Page 36 of A Traitor Sister (Remnants of the Fallen Kingdom #2)

36

ASTRA

I never liked Azur, from the moment I heard him suggesting disgusting things to Marlak at that coronation, but he might have saved me from falling. Now, looking at his impassive face, I wonder if he’s indeed a monster.

“Azur,” Lidiane says his name with so much sweetness. “I know you have a good heart. And your magic is extremely powerful. If you two could double it…”

He glances at Lidiane, then at me. “We might die.”

“I think we can do it. I feel it.” I don’t know if that will be enough to convince him.

Azur turns to Lidiane. “I’ll do this for you, and for all the lower fae. If I die…” He takes a deep breath.

Lidiane takes his hands. “You’ll do fine. I trust you.”

He smiles at her. I glance at Ferer, standing at a distance, and watching his sister with wide eyes. She and Azur can’t be romantically involved, can they? She’s too sweet, too pretty, too nice for him. He’s good-looking, sure, but that’s where it ends.

Azur turns to me. “How much blood?”

“A drop. Just a little cut on your finger or something.”

He raises an eyebrow, then punctures the tip of his little finger. This part is quite gross, actually. I didn’t think this through. Still, I take his hand and lick his finger quickly, just enough to feel the metallic tang on my tongue.

And yet I feel nothing. Nothing—then everything.

The air around me comes alive, as if it was clay for me to mold. I can sense the air in everyone’s lungs, everyone’s bodies. I can see far and close, as if I was here and elsewhere at the same time. The power feels strange, foreign, something my body wants to expel.

Marlak’s magic feels like my own, harmonizes with mine. This is like eating food my body can’t take, dressing in too-small clothes, but multiplied by a thousand.

Uncomfortable, eerie, strange.

I should have considered that I have no compatibility whatsoever with Azur and his magic—and now I want to vomit, except that magic cannot be vomited.

I’m trembling as I look at Lidiane, Azur, and Ferer.

“Are you all right?” Ferer asks.

“It’s strange, that’s all.” I turn to Azur. “How do you transcend?”

“I need to visualize the destination.”

“That’s all?”

He looks up, thinking. “I imagine myself moving whatever I need to move as well, as if… For people, we hold hands, but I can imagine my energy permeating through them, like a magical handhold. If it’s an object, it has no hands, obviously, but it’s similar. I hold it, then move it.”

“Right. So we need to imagine a destination. Can it be where the castle was when I was brought to it? By that hill? I don’t know much of the Crystal Court.”

“It can be there, sure. We’ll need to go inside.” He turns to Lidiane. “Stay here. If something goes wrong…”

She nods. “Good luck.”

He gives her one last look, then climbs the steps to the castle and we enter a large atrium. I still want to puke all that strange magic coursing through me. Powerful magic though.

Azur swallows, then says, “Hold my hands and imagine the castle moving there. You don’t need to close your eyes, but it helps. That said, if you feel something strange, sense enemies, for example, don’t hesitate to open your eyes and look.”

“Won’t it interfere with the transcending?”

“Obviously. But it should be fast.” He raises an eyebrow. “Unless we fail and die. Our bodies could end up split between the two locations, or maybe lost in the space where things don’t exist.”

I don’t even want to picture any of that, fearing I could make it true. “Let’s not fail then.”

He extends his hands and I hold them. Cold hands, and I wonder if that’s because he’s afraid. Still, I have to trust that we won’t fail, trust that I saw him taking Marlak to the Shadow Lands for a reason.

“Now imagine it,” he says.

I close my eyes and remember the moment when I got to the castle, merely a few days ago. Then I see it in that place. No, that’s just a memory and not doing anything. I see the castle now, surrounding me, see myself in it, then imagine it reappearing in that same place where I saw it before. It feels like moving a box from one place to the other—a heavy box.

And yet there’s someone pushing it with me. I see Azur, except that he’s all made of light against a black background, the space of nothingness. I see the castle and everything and everyone in it as balls of light, and see them crossing through space and time, ripping the fabrics of reality. We’re ripping those fabrics.

Except that there’s something else pulling the castle—a stronger force.

I see a fiery mountain calling us, pulling the castle as if using an invisible cord, then I feel Azur’s hands again, holding mine, as if I was returning from that magical space. No, I need to go back. I ignore the mountain, ignore the calling, and see the castle by that hill, in the place it needs to go—and yet it refuses to go there and shakes.

