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I knew Arran had as well.

Who knew what plans the rest of our companions had made.

And looking into Percival’s eyes… he understood exactly what had changed.

I shoved to my feet, picking up the dirty dishes I’d made. I may hate doing dishes, but I wasn’t going to leave them for someone else to do.

“Sleep,” I advised as I dropped to my knees to crawl out of the alcove. “At least for today, you won’t have to worry about the succubus coming for you.”

68

PARYS

Veyka’s antechamber had become a makeshift council room. It wasn’t as striking as the actual royal council chamber, but Parys didn’t have any desire to go back up there. For all he knew, it was in the same state of disarray it had been after Elora struck down Roksana in the aftermath of the massacre at the goldstone palace.

He hadn’t been in any condition to check after the Tower of Myda.

He was early for dinner, but he couldn’t stay in the library any longer. It was unusually busy that afternoon and he didn’t feel like talking.

But his luck was shit.

Because Veyka’s antechamber wasn’t empty either.

Gwen was in the armchair she preferred; dinner nowhere to be seen yet. She wasn’t alone. Two palace guards stood inside the doors, and the elderly human named Sylva sat on the chaise, several feet separating her from the lion shifter.

Parys wondered who’d chosen their seat first.

They both started to stand as he entered but he waved them off.

“I’m not staying,” he said, swiping an apple from the bowl by the door.

But he didn’t go back out. Instead he strode across the room, opened the door to Veyka’s bedroom, and crossed to the balcony. He threw himself down in one of the padded lounge chairs and closed his eyes, the apple already forgotten in his hand.

Maybe he could sleep. He was having a hard time at night, staying up late in the library instead. But he was so tired…

“Any guards we send are just as likely to be taken by the darkness, are they not?” Gwen said, her voice floating easily through the slight opening he’d left to the antechamber.

He didn’t even need to summon a breeze.

“Yes,” Sylva was saying. “That is what happened to the ones that King Arthur sent.”

A beat of silence.

Not that it mattered—Gwen was nearly impossible to read even if you were standing right in front of her. That part of the elemental court she’d arrived with already mastered.

“What if we only sent females? That is why you came as an all-female delegation, is it not? So you would not risk being set upon in the night?” Gwen’s words were even. Giving away nothing.

“Yes.” Sylva paused. “But even if they aren’t taken by the darkness, they cannot prevent it from coming either.”

A slow exhale—Gwen’s. She did that when she was contemplating whether to give voice to her thought.

“What about bringing the humans into Annwyn?” she said slowly.

Parys’ eyes flew open.

But Sylva spoke before he could even sit up. “They would not be any safer here. My husband was taken by the darkness, even in this realm.”

Shit.