Page 15 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

Zander’s jaw clenched. “Unstable.”

I exhaled slowly. “Yeah. I got that impression.”

“We are aware,” he said, falling in step beside me. “Dorian may have to step up as regent sooner than we hoped.”

“What’s causing it?” I asked. “He’s bonded to a dragon. That should’ve made him immune to disease.”

“We don’t know.” His voice was tight, clipped. “The healers are doing everything they can.”

“Are they?” I stopped. “Because more and more healers are being reassigned to outer kingdoms.”

Zander’s face hardened like steel pulled from the forge. “That’s Theron’s department. He handles security and safety protocols for Warriath. Not me.”

“I see,” I said softly, but the pieces were already moving in my mind.

He didn’t press further. Instead, he gestured down the hall. “Let me escort you back to your room.”

I nodded and fell into step beside him, but my eyes weren’t focused on the halls we passed. I was already mapping out every twist and tunnel, tracing the route I’d need to reach the dungeon without detection. My mind was a blade whetted by danger, and I knew, soon I’d have to cut through the veil of secrets no one else dared touch.

Zander’s voice broke through my thoughts.

“When are you planning to infiltrate the dungeon?”

I looked at him sharply.

He didn’t smile.

Didn’t blink.

He already knew.

So I gave him the truth. “Soon.”

And he just nodded. “Then I suggest you don’t go alone.”

When I opened the door to the barracks, I expected silence.

Instead, I found every single member of my squad sitting upright, blankets half-pulled around their waists, boots half-laced, eyes wide and waiting.

They should’ve been asleep.

But none of them had even tried.

Cordelle was perched on the edge of his bunk with a book clutched in his lap. Riven leaned back against her wall, arms crossed. Tae stood, like he’d been pacing until the second the door creaked open. Jax and Naia sat side by side, and Ferrula had her dagger in her hand, idle but alert.

Kaelith’s amusement stirred behind my thoughts as Zander followed me inside, the door closing softly behind him.

“I’m fine,” I said quickly.

“Yousureabout that?” Riven asked, arching a brow.

I glanced at Zander, then back at my squad. “You deserve to know what happened.”

And I told them.

The summons. The meeting. The king’s questions about Kaelith. His too-casual inquiries, the tightness in his smile, the way he had seemed so lucid and yet somehow miles from reality. And then the words I overheard, his obsession with the Virelith Crystal, the fae, the prisoner.

The silence after I finished was noticeable.