“Keep it up,” Azur whispers.

I picture the castle by that hill and surround it with the brilliant, protective light I’ve always known. I imagine that light breaking the cord pulling it, imagine myself cutting it with the special dagger.

The castle trembles, still resisting. I imagine myself putting it by the hill, as if it was a toy castle or as if I was bigger than a giant.

The cord pulling it to the Fiery Gorge splits—I feel it. And yet breaking it used such a surge of magic that all my strength left me. My muscles don’t obey me anymore, my hands let go of Azur’s, and I feel my body being dragged where it shouldn’t be.

Cold hands grab my wrists like vices. “Keep seeing it,” Azur says, his voice shaky. “I got you.”

I picture the castle, picture it peacefully standing by that hill, just like when I first arrived at it—and yet there’s something wrong.

The castle feels distant, while something’s still pulling us.

And I feel numb—all my senses dead.

TARLIA

I don’t regret giving my life to this strange man who survived a beheading. I don’t regret it.

As much as I hate a lot of what I learned in the Elite Tower and despise my master, there’s something he told me once that got stuck in my mind ever since: survive first, fix things later .

I’m still alive. Renel’s alive. We’ll find a solution—or at least I hope so. That is, if the castle doesn’t end up engulfed in flames, taking Renel with it, making my sacrifice pointless. And yet I still don’t regret it.

And now I’m following Zorwal through a small spiral staircase, I suppose to escape the castle. He opens a hidden door leading to a narrow ledge, right as the castle trembles. I grab onto the opening of the door. All of a sudden, Zorwal turns, and a young woman with black hair yells and doubles over.

Zorwal takes a step toward her. “Do not try to choke me, Mirella. I’ll use your magic against you.”

“You lied to me.” She’s so desperate, so angry. I see myself, see my own anger reflected in her.

Zorwal smiles. “We’ll talk. I’m glad to see you here.”

“No, you’re not!” Her eyes are filled with tears. “You sent me to that dreadful, horrific island. You cursed me!”

“I did not curse you,” Zorwal says, sounding perplexed. “You did it to yourself.”

“Liar!” she screams. “Liar. You tricked me. You wanted to get rid of me, didn’t you?”

The look he gives her is full of pity. “No. And I’m still half fae and can’t lie. You killed the king. I never told you to do that. Never. You should have been crowned queen, like I promised you, but you ruined my plans.”

“You told me to anger Renel, to cause a fight. It’s all I did.”

“Not true,” Zorwal says. “Your air magic killed your father, your stepmother, and almost killed Marlak.”

“I would never kill them. Never hurt them!” she roars.

“And yet you did. Trying to blow the fire was foolish, and you killed your father. There was no way I could undo a royal curse. You ruined all my plans, girl. But come with me. There’s still time to fix them.”

A flying carriage slowly approaches us, lifted by four strange creatures that look like moths from here.

The young woman is weeping and trembling. “I lost my youth, spent years trapped in a strange nightmare. It was horrible!”

“I wasn’t able to help you.” His tone is gentle. “I don’t know how you were freed and had the path out of the island reopened, but I’m glad you’re here. I’m your best chance to get that crown, to take control of the kingdom.”

“How?” Most of her desperation is gone.

“There are infinite ways to do it. But I have a plan. You’ll need to come with me.”

She looks back. “Marlak…”

“Won’t help you. He’s the crown prince, and has been calling himself king ever since your father died.”

She frowns. “That can’t be true.”

“I’m not lying, Mirella, and I can help you. Marlak wants the crown for himself. I would much rather see you as the queen.”

“How can I trust you?” Her voice is sad.

“Trust is silly, when we can make alliances, deals, and only then help each other.”

The carriage stops by us, still floating. Zorwal gestures for us to enter it. My heart jumps at the prospect of stepping into a floating object, but it’s not like I can disagree with this horrible man, so I do what he says. My new master. Can’t believe I got myself back into chains, even if I don’t regret it.

I glance back at the castle and realize it’s shaking again. Is it about to move? On a window above us, I see a face I recognize. Ziven! He’s all right. Unless the castle ends up in a pit of fire. I wish I could gesture to him, warn him, but the best I can do is pretend I haven’t seen him.

“If you want the throne, follow me,” Zorwal tells Mirella as he enters the carriage.

