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This female, who shone brighter than the suns of her home and mine combined, was my mate, and every single member of this court would be reminded of that fact.
“May she be the last monarch this court sees!” Tal shouted, snatching a glass up from a passing thrall’s tray. “May she overcome all, for the glory of this holy court. May she usher in a new era and a new beginning for the people of Sanasroth! To Queen Saeris!”
Ibanwae?”
Once upon a time, this female had been an Alchemist.
“I was reminded recently that I was a wolf,” he said, smiling softly. “And wolves do not cower in dusty libraries, afraid of their own shadows. I swear myself to you, Saeris Fane.
The world could be ending and my love for this male would outstrip my fear.
you don’t have to be one thing here, Saeris. You can be many things. You can wear your leathers and fight every day of the year. I would never ask you not to. But sometimes, if you wanted to… you’re allowed to soften, Saeris. You’re allowed to stop baring your teeth at the world and take a breath. Because I’ve got you.”
He was the anchor that kept me from drifting away.
sometimes, it’s the most beautiful things that are deadliest.
You will be reborn, back into life, back into your Fae bodies, where you will face the horrors of what you allowed yourselves to become! Refuse the vials, and you join the other demons in hell with me posthaste!”
“But what if there is no afterlife?”
“Then there isn’t,” he answered. “There is only nothing. And that will still be better than being here without you.”
“I know,” he said slowly, “that anyone willing to forfeit the lives of their people and tally their loss as collateral damage is no leader. Certainly not the kind of leader that I will ever be—” “Then maybe you’re just not cut for the role,” Danya snapped.
She wasn’t what I’d expected. She was so much more. She really had come blazing into my life like a comet, and now she was changing everything.
“I shouldn’t tell you this, since you seem blissfully unaware of the power you hold over me, but… I will give you whatever you want, Saeris Fane. Always. No matter what it costs me.”
He knew that, to control his people, he had to control the information they had access to. Hide the truth from people, and you kept them in the dark. Burn the books, and you got to rewrite history and the future.
Sometimes, the cure was more dangerous than the affliction, but at least it would buy us some time…
I felt the moment that she passed through the shadows and moved beyond my reach. It was as though I had been cut off from life itself, and only the cold, empty void of death remained.
Cahlish was my parents’ home. And for a very long time, it had been the only thing that was mine. Leaving it felt like abandoning a dying family member, but we had run out of options.
A voice, calling out from the space between worlds. “Hello, Dog.”
I certainly read about individuals absorbing the powers of others to bolster their own magic, but… the kind of magic it would take to open a portal between realms? Well, that would require an inordinate amount of power.”
“‘You cannot eradicate magic from a city. Once it takes root within a community, it never leaves. It will find a way to thrive, one way or another. You just didn’t care to look for it.’”
‘The strongest magic is circular. Like a wheel. It is the symbol of forever, the beginning and the end of everything. It carries magic on a loop, amplifying it, giving it strength.’”
“Zilvaren,” I said breathlessly. “The city, fashioned after the shape of a wheel. The walls form the wards, but they aren’t spokes. The whole thing…” My head was spinning. “It’s a sigil. This entire time, Madra has been using the city itself to siphon the magic of its inhabitants. Zilvaren is the biggest piece of spellwork ever created.”
“How can I consign myself to another endless dark when I’ve been given back the light?”
the sword that he’d found and carried here, turning it over in my hands. It was a pretty thing, narrow-bladed and elegant as a rapier. Its razor-sharp edge was lethal. Something about it reminded me of Tal.
“What’s its name?” I asked. This was becoming something of a ritual—one I enjoyed more than I could explain. Tal let out a long, shaky breath, considering the sword. “Tarsarinn,” he said. “It means… redemption.”
I’m not arrogant enough to declare that we’re fighting on the side of right. I hope we are, but your precious fates are going to have to be the judges of that. Either way, right or wrong, from now on, Tal, you’ll always be fighting with us
They dropped to their knees at the same time and laid their weapons down in offering, bowing to the Daianthus heir. All was silent, save for the scraping of hooves and the clatter of metal against stone.
