Chapter 6: A Willing Heart

"My sons."

The voice rolls through the opening in the tree like cold water down my spine, and I freeze with Cael's hand locked around my wrist, and the roots above us pulse with white light. The air smells like wet earth, old blood and pine from Cael's skin, and my heart beats so loud I hear it in my teeth.

Through the split in the bark I see him, and my breath catches because he looks like an older, crueler version of Cael. King Roran stands on a stone altar, black hair threaded with grey, gold eyes unblinking, one boot resting beside Maya's head like she belongs to him. Maya lies unconscious on the cold stone, her skin is too pale, her lips drained of color, and her breathing is barely there.

Roran smiles, but the smile never reaches his eyes as he spreads his hands wide. "Come closer," he says. "Let me see what twenty years of hiding bought me."

Cael moves before I do, his shoulder slamming in front of mine, his growl vibrating through his chest and into my back. His eyes bleed from gold to black as I watch, and his hand finds the back of my neck, gripping hard. "Do not touch him," he snarls, and the sound cuts through the hall like a blade.

Roran laughs, so low and patient. "Possessive already," he says. "Good. You were always meant to guard what is yours, Cael, even from me."

Queen Lira pushes past the roots behind us, her hands shaking and her face pale, whispering my name and Cael's name together like a prayer. "Mother," I say, though the word feels strange on my tongue, it is true. She reaches for me, but she stops because Roran lifts one finger, the white light flares, and Maya arches off the stone with a silent gasp, then falls still.

"Enough," Roran says. "You split them, Lira, and you lied. You smuggled my spare heir south like a thief and let Bren carry my firstborn back with his mouth shut for twenty years, and you thought I did not know?"

Queen Lira goes still and does not deny it, and that tells me everything. Cael's grip on my neck steadies me even though I want to run to Maya, and I lock my knees because she needs me standing.

"You ordered us dead," I say, and my voice shakes, but I do not step back. "The prophecy says twins are cursed. You wanted us killed at birth." Roran nods slowly, like he expected nothing less from me.

"The prophecy says one heart must feed the tree," he says. "One twin must die so the kingdom lives. I did not order you killed out of cruelty, Aiden. I ordered it out of patience. I needed you both alive long enough to come of age."

The words hit like ice and Cael snarls, the sound ripping out and echoing off the roots. "You let Varric take Maya," I say because the pieces slam together and my hands curl into fists. "You let the court give us three nights. It is all you."

"Varric serves the old laws because I wrote them," Roran says, stepping closer to Maya until his shadow falls across her face. "The girl is pure, human, and untouched by wolf magic. The tree does not want your tainted twin blood. It wants hers."

My knees want to buckle, but I do not let them. "Let her go," I say. Roran looks at me, and his gold eyes narrow, and for one second I see myself in him. I hate it.

"You offered yourself as tribute to save her," he says. "Noble and stupid. While you walk north, my men walk south. I needed you here, and I needed her here, and the bond did the rest."

Cael puts his whole body between me and the altar, his fur cloak brushing my chin and his scent flooding my nose. "He will not have you," he says quietly so only I hear it, and his hand trembles where it holds me, and that tremor shakes me harder than anything Roran has said.

Roran lifts Maya's wrist and presses his thumb to her pulse the way someone checks on something they own. "The tree opened because you fought over who dies," he says louder. "That is the third way the old songs never wrote down, a willing heart offered freely and not taken by force."

Queen Lira makes a broken sound. "No," she whispers. "Roran, please." He ignores her.

"One of you walks to this altar and lays your hand on the root and gives your heart to the tree," he says. "The bond transfers, and the other twin lives, the girl lives, and the kingdom stands. Refuse and I snap her neck now and let the tree starve while you both rot."

The choice hangs in the cold air, and my blood roars as Cael's grip turns bruising. I look at Maya and her eyelashes flutter, and I look at Cael, and his jaw tightens. I am terrified and angry and stubborn enough to not give him what he wants.

"I will do it," I say, and I step around Cael because I am protective and Maya is my sister even if we do not share blood. Cael catches my arm and yanks me back, his eyes already black. "No!" he roars. "You do not get to decide alone!"

Roran smiles wider and lifts Maya's head with one hand, exposing her neck. "How touching," he says. "The spare offers himself first. Just like your mother planned."

He drops Maya and pulls a knife made of white bone from his belt, and the blade glows. "Choose," he says, and he points the knife at Cael, then at me. "Or I choose for you."

The roots groan as the light pulses faster and the altar cracks under his boots. Cael steps forward, his shoulders blocking my view, and his voice low and quiet like something inside him has already given up. "Take me," he says. "I am the heir you raised. Let him go south with the girl and never come back."

My heart stops. He is offering his life for mine. "Shut up," I snap, and I shove his back. "You do not get to play king with my life."

Roran laughs as Queen Lira sobs. "Enough of this," he says, and he slams the bone knife down into the altar right beside Maya's throat, and the stone screams as it splits. "The tree is hungry now."

White light explodes from the crack and hits my chest and Cael's at the same time, and the twin bond flares so hot I choke because I can feel his heart beating inside my ribs like it is my own. Maya gasps awake under the knife, her eyes flying open, and they are not brown anymore. They are solid gold, locked on mine, and when she speaks, it is not her voice at all. “Aiden, run!”