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“Where is the other High Priestess?” I asked, taking a step toward the two bound leaders. “I can hear her whimpering, cowering around here somewhere.”

Essara slipped from the shadows as the question fell from my mouth. The High Priestess didn’t thrash against her, didn’t try to escape, only smiled up at me with a genuine, sickening smile.

“What’s your name?” I asked as she blinked up at me.

“I’m Sovana, and that’s Varah. Obviously you already know Oryn—”

“Kill them,” Ata snarled, cutting Sovana off.

Sovana giggled as she looked from Ata to me. “You can’t kill us. We’re protected.”

My eyes narrowed. “By who?”

“Our Queen—theonlyQueen. We answer only to her and she protects us, gives us the power to do her bidding. You answer to her too.” Her smile deepened as she looked up at me, her eyes frenzied and blazing with unsettling, uncontrolled energy. “Which means you answer to us, as her representatives.”

“Do you know who I am?” I asked, my head tilting toward her.

She nodded enthusiastically. “You’re the half-breed.”

“The half-breed . . .” I whispered, almost to myself, as Essara and Azeyr’s backs went rigid. “No, that is not who I am.” I took a step closer to her, shadows lifting her chin up to my gaze as magic pulsed through the air. “My name is Hyacinth; Takaris, Mother of the People, daughter of Asrai, the Mother of Bloodshed and the blood of Elianca, granddaughter of the Alpha and Omega. I do not answer to you—to anyone other than my people.”

The hall fell silent, like Nimbria was holding her breath as my words seeped into the very marrow of the realm.

“I understand now . . .” Awe threaded through Sovana’s voice as she looked up at me.

“They are here—”

A deafening explosion shook the foundation of the House of High, sending tremors through our bodies as Varah’s words tumbled into oblivion. The walls began to crumble around us as scores of living dead, mezzen, and all kinds of foul creatures poured into the collapsing room.

Screams from the nobles flooded the air, drowned out by the tearing of flesh and screeching of creatures. Tragi filled the skies and I watched as dragons launched themselves from the balcony, joining the aerial battle and painting the sky with fire and blood.

The scent of blood clung to the air like thick smoke, choking me as I staggered forward. The screams—some of agony, others of rage—clashed with the metallic clang of steel against steel, thewet, sickening sound of flesh being torn apart. The crumbling fortress was chaos incarnate, a storm of bodies colliding, weapons slicing through the air, and magic igniting the darkness with bursts of searing light.

Landers turned to me, his eyes wild as he flicked his wrist toward a hoard of living dead. Violet matter shot from his fingers like daggers, decapitating every creature surrounding us.

More poured over their broken bodies, trampling the corpses as they rushed us.

They did not stop coming.

A roar of rage exploded from my chest, my magic shooting outward in a shockwave that sent the hoards stumbling back. Shadows whipped around me like a maelstrom as I advanced on them, cutting through every creature.

My heart beat at a frantic pace as I took in the carnage.

They knew. They knew our planagain.

My head whipped around the House of High’s skeletal frame, wind and light pouring in through the jagged openings exposing the open air.

Where was Wren?

I spotted him, fighting beside Andrues. Fightingwithus.

He couldn’t have done this. He wouldn’t.

Sovana’s laughter cut through the chaos, and my gaze caught on her figure dancing through the army of creatures. She looked at me, her eyes wide with exhilaration. She reveled in the destruction, her manic cackles rising above the din of battle.

My power reached for her, stopping only inches from her skin. I willed it to push through whatever shield she had erected around her body but it would not break through.

“You see?” she shouted, grinning at me. “Our Queen protects us.”