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My heart convulsed against its cage.

They had Cyloe.

She sat in the corner of the room in wolf form, her tail thumping loudly against the marble floor as she eyed me. A woman’s hands groped Cyloe’s fur, her other wrapped tightly around a leash that led to a collar around her neck.

I would fucking strangle her with it.

“Well, well,” a silky voice purred from the obsidian throne atop the dais. My eyes snapped toward it. “The fallen High Priest and his little bird, finally out of their cages.”

The figure leaned forward, casting his gaze down on us. He was handsome in a vile kind of way, with sharp features and eyes that radiated pure malice. A slow smile spread across his thin lips as the High Priestesses on either side of him watched us from behind cautious eyes.

“Oryn,” Dukovich snarled up at him, pushing against the hands that held him in place.

Oryn rose from his throne, the smooth fabric of his robes rustling with the movement as he descended the steps of his perch. His footsteps echoed through the cavernous hall, each one measured and deliberate. He stopped before us, his cold eyes roving over our kneeling forms with a mix of disdain and amusement.

“I must say, Dukovich, I expected more of a fight from you. The great betrayer, brought so low.” His gaze shifted to me, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. “And you, little bird, I’ve heard somuch about your fire, your defiance. Yet here you are, on your knees for me. It is quite a magnificent view.”

Rage boiled in my blood, searing through my veins.

This little bird was a predator.

And she was about to make him her prey.

Chapter forty-five

HYACINTH

MycheekconnectedwithNithra’s scales, feeling the rise and fall of her belly as she rested under the morning rays. Her sisters surrounded her, coiling tight at her side in protection and letting their tears bathe her in healing.

A shuddered breath left my chest.

Physical pain wracked my body with every inhale I took without them here—without them close and safe. Every vein pulsing toward my heart was being choked by dread.

I couldn’t think past the need to get them back; no thought could take root before their faces flooded in again. Despair skulked at the edge of every thought, waiting for me to break the seal—waiting for me to crack and let it consume me.

Nithra shifted, her head lifting from the grass as she eyed me softly.Go, child. Bring them home. I will heal.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice shaking as I looked into her golden eyes and willed the door to the dam to stay shut. “I’m so sorry.”

She huffed.This is war. None of us will survive it without wounds if we survive at all.Her voice was sharp and commanding as she spoke down the fastening.You have a duty to your realm, and as long as you are breathing—as long as you are living—there is still hope.Her eyes softened on me as her nose nudged my body away from her.Go, child,she said again.It’s time the realms learned who they bow to.

My eyes glanced to where Andrues waited for me at the edge of the field as I pushed from the ground, letting her words settle into my skin and seep into my bones. I could feel it as I took those first few steps away from her, feel it as I looked over my shoulder to see five dragons staring back at me—the sorrow that was heating, boiling into something else entirely.

She was right.

It was time for them to learn who I was and what I would become when pushed. I was done consuming the narrative the world had fed me, done believing that my emotions made me fragile or less than.

But I would let them think that.

I would let them see me as weak and naïve so that when I struck, they would not understand how a scared girl like me could cause so much damage.

Warmth spread through my body like wildfire as determination and unbridled rage began to coil in the pit of my stomach like a viper readying to strike.

If they wanted violence, I wouldn’t just give it to them.

I would become it.

My limbs slipped into the tether as it pulled at me, dragging me toward the Fallen Ones. War had started, and it was time for them to hold up their end of the deal. Light seeped back into my vision as my boots connected with the grass at the edge of the clearing where their lodgings stood. I strode forward, my stepsdeliberate, every one of them filled with purpose as I anchored my eyes on Royion’s home.