“A traditional song of the satyrs. Nuanced. It’s the song you would sing to a family member of a dear friend you’ve lost. It’s… like a promise. That you will show the love and respect you can no longer give to your friend to the living who still share their blood.
the souls of the damned, condemned to haunt these woods, constantly reliving their gruesome deaths as punishment for their crimes.
They were once a clan of dryads. Self-righteous and arrogant as they were, they took it upon themselves to stand up to one of the northern witch clans. No one really remembers why. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that they lost their feud and suffered the consequences forthwith. The witches cursed the dryads and turned them into these prisons.
Their relationship becomes symbiotic.
“These dryads are on my land. They exist at my discretion. They obey me in everything, and in return I keep them fed. Try to cut this one down or hack your mate free, and it will kill him in an instant.
he closed the iron gate that protects the city, again with his bare hands. He knew that would kill him. And it should have. But Bal and Mithin chose to take pity on their favorite, didn’t they? They saved him. They gave him a sword of iron, because he had shown strength enough to wield it.
You’ll never be able to wield Nimerelle. If the metal doesn’t kill you, then the warrior who lives inside it will.”
For the first time in Yvelian history, a god sword had entrusted itself into the hands of someone it wasn’t bonded to. Because Kingfisher loved me. I had come here to save him… and that was good enough for his sword.
“Impossible,” Belikon whispered. But of course it would seem impossible to him. A heart ruled by hatred and fear could not experience miracles. You had to know love, joy, and trust for that, and those concepts were as foreign to him as the idea of Yvelia had been to me not too long ago.
“I have… a message… for you,” I wheezed. “From… your dead… wife.” It happened so quickly that anyone could have missed it, but not me. I saw the bastard flinch. I choked on another mouthful of blood. “She told me… to tell you… never
“Names hold meaning in this place. There is no power in this realm or any other that can supersede an order given using someone’s true name. A true name can undo oaths. It can open doors.”
“Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate, I hereby call you by your true name. I declare all oaths you have sworn null and void. Rise, Khydan Graystar Finvarra, in honor of the name you were given at birth! Rise up and fight
it was darkness and vengeance that poured out of me as I obeyed it.
“Did you really think I would be stupid enough to speak my mate’s true name in front of you without protecting him first? You’re out of your addled fucking mind. I couldn’t command the oath he spoke to you and render it moot. But with this, I could undo it. And after I’d spoken his name and told him to be free, what do you think I did then, Belikon?” “His name. You—you—” She nodded. “Yes. I undid the magic that binds it. No one can use it against him now. No one will ever control him again.”
The fox had darted in front of the blade, ruining his opportunity to end Saeris, but from the gleeful grin on his face, the seneschal didn’t care.
In all my years alive and traveling this realm, I had never encountered anything so mighty and brave as this little fox with the heart of a wolf.
Belikon was actually afraid of me.
He wasn’t dead. Whatever dark magic ran through his veins would save him from this end. I knew that, but being beheaded would sure as hell make it harder for him to call on his men and come chasing after us.
“We believe that animals are too pure for this life. They are all ascended beings who live in the after. Everything is perfect there. No pain or misfortune or heartbreak. But sometimes, they peer beyond the veil between this life and the next, and they see us here in the depths of our suffering, and they choose someone. One soul they want to help over any other. They come to us as… dear friends”—he cleared his throat—“when we need them most. You needed Onyx when you first got here, Saeris. He saw that perhaps, and he came. But now—” I shook my head, blind with tears, refusing to hear him. “No.
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“What does it feel like… to lose something that you love so dearly?”
“It feels like trying to make sand flow backward in an hourglass. It feels like being surrounded by people and being the only one who can’t find the air in the room. It’s drowning on dry land. It’s the hollow ache of something that you know, from that moment on, will always be missing. It is a pain so acute and incurable that poets, pirates, and politicians alike die from it. And it never ends.”
