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“By this point, my Light Keepers and I had a new plan,” he said, “not to attempt to kill you, but to eventually steal you away to Elarith, pairing you with its future king, so that we might find a way to collar you and control your magic—rather than trying to destroy you and risk another setback like the one I’d already endured.”

“The future king…you mean Aleksander.”

He lifted a hand and guided a strand of light around one of my shadows, pulling it toward him. It hovered above his palm, casting a strange golden-tinged darkness over his eyes as he said, “Every other being I’ve possessed over these past centurieshas succumbed immediately to my control. Only one has ever managed to fight back. To escape from my grasp.”

The story Aleks had told me about his sickness and his scars—and all the nightmares that had followed—suddenly made perfect sense. “It wasn’t an illness that nearly overcame him as a child…it wasyou.”

Lorien crushed the tangle of shadow and light in his fist, and when he unfolded his fingers, a pure, brightly burning flame of gold had taken its place. “It would have been poetic, I thought—the descendant of Argoth in my control, luring the vessel of Calista’s magic into my grasp, keeping her from intervening with the ultimate demise of Noctaris, adding to the tragedy ofthem.”

“But he forced you out.” My words came out hushed, again, this time from a mixture of astonishment and something aching and awful as I thought of how strong Aleks must have been to have fought back against such a powerful being—and howfrightened, trying to make sense of these monstrous things when he was only a child.

The furious heat from before returned, burning so fiercely now that it blurred my vision.

“Yes,” Lorien said, his smile finally falling a bit in the corners. “He fought back, forcing me to settle for his closest advisor and the next in line to the throne: His cousin.”

“But you still allowed Aleks to live?”

“Allowed?” he scoffed. “Not exactly. He should have died upon my exit, but he didn’t. And—you might have noticed—he has far more magic, and far more of a connection toyou, than he should have.”

More of the story Aleks had told me flashed through my mind, reminding me of how surprised I’d been to learn that his magic wasn’t innate, as most thought it was; he’d developed itafterthe strange sickness he’d survived.

Of course.

“…Your magic is still tied to him, isn’t it?” I breathed, terror squeezing my heart, even though I could only guess at the implications of it all.

How deeply—how dangerously—intertwined were they?

“Yes.” His fist clenched, and the golden flame burned brighter above it, as if fueled by his anger. “So we did what we could to hone that magic and keep him under our thumb, so that he might prove a useful pawn to us, rather than a thorn in our sides. We figured we could use him as bait to lure you in, if nothing else.”

I bristled at the idea of him being reduced to mere bait. My hand moved once more to Grimnor’s grip, while my eyes stayed narrowed on the monster taking shape before me.

Lorien gave my hold on the sword a cursory glance, but continued without commenting on it. “But on the night of what should have been your betrothal,” he said, “your father tried to back out of our agreement. I don’t think he’d ever truly intended to go through with it; he was merely trying to draw us in so he could get closer to our secrets. He had suspicions about the Light Keepers, of course. I don’t know how much he actually knew—but he was getting far too curious about me. My patience with him ran out. So, he was dealt with.”

Dealt with.

I shifted my stance, preparing to withdraw Grimnor. “And you thought I would still agree to marry into Elarithian royalty after you killed him?”

“Of course not.” He arched a brow. “But I am not above simplytakingwhat I want when negotiations fall through. Whether as a future queen or a prisoner, we were going to leave Rose Point with you in our control. I tried to grab you before you made it to your father that night—you don’t even realize the magic you unleashed in that moment, do you? How you protected yourself? You slipped through my grasp in thebanquet hall, I followed you outside, and…well, we both know what happened next, don’t we? Those damned shadows of yours sent me spiraling down into this hell.”

My heart was in my throat, its relentless pounding making it hard to breathe. The magic I’d loathed for so long, all the destruction and despair my shadows had caused…

It seemed they had only been sparing me from a far worse fate.

Lorien took another step closer to me, his gaze shifting once more to my hold on Grimnor, lingering this time. He seemed to be daring me to draw it out.

And thosedamned shadowsof mine grew more restless beneath my skin, catching the fire building in my heart, whipping it into an even more frantic beat that pounded through my body like a war drum.

“I hope it hurt when you hit the ground,” I snarled, locking my eyes onto his.

He chuckled darkly. “Don’t worry—it did. My powers are weaker in Noctaris, and that, combined with the magic you struck me with,andmy ties to Aleksander and Luminor…it’s all made the last seven yearsinteresting,to say the least. But I managed to slip back to the surface a few times—just enough to orchestrate things regarding the imposter on the Elarithian throne, and to watch you and the plans you were making.”

“…You knew I was planning to come here?”

“I did. And I saw an opportunity to not only meet you here, but to regain some of my lost power. Because I knewLuminor had fallen, too, and I assumed it was being held somewhere within this cursed Below—but I was unable to find this palace on my own, due to the spell Calista protected it with.”

Another realization crawled through me, and the horror must have been obvious on my face, because Lorien’s smile brightened once more.

“That’s right,” he said. “If your foolish handlers hadn’t feared you and your power so much, if they had justleftyou in this palace in the first place, I likely wouldn’t have found you until it was too late. But they chose otherwise. So here we are. And I did want to thank you, dear Nova, for leading me into the heart of Noctaris’s last stronghold,andreuniting me with my sword.”