Ash didn't remember deciding to strike out, but suddenly her fists were slamming against Roan's chest. Something between a scream and a sob wrenched from her chest as his words replayed in her head.

She had put all of his faith in him, believing in him fully, all in the hopes of saving her twin, and in the end, it was his fault.

"Stop this. Ash, let me—will you stop and—Ash." Her name came out as a growl as Roan took her wrists in his hands and pinned them on the wall over her head. He loomed over her now, making him appear even more frightening. It contrasted with the gentle grip that he used to keep her hands in place.

When she tugged, though, there was no give.

"The Dreamwoven are the chosen ones of the..." He pressed his lips into a thin line, and his eyes flashed with the magic stirring within them. "Of the gods. They are not given their gifts with unconditional trust, though. When the Scions place a Dreamwoven mark on the chosen ones, they also weave within it a spell that will activate should the chosen either show disloyalty to the gods or if a Scion force activates it. That, Ash, is the true reason for the Watcher. And you rage at me while the boy in the cage right beside us is the reason the process even began for your sister."

"Odella is a Dreamwoven?"

Callum. In her rush of emotions, she had completely forgotten that he was still there, hearing bits and pieces of something that would make no sense to him. Even if he had seen her glamour fall, he believed that the power somehow belonged to her twin. He didn't know that she was a completely different person. Until now. And then he was also hearing all of this. Her world was not the only one coming apart.

She started to turn his way, but before she could, Roan shifted to put both of her wrists in one of his hands and lowered his other arm to rest right beside her head, blocking her view.

"You two need to stop worrying about that stupid boy," he said. "I warned you, Ash. I warned her that falling for the priest who stood in such opposition to the gods would begin the Dreamweave's curse. I warned her again that she would regret the consequences should she try to tell him anything about our mission. Yet she never listened. Will you not learn from her mistakes?"

"I never did figure out why things were so tense between you two before. But I'm glad to see that you guys have smoothed things over during your trip back. I was really worried at first you ran away because of whatever was going on."

Willow had seen these tensions growing. She had even warned Ash without knowing it. How many other signs had been there that Ash had missed? She tugged against Roan's hold, but even with only one hand, she stood no chance of escape.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

Again, she couldn't shake the feeling that he wanted to appear regretful, but something about it was off, never taking true root. "She went to her meeting with the priest despite my warnings. When she realized I followed, she tried to convince me to let her do what she believed right. But I couldn't do that, so when she refused to see sense... I furthered along the curse. It is meant to put the Dreamwoven into a dream-state, even more subdued than the one you have seen, but I didn't have the chance to complete the process. Someone had been out that night and startled us. While I was surprised, Odella attacked me and ran. With that iron will of hers, she managed to escape all the way back home before it seems she finally fell to the curse's effects."

"You monster," Callum growled, putting to words what Ash couldn't. Her voice stuck in her throat. Roan delivered this so casually, if not annoyed, as if Odella had acted irrationally.

Roan spared him only a momentary side-eye before continuing. "I searched for Odella, and eventually I thought to look where she once lived. My plan was to reverse the effects enough that I could speak to her far from Volant so her human affection wouldn't cloud her thoughts, but instead, I found something better. I found a girl, screaming to the gods, willing to do anything to get her sister back."

Ash's heart stuttered. It felt like much longer ago, but it hadn't even been two quarter-lunes back when she stood outside her family home under the night sky, yelling as if being out from under the roof would make the gods hear her pleas better. For only a moment that night, she'd had the odd feeling she was being watched. She hadn't been wrong.

"You used me," she whispered. Her voice quavered, as if the shaking of her body made its way to her very words. "You knew I was ignorant and desperate, so you used me."

For some reason, that made Roan frown. He leaned back, not so much that he lost his hold on her, but enough that he could examine her from another angle. "On the contrary, I was trying to help you."

The laughter that bubbled from Ash's throat was almost manic. "Help me?" she repeated. "If you wished to help me, you would have walked into my house and mended my sister!" She wrenched against his grip again and started scrabbling with her legs, hoping to get them at an angle she could kick out. The sheer nerve of the Scion, daring to insinuate that the damage he had done to her life could ever be a form of help—

Her fight came to a breath-shuddering halt as his free palm rested over her heart. Even in all her rage, she couldn't forget that she sat face-to-face with a Scion or ignore the way his eyes gleamed with magic.

If he cared at all that his presence was making her heart pound furiously against her chest, he didn't show it. Instead, he narrowed his eyes down at her. Still, nothing close to intense emotion, but more like she was a continual annoyance. "I saw more than just a desperate girl that night, and I continued to as I watched that next day. I saw a girl lost, a girl missing something. And you cannot tell me I am wrong, because had I been, this partial Weave would not have been so close to a complete one."

"I don't understand," she said.

His lip curved. "Had you not desired so strongly to be someone else, Ash, you would not have taken so completely to this ability. Something is missing within your essence, something you are trying to fill. I reached my hand out to you so that you could potentially fill that."

Cloth separated their skin, but Ash could have sworn the heat of Roan's palm seared against her chest. The partial Dreamweave there ached in response. She shook her head, but the motion was slow. She didn't know anything about magic, and what reason did Roan have to lie to her now? But what could he even mean?

"You're wrong. I..." Hadn't she wanted to be anyone else, though? But that had only been to escape her life. Right? No, it didn't matter. None of that part of this mattered. Only one thing did. "You hurt Odella, Roan. You hurt Odella, and now you're planning to hurt Callum. Sanford is dead because of you."

