Page 108 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

“You can skip the pleasantries,” I said flatly. “While I know you won’t assassinate me, one of the others will.”

She flinched—barely. A subtle twitch of the brow, a breath too long in the pause. Anyone else would’ve missed it.

But I knew her too well.

“No,” she said, voice tight. “They won’t. Father rescinded the contract.”

I blinked. “Why?”

“He realized he was being played,” she said simply. “He’s furious. He wants to know who’s been manipulating the Order from within.”

I studied her carefully. “It’s not just here, Solei. There are issues in the other kingdoms too. Warders dying. Politics are shifting.”

She nodded once, sharply. “We know.”

She stepped closer, voice lowering as her eyes locked onto mine with that old glint of purpose.

“We need your help, Ashe. And we’re willing to trade information. If it saves the Order…” Her jaw clenched. “We’ll give you whatever you need.”

I stared at my sister, the wind pulling strands of silver hair loose from her braid. She looked older tonight, tired in a way that didn’t come from lack of sleep, but from carrying too many secrets for too long.

“I still love you,” I said, my voice firm, though the words tore a little coming out. “But I will never forgive you. Or Cyran.”

Solei flinched again, this time visibly. Her eyes dropped for the briefest second, then lifted again, hard with control.

“It was business,” she said. “You know I never wanted to do it.”

“But you did,” I snapped, my jaw tightening. “You were prepared to put a blade in me if he ordered it. That’s the difference between us. I’ll never follow an order like that.” I paused, then added coldly, “Even if Kaelith kills me for it.”

Solei’s gaze darkened, but not with anger. “You were always too soft for the Order,” she murmured.

I smirked, slow and unrepentant. “And yet I have the second-largest dragon in the horde.”

I pulled the pendant from beneath my armor. The gold glinted in the torchlight, the deep-violet of Kaelith’s scale now shining through almost entirely, just a thin rim was left at the edge, the last fragment of resistance.

The bond was nearly complete.

Solei’s eyes flicked to it, and for a heartbeat, something like awe crossed her face.

Then she turned her gaze upward.

The sky stretched black above us, scattered with stars, and dulled by the force of coming storms. She watched it like it held answers.

Or warnings.

“We don’t have much time,” she said softly, almost to herself.

“What does Cyran want?”

Solei shifted her weight, her arms crossing over her loose tunic as she stared at me. The wind cut through the empty courtyard behind her, the fabric at her sides catching like sails in the tension between us.

“Cyran found something,” she said finally. “Something that suggests the Order and the court are both being manipulated.”

“The Blood Fae,” I said, the words like iron on my tongue. “We’ve encountered human spies that confirm it.”

Solei didn’t even blink. “So have we. They’re not just infiltrating kingdoms, they’re manipulating the throne itself. All of it. Every move. Every command.”

Her voice dropped as she glanced toward Gerane behind me, but his gaze was fixed straight ahead, as though he hadn’t heard a word.