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‘Can’t we start on the practical today?’ Thea interjected, thinking of how she might use the skills in her private sparring sessions.

‘No.’

Irritation flared. ‘What could you know of storm magic?’ Thea demanded.

‘I’m a librarian,’ Audra said bluntly. ‘I know everything.’

‘That’s not it,’ Thea ventured. ‘There’s something more.’

Audra gave a huff of amusement. ‘I take it you don’t know the meaning of my name?’

Thea frowned. ‘Why would I?’

‘Audrais a name passed down through all the women in my family. It means “storm”.’

Thea’s skin prickled. ‘Why? Why did they give you a name with that meaning?’

Wren was staring at Audra now, gobsmacked. Thea felt some small satisfaction at that. At last, something her sister didn’t know.

Audra sniffed. ‘I’m a descendant of the tutors who used to teach the Delmirian line.’ The older woman surveyed them critically, as though weighing up whether they were worthy. ‘I am the granddaughter of the tutor who taught your parents storm magic.’

Thea baulked. ‘What? But you’re…’

‘A librarian?’ Audra supplied drily.

‘A warrior,’ Thea corrected. ‘How —’

‘The details are irrelevant. What matters is that I’m the only person who has any inkling of knowledge about how you might summon and control your power.’ She gestured to the far corner of the room, where dozens of books had been stacked in precarious piles atop a wide table. ‘For our theory and history lessons, we’ll be here.’

For the first time since her arrival, Thea looked around and realised she had no idea where they were. ‘Whereishere?’

Audra gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘My private chambers. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that these sessions areconfidential. Shall we begin?’

Without waiting for a response, she pushed a familiar-looking tome towards the sisters. It was the book from Hawthorne’s cabin, with a messy star scrawled beside a list of royals. But the list ended without branching off into the offspring of the reigning couple. The line had died, or so it had been recorded.

‘You come from a long line of powerful storm wielders. Your parents, King Soren and Queen Brigh of the Embervale family —’

Thea’s stomach turned to lead. She was not a Zoltaire. She didn’t even know where that name had come from, had never asked.

She was anEmbervale.

As was Wren.

ElwrenEmbervale. AltheaEmbervale… It didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound likeher.

Audra continued. ‘— possessed some of the most potent magic the midrealms had ever seen. It was said that their magic could be felt across the realms, causing terror tempests in faraway lands.’

Thea recalled the crackle of lightning at her fingertips, how she’d summoned it to strike the reaper in the Bloodwoods, and again when it nearly cleaved the sky in two atop the cliffs by the black mountains.

Hadhermagic been felt elsewhere too?

‘When Delmira descended into ruin thirty years ago, the blame fell at the feet of King Soren and Queen Brigh. They were tyrants who sought to bring the other kingdoms under their command. As a result, their own kingdom succumbed to the dark forces from beyond the Veil a few years before you were born, but not before the Embervale royals poisoned the minds of the Naarvian king and queen. They followed in your parents’ footsteps, taking up their power-hungry mantle, only to follow their demise as well.’

A sour taste filled Thea’s mouth. All those times she had wondered about her heritage, had wondered if she was from a family of fighters. She had imagined a warrior father, a sword-swinging mother… But she had never considered something so damning. She was the daughter of tyrants, a truth so at odds with her lifelong dream of becoming a defender of the midrealms.

Audra paused to let her words sink in before she spoke again. ‘There are things you need to know – laws, protocols and such – before you make any decisions about your futures.’

‘I have been researching,’ Wren offered eagerly, her hands tracing over the Embervale family tree in the book before her. ‘I know that if an heir of a fallen kingdom announces themselves, the rest of the kingdoms are obligated to help them rebuild, to see the heir back on their throne for the balance of the midrealms.’