She hesitates, but enters after him and looks down. “I never wanted to hurt them.”

“I know.” There’s something about his voice. I’d say a gentleness, but it’s not only that. His words are strangely soothing, calming. He continues, “Your suffering is over, and great things lie ahead of you. A new beginning. Different, perhaps, than what we planned originally, but a new beginning nonetheless. The kingdom’s in chaos, and we can make something out of chaos. And there are others. Like me.”

Like him… Could that be Otavio?

Zorwal turns to me. “What do you know?”

I find myself unable to even come up with any excuse and blurt, “My former master; Otavio. He’s a great beautician and might have some magical abilities. He claims he’s very old, and that he’s not fae. There’s something similar between him and you.” They’re both creepy, and I’m glad I was able to keep that detail for myself.

“Beautician. Hmmm. You’ll tell me about this Otavio.”

Mirella looks at me as if seeing me for the first time, then turns to Zorwal. “Who’s she?”

“Just a human. The key to control Renel, though.”

She frowns. “Renel? Why do you want anything with Renel? Even if he’s alive, he doesn’t have any magic.”

Zorwal gives her a pitiful smile, as if her words were quite idiotic and he knew a lot more than her.

“Does he have magic?” she asks.

He keeps that smug smile. “We’ll see.”

I turn back for one last look at the castle, but it’s no longer there. There’s nothing behind me, and I don’t know where we’re heading.

I guess I’ll see.

MARLAK

T he floor beneath me trembles. I’m still not sure how to process having seen my brother almost dying, now seeing him alive and well.

“Out!” Renel yells. “Or I’ll throw you out the window.”

A bold thing to say to someone with much more magic than him. I know he’s wearing the Shadow Ring, but I can’t feel it blocking my magic this time.

“Out!” He repeats. “The castle’s headed to the Fiery Gorge! I can’t control it.” His voice is urgent, desperate.

The floor shakes again, and I say, “If that’s the case, I don’t want to be falling or walking outside while the castle moves.”

Renel sighs. “You want to die with me?”

“Dramatic much? Once we get there, I can lift us away with air magic.”

“Your air?” He looks horrified. “Over a pit of fire? That’s certain death.”

“My air magic has improved, Renel.” The castle then shakes so much that I hear windows breaking. “It didn’t use to do that.”

“No. Something’s different. As to your kind offer, I’d be pulled back to the castle when it self-destructs.”

“You don’t know that.”

He exhales. “I studied, researched. I know it.”

“Is it true you asked Zorwal to save my life?” I insist.

He stares at the window. “It makes no difference.”

The shaking is so loud now that I feel the castle’s about to break in half. “Makes all the difference and you know it.”

“Did you really not stab me? Just now?”

“I told you my hands had no blood.”

He grimaces. “That’s literally what a guilty fae would say; point to a small and true detail and use it as an excuse.”

“You know I can lie, so what’s the point in saying I didn’t?” I shrug. “I don’t know why you think it was me.”

“First, because it looked like you. Second, you’ve said many times that you wanted to kill me.”

He has a point, but some of what he’s saying makes no sense. “What do you mean, looked like me?”

The stars outside disappear as the sky turns dark. The castle is dashing through space. And the sky remains dark.

Renel stares at the window, his eyes wide, then turns to me. “Your face, your hair. You.”

Everything’s still black around us. It never took this long.

“It could be someone wearing a glamour,” I suggest, perhaps because I don’t want to mention the fact that we’re hanging in the space between spaces.

“A glamour to pretend to be someone else? That’s impossible.”

“I know someone who can do it.” Lidiane comes to mind. “But it wasn’t her.”

“Why would they do that?”

Everything’s still pitch black around us and I’m losing my patience. “Why would I gut you then kneel by you and feel sad?”

“Guilty conscience.”

“I can kill you with air magic. Fast, easy. No blood.”

He lifts his hand with the Shadow Ring. “I have this.”

I take a better look at the artifact—and understand why I’m not feeling anything. “It’s a replica, Renel.”

“Oh.” He stares at his hand. “Oh. But the real ring can’t be stolen.”

“Who gave it to you? Under what deal?”

“Otavio. He lent it to me. I had to provide protection and shelter to him and his pupil; Astra.”

“So he took it back.” I snort. “And you just reminded me that I have a good reason to kill you. You kidnapped my wife.”

