“You can’t,” Elan said, voice softer than he’d meant it to be. “The chaos it would cause…Please, Jae. Let me smooth the way for you to save Aredann without his interference. Let me help you. At least let me try.”

“I won’t stop you from trying,” she said. “But I am going to save Aredann, and I am going to save the other Closest, whether you smooth the way or not. I will do anything I need to. Don’t ever forget that.”

Elan swallowed, nodded.

He was never going to forget that.

Sunlight cascaded through the corridors, illuminating damage from the quake. Elan picked his way through the rubble and around the people who were dragging broken bricks and tiles out of the halls, sweeping and clearing the floors. Most of them were Closest, and though this main hall was starting to look better, it was only one small part of the house. Even if the other servants and the Avowed who lived there deigned to help, it was an overwhelming job.

Elan paused to watch the Closest at work, and couldn’t help but notice every time someone’s gaze slipped over toward him. It was always wary, waiting. Suspicious. Jae always looked at him like that. Now he saw that they all did. They all knew who he was and what he could do; he didn’t even know how many of them there were. He’d only learned two of their names.

He turned and walked on, toward the guest quarters he’d claimed for his own after settling Jae in the master rooms, where she’d be isolated from everyone, Closest and Avowed alike. The damage was worse here, nearer to the center of the quake. He dragged himself through it carefully, and sagged when he finally reached his room. The conversation with Jae hadn’t been easy. He needed time to think, to figure out how he’d handle his father, but Desinn was already waiting when Elan walked in.

“We need to talk about this,” Desinn said.

“Later,” Elan answered.

“Now. It’s too important to put off; you must know that.”

Elan swallowed a groan but didn’t disagree. Desinn was right—convincing him that Jae and her magic were under control would be the first step toward convincing his father. Nothing was more important than that. He sank onto a cushion and nodded. “Yes, fine.”

“That girl—you knew something.” Desinn squinted at him. “You ran off like you could stop the quake, and you knew exactly where to look for her.”

“I asked one of the Closest.”

“You knew what was happening.”

“Yes.” Elan took a breath, but couldn’t force the tension out of his body. Everything in him had been pulled too tight, stretched out and then tied into a knot. “I was about to tell you, when it started. We can’t abandon Aredann, because there’s magic here. It was linked to that fountain. Jae—the Closest girl—she unlocked it somehow, and now she controls it. But I controlled her, and she wasn’t supposed to…” He shook his head.

“A Closest? Then we can order—”

“No,” Elan interrupted. “She’s not Closest any longer. I don’t know what she is, but she freed herself. Otherwise this would never have happened. I ordered her not to use magic without permission—I’m not stupid enough to let her do anything she wanted with it. Then Rannith raped her, and she found the power to break the compulsion. Now she might do anything.”

Desinn frowned. “How long has this been going on?”

“A few days.”

“And you didn’t tell—”

“You wouldn’t have helped me!” Elan snapped. “Jae is powerful—even when she was cursed, she was. And she’s so angry. She requires a careful hand, and you wouldn’t understand her at all.”

“I wouldn’t need to, if she was cursed!” Desinn snapped back at him. “You are supposed to be your father’s warden, and this girl is definitely a threat to the Well. You should have sent word to him immediately.”

Elan fell quiet. Desinn was right about that much, at least. Elan reached up with one hand, pressed it to his rumpled robe, over the brand on his chest. He had vowed to obey his father, and to always act in the Highest families’ interests. Yes, he should have sent word as soon as he’d discovered magic. It didn’t matter that he’d planned to eventually, that he’d only waited so he could be careful with how he revealed Jae and her magic. Now it was obvious he’d mishandled everything, that maybe he was unworthy of his title after all.

Eventually he sighed. “Not telling you probably saved your life. Jae doesn’t like anyone Avowed. If you’d tried to order her around, she would have lashed out at you instead of at Rannith.”

Desinn recoiled. “I wouldn’t have dirtied myself like that.”

“She’s not dirty. She’s— Never mind.” Elan sagged on his cushion again, his shoulders curling forward. “Look. She doesn’t trust me, but she’s willing to let me try to keep things calm when my father arrives.”

“That’s nothing but your duty,” Desinn said.

“I know,” Elan said. “But without some kind of go-between…Desinn, she could kill him. She told me she would.”

Desinn stared. “You can’t be serious. No one is that foolish.”

“I don’t think she thinks it’s foolish at all,” Elan said. “But if I can keep them from trying to kill each other, then with the power she has…if she’ll use it for us, there’s so much she could do. She could find the Well.”

“And do exactly what her ancestors did—try to take control of it from the Highest. Better to leave it lost,” Desinn said.

Elan nodded. Especially given Jae’s delusions about who had crafted the Well. If she believed it was supposed to belong to the Closest in the first place, it would almost make sense for her to try to reclaim it. But this wasn’t just about controlling the Well—there were people dying from the drought. Hundreds of Closest had been abandoned already. “But what if she could protect the outlying estates? They wouldn’t have to be deserted.”

“If that was possible, the Highest would have already done it,” Desinn said. “Whatever this girl can do, though…you need to keep her calm until your father arrives. He’ll know what to do with her. If you’d written to him in the first place, we might still have control of her—which I intend to tell him as soon as he arrives.”