smiled at her. “I am Theodric Aster, king of Taivalon and your brother.”

She remembered her child missing. She had gone to the only person who might know where she was. She remembered the door opening to her when she knocked on a house that only appeared to those that the mage wanted to see it. The door opened and… she gasped. It was Lillith who cast the spell on her, Lillith who brought her to this castle, this castle that was crumbling and abandoned. She had convinced Isabella that her name was Delilah and she had never told her where her daughter was.

She stood. She didn’t know who to trust, but clearly this man had not come to hurt her. He was dying and it took a moment for her to realize that he was the heir, the king of Taivalon. The kingdom would die without him, and besides, he was family. She should be able to trust her own brother, who had risked his life to come here and beg for peace.

“Do you know where the keys are?”

He shook his head. “I think your captain might have them with him.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She put an arm under him and said the word of power to release him from the manacles.

He leaned into her. Then, she created a new glyph to the castle in Taivalon. She didn’t want to risk the captain or Mathias finding them. Her portal opened before her, and they stepped through.

“I’m so sorry,” she told him, knowing that her apology would not be enough. “I will get you to your room, where you can rest.”

They made their way into the castle. Servants and guards gave the odd looks as they passed, but it didn’t matter if the whole kingdom knew, as far as she was concerned. “Why did you put your room so high up?”

“I didn’t build this castle,” he said. “It’s always bothered me too.”

“Would it be better if I carried you? Or one of the guards? You know what? Nevermind.” She floated the king ahead of her. It wasn’t the most glamorous manner of travel but it would get him there without him exerting any more strength than he already had, then she followed him up the stairs and into the king’s chambers. Her heart ached at the memories this place brought back, but she didn’t have time to sort them now. She had to do what she could to save her brother’s life.