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And so she returned to the green-lined rooo with no idea of who she was or what her destiny in this castle would be Nor what it had been She went to theand reht about jus in midair and fly away Now that she knew she couldn’t fly away, she also knew she wouldn’t juchoice, if she should have let the sorcerer work his ic Because she would stay If it had been Kaer who lived, she could have gone back to her forest and her mist and lived in a hundred different shapes for the rest of her life But Rokan would be king, and she would stay with hi her in

PART IV

ISABEL

Chapter Nineteen

The Shifter would have been there Helping Rokan put his kingdoiti him deal with the currents and waves after the death of the true king, with the imprisonment of dozens of minor nobility, with the sudden appearance of the other true heir to the throne The Shifter would not have let her own feelings keep her in her roo at the walls until everything had died down

She spoke to Rokan only once, briefly, to explain what had happened to her and who she truly was Rokan listened without visible disappointainst the wall of her room while she sat stiffly in one of the chairs near the bed She kept her senses purely hu of what he really felt Besides, purely huht to

When she was finished, Rokan pushed away from the wall and said, "I’m truly sorry, Isabel Even if ithuht to Isabel shifted her face expressionless, shifted away thein her throat She sat still as a statue, hating the pity in those intent dark eyes

When it beca to reply, Rokan cleared his throat and said, "Owain disappeared Nobody knohere he’s gone"

Isabel drew in a breath and leaned against the back of the chair "I’m not surprised," she said in the steadiest voice she could , and then plan for that plan going wrong, too I don’t think he’ll coh"

Rokan’s eyes never left her face "You were right, you know You and Clarisse I trusted Owain right up to the coronation Clarisse couldn’t maketo stay behind to try to thwart thes, Isabel thought

"I thought he was an honorable man," Rokan added in a tone so bewildered she didn’t have the heart to re an imposter

She said instead, very quietly, "And Daria?"

Rokan’s eyes skittered away from hers, then back "I sent her to live with one of the northern dukes Duke Samar--he’s a minor nobleman whose estate abuts Owain’s It’s a poor land, and he has barely enough soldiers to hold it"

He also had a thirty-year-old son, recently ed and reputed to be quite char Isabel didn’t h his hair, leaving it sticking up in black tufts all over his head "I suppose you think I should have executed her?"

"I don’t think you could," Isabel said "You love her"

Rokan studied her for a long time, but when he replied he focused on the wooden floor instead of on her face, his hands clenched at his sides "I don’t I don’t think I ever did"

Isabel couldn’t look at hied "Maybe you don’t anymore That doesn’t mean you never did"

"I was lonely After ht, I loved her" His chest moved once with a quick, shallow breath, and he looked up, the pretense stripped from his face "But Isabel, it was different fro like a plea in his eyes

Isabel braced her hands on the chair cushion, refusing to ht before she betrayed him; she couldn’t bear to answer it now, so soon after she had betrayed someone else Not when that betrayal was the reason she finally could answer it "What about the rest of the northern dukes?"

"They’ve mostly slunk quietly back to their estates" His voice was dispassionate again, but his eyes matched neither his words nor his tone "Clarisse thinks we should do so public and messy to the ones I still have in custody, but I don’t see the point There were too many people involved in the conspiracy to punish they in this case" He paused, then said carefully, "Do you think I’h by now of the intricacies of the northern alliances to be alht She opened her erly, and suddenly alh

"I can’t--" The words caripped her knees "I can’t help you the way you want I’m not what I was Not the Shifter I’m sorry"

"I knohat you are," Rokan said "And it’s your help I want"

She shook her head and laughed, a short, harsh sound that irl who once was the Shifter"

"A girl who once was the Shifter," he said, but his inflection gave the phrase an entirely new irl who re the Shifter S ordinary about you"

"You thought that was part of who I was Now it’s all I am You need me to be the Shifter"

Rokan shook his head His eyes were very intent on her "That’s not what I need"