“First, she came willingly, no idea why. Second, he told me you had kidnapped her. Third, when I asked you, you assured me you felt nothing, absolutely nothing for her. I’m not the villain here.”

“I wanted to protect her! I feared you’d torture her.”

He shakes his head. “When did you decide I’m capable of something like that? When?”

“When you cast me out! I was a kid, my parents had just died, and you were my brother. I trusted you!”

“I also lost my mother that day, Marlak. I almost lost my brother. I was alone, I was still almost a child, and I had to fix everything.”

“Did you really ask him to heal me?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about it.”

I guess that means yes , and yet his subsequent actions make no sense.

The castle trembles again, and this time I fear part of it is indeed going to collapse. And then it stops. There’s a hill by us and the outline of a starry sky above. No Fiery Gorge.

“See?” I chuckle. To be honest, I’m relieved. “You were wrong.”

“No. Something happened.” His voice trembles. “Something happened. Truce, Marlak, please.”

“You think I’m going to murder you?”

“I don’t know. If the castle’s disaster has been averted, I need to gather allies urgently. The castle guards are sworn to me, but the city guards are not, and yet my guards were left behind.”

He sounds so calculating, so cold.

“Aren’t you even worried about the girl who saved your life?”

He glares at me. “How do you think I’ll get her back? By begging ? It’s why I need a truce. I can’t fight the council, Zorwal, and you at the same time.”

“Then don’t sit on the throne that should be mine.”

“Let me get Tarlia, then the throne is all yours. You can finally put your crown on your head and tell the entire court who’s the legitimate king. But we’ll need to do this right, so you’ll have the support you need.”

I can’t believe he’s giving up his power so easily. It must be because he almost died, or maybe because of Astra’s friend. Still, as late as it might be, it’s the right thing for him to do. “Sounds like a deal to me.”

“Then you have your deal, brother.” His voice is pure acid, as if hating me for even mentioning my proper title.

“Marlak!” Lidiane’s at the door, Ferer beside her.

Ferer. What’s he doing here? My stomach contracts and my skin turns cold. “Where’s Astra?”

“She saved us,” Lidiane says. “She steered the castle away from the Fiery Gorge.”

“She also broke all the bonds,” Ferer adds. “Servitude bonds. All the enchanted fae have been freed.”

I don’t want to hear another word. “Where is she?”

Lidiane and her brother hesitate.

I feel as if something is slicing me in two. “Where is she?” My cry is desperate, loud, and a ball of ice hurls out of my hands toward the window, shattering it. Ice is forming on the floor.

My magic is about to go berserk.

I’m trembling as I look at the siblings and try to control my voice. “What happened to her?”

Lidiane raises two hands, as if to calm me down. “She and Azur were transcending the castle.”

Nothing makes sense and a loud buzz fills my head. “Azur?”

“Because he can transcend like nobody else can,” she says. “And Astra can use other people’s magic. She tasted a drop of his blood, then they combined their transcending magic and put the castle elsewhere, not the Fiery Gorge, as you can see. They succeeded, but…”

“But what?” I’m dreading what comes next.

“They disappeared,” Ferer says.

My vision is blurry, my thoughts confused, and my heart, my heart feels like a hollow void. “How?”

“Marlak, they’re alive. I can feel it,” Lidiane says. “I know they’re fine. I bet you can sense it too.”

When I try to see Astra, all I get is darkness. “No. Something’s wrong.” I’m crying. I failed. Failed. “Why? Why didn’t she wait for me?”

“She saved you, Marlak,” Ferer says. “She broke the bonds to save you. You’d be dead if she had waited for you.”

“But she’d be alive!”

“She’s still alive,” Lidiane says. “And she’s powerful. We’ll meet her again, I’m sure we will.”

I’m trying to make sense of everything. “What do you mean she broke the bonds? She was the one who broke Mirella’s curse?”

Ferer takes a deep breath. “Probably. She did something to save you, and whatever she did saved all the enchanted fae. Then we came here to save the castle. Not just the castle. She saw that if the castle reached the Fiery Gorge, the Witch King would be freed. She wanted to stop it. In fact, she was told to stop it. Both the…” He glances at Renel, and I realize he was about to mention something my brother is not supposed to know. “She was told to do that. The giants took Nelsin and told us they’d return her once she stops something from coming from the underground.”

I close my eyes, trying to