Sorin watched as the little blue car sped into the fog and then turned away slowly. Time to get back to the business of war, which is what he lived and breathed now. With a silent command, he willed the gate to return the car and its occupants back to where they’d come from.

Cillum grabbed his armor-clad arm. “What were you staring at, Solin?”

He didn’t even try to dodge the question as he shrugged off the herald’s hold. “Most likely my past.” She could never be his future. Bringing a human to Avalii as queen would only give his brother more ammunition, both political and personal.

Cillum frowned. “Your brother can’t control the gate. Only you can. That looked to be one of those human contraptions. What do you call them again? A…a cart?”

Sorin blew out a weary breath and glanced around to make sure no one could overhear them. “A car, Cillum. A car.”

“You wished her here, the human you were involved with some years ago?”

He shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “In the heat of battle, I desire many things. I must’ve made a wish that sounded like a command to the gate bridge.”

Cillum’s blond brows lowered as he cast Solin a confused, worried look. “You don’t remember making such an order?”

“No, but many things can rush through one’s head while in battle.”

“This worries me. It’s not like you to make errors like this.”

“According to you and Massion, my whole relationship with Avery was a mistake. It’s one of the few things you’ve ever agreed on.”

“I said the timing was poor, not that it was a mistake.”

Solin’s mouth twisted. “That’s what you meant, but she’s in the past and must stay there now.”

“Be that as it may, what if she and the other passenger go back and tell everybody what they saw? Or what if it wasn’t your Avery?”

Solin gave his herald an unimpressed stare. “Do you think I’d wish any other human here? But regardless of whether it was her or not, the fog is disorienting to human sight. It takes a good half day for them to regain their vision unless they’re aided by Avallian magic. Even if they could see, who’d believe them, anyway?”

Cillum stared at the glowing mist. “The signature emitting from that glow looks different than it usually does. It’s yours but…it’s not. Your brother didn’t find a way to activate the gate, did he?”

Solin spun on his heel and gazed at the fog, ice sliding down his spine. He’d know his brother’s signature anywhere, and this wasn’t it. But what he did see was similar, so similar to his and his brother’s that it couldn’t be mere coincidence. The implications, though. His mind blanked at them.

“Sorin?”

He couldn’t answer. All words had evaporated.

“Your Majesty?”

“It’s…it’s not my brother’s.”

“Then whose?”

Sorin set his mouth into a thin line. “Barring a sibling we didn’t know of, either my brother or I have a surprise child out there.”