He sighed. "Many things went wrong with the plan, I will admit."

"And what is your plan?" Ash demanded, seizing the subject change. "You've dragged me into this mess. I deserve to know that much."

Roan tilted his head, as if to consider. Then he lifted his hand and brushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. She shivered, more from the coldness of the act than the touch. Something that most would do with some form of affection, Roan did as if to move an errant obstacle out of the way.

"It doesn't matter," he said after a moment.

"Yes, it does!" Ash struggled yet again, but it was just as fruitless as before. All it did was earn her another exasperated sigh. She cried harder. "I deserve to know why!"

Such a single word, yet so many different meanings behind it. Why would he go so far as to break Odella's mind? Why would he kidnap Callum? Why had he been so kind to Ash, had even made her believe she had a friend? Why had he then hurt her like this? Why, why, why, why? What was worth this to a Scion?

The remainder of her fight left her with a final sob. She curled her legs in on herself, and her arms went limp. She didn't know why, but would any answer even justify it?

"Please, just take us home," she murmured. "Take us home, and bring Odella back to me."

The heat that had encased her vanished, as did the hold on her wrists. Her arms dropped to her sides. Roan peered down at her from his full height. He had moved at least a couple of feet away from her.

"I can't do that. We're more similar than you're willing to admit. Unlike you, though, I do not refuse to acknowledge that there is something within me missing. I will get it back, and those who took it will pay."

Ash dropped her gaze to his chest. His eyes took on a great intensity as he spoke, and she couldn't meet them any longer. "I am nothing like you."

"Tell yourself whatever you need, Ash." He turned his back on her then. Another chance to strike, and another chance she couldn't bring herself to take. "You will be on your way home by this time tomorrow," Roan said. "I will make sure your needs are met until then."

"Please, send us both back." She knew it was pointless, but the plea left her, anyway. "Don't do this, Roan. You don't have to."

He paused at the door to her cell. "You'll understand. Ignore that gaping within yourself long enough, and you will see exactly why you're wrong. For your sake, though, Ash, I hope that never happens."

Tears blurred her vision until she couldn't see him shut the cell door and walk away, but she still saw him. The him she had known, who had been a true friend, a solid force when everything fell to pieces around her.

The him that, it would seem, pulled her strings like the most oblivious puppet.

The door to their cell quarters thudded shut, sealing them away with the weight of the truth, and Ash sobbed.

"Odell—Ash?"

She wasn't sure which shocked her more: Callum's voice or his usage of her name. She hadn't forgotten that he was there. His presence had remained a constant knowledge in the back of her mind during the entire exchange, even after he had gone silent. But too much else had been going on. Now the full extent of what they'd revealed rushed to the forefront. Panic and guilt stiffened her muscles, refusing to let her look in his direction.

"Ash. That is your name, isn't it?" His voice was impossibly tender for how furious he should have been. "You are hurting and confused, but you are not alone, so do not make it be so."

His words acted as a gentle finger beneath her chin, coaxing her to lift her head and search for him. He kneeled at the bars separating them once more, a hand extended through them. She stared. Smiling gently, he beckoned her over.

A lie. It had to be. There was no reason for Callum to want her anywhere near him. But his eyes remained on her, steady and unwavering in their kindness. It could be fake. She had been fooled once before.

It seemed genuine, though. Maybe it was just her desperation for it to be, but she allowed herself to believe it as she crawled the small distance to the bars. She settled against the wall right beside them. Callum mirrored her, though where she pulled her legs up against her, he kept his straight out, and he leaned against the bars, keeping one hand on her side, close to her.

She didn't know how many heavy beats of silence passed between them. He had to have so many things to say, but he only waited. Finally, the quiet pried the choking words from her raw throat. "I'm sorry," she croaked. "This is all my fault."

Callum said nothing.

Ash swallowed a painful lump. He wasn't required to speak. He couldn't protest the truth of her words, even if he didn't understand the entire picture. Guilt shone from her like a crimson light stone after all she and Roan had said to each other.

"Did you tell him to kidnap me?"

She snapped her head around at the unexpected words, and she found herself staring straight into Callum's deep blue eyes. Her breath caught. Uncertainty, maybe even hints of fear, lingered in his gaze, but stronger than that was a stability and strength that filled her with more confidence than she had any right to feel in their situation.

"When I claimed this was my fault," he continued, "you told me that I had not been the one who ordered the men to kidnap us. Did you tell the Scion to do this?"

Ash opened her mouth, but the single admittance that she had not wouldn't come. She didn't understand why Roan had kidnapped Callum. It didn't match anything she had heard about slaying the Serpent like she had been told. In brief moments during their capture, she had seen hints that Callum may know, though. Whatever he hid couldn't compare to her infiltrating his town with the goal of slaying the Terror, of using him to do that, and then accidentally helping seclude him to a beach where he'd be kidnapped.

She shook her head. "You don't understand. It's not that simple."

"Then tell me." He leaned closer, his arm nearly brushing hers, and stared deep into her eyes. "Help me understand, Ash."

She bit down on her lower lip. He wanted her to bear all of her foolish actions and choices before him. Explain how Roan had used her as the perfect puppet. It made her sick, but he deserved to know. And after all she had learned that night, a part of her ached desperately for more truth and fewer lies.

So, despite the fear clawing to hold back the words, she told him everything.

*****

The cards have been placed on the table, both by Roan and by Ash.  What do you think about Roan now? :D And will Callum hate Ash with the truth revealed?  Would be quite the uncomfortable ride if your prison mate hated you 😬

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!