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My magic flares beneath my skin, thorns burning with the urge to fight back. But Finnian catches my eye and shakes his head almost imperceptibly, moving closer under the pretense of gathering his materials.

“This is politics,” Amarantha continues, gesturing for the guards to move closer. “Now, shall we go quietly, or must we make this unpleasant for everyone involved?”

The magical restraints they produce gleam with suppression runes. Magic withdraws from my fingertips like touching ice, leaving my hands cold and empty.

As the guards approach, Finnian steps between us, pressing a book into my hands while his fingers spell out ‘trust us’ against my palm.

“Do not fight,” he breathes against my ear, amber eyes desperate. “She will kill you and claim you started it. Let them take you. We are coming.”

His voice carries steel beneath silk, and my racing heartbeat finally slows to something manageable.

“Remember what I said about bonded souls,” he says louder, for Amarantha’s benefit. “Some failures are survivable.”

“I remember,” I manage, meeting his desperate gaze.

As Amarantha’s guards escort me from the classroom, I catch sight of Finnian’s face—guilt and fury and something that looks like barely restrained panic.

Whatever this trial involves, whatever they expect me to attempt, I’m walking into it alone and unprepared.

And the growing certainty that haunts me as we walk toward Seelie “accommodations”: I’ve just learned exactly what I need to survive the trial, but I’ll be separated from everyone who might help me understand how to actually do it.

The corridors blur past as we move deeper into Academy territory I’ve never seen, toward chambers that feel less like protection and more like a cage designed by someone who understands exactly how dangerous I might become.

Two days.

Two days to figure out how four bonded souls can unite through treasures when I don’t even know who carries them.

Two days before I either prove my royal claims or die trying.

And absolutely no fucking idea how to do either without destroying everyone I’ve come to love.

35

ASH

The journeyto the Seelie Court passes in a haze of crystalline corridors and impossible architecture that makes my eyes water if I stare too long. Each step feels heavier than the last as the magical restraints around my wrists pulse with suppression magic, making my thorns retreat deeper beneath my skin with every pulse.

I reach for Orion through our bond, desperate for any connection. The connection snaps with audible finality, leaving cold hollow spaces where his warmth used to live.

There should be heat. Shadow. Light. Finnian’s warmth, Kieran’s precision, Orion’s fire.

But there’s only silence where they should be.

Orion,I think desperately,can you feel this? Can you feel me disappearing?

The silence where his voice should answer makes my next breath catch like swallowing glass.

Through grand windows that stretch impossibly tall, I catch glimpses of the world outside—gardens where every flower blooms in geometric perfection, pathways that gleam with embedded starlight despite the afternoon sun, fountains that sing in harmonies too perfect to be natural.

The precision makes my stomach lurch sideways. Nothing in nature follows such rigid patterns, and my enhanced senses recoil from the wrongness like touching something diseased.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?” Amarantha asks as we pass fountains that sing in perfect harmony.

“It’s suffocating,” I reply, though the words feel thick on my tongue, like speaking through honey.

“Beauty inspires appropriate feelings. Contentment. Compliance.”

“I’ve seen torture rooms with less precision.” The words slip out before I can stop them. “At least pain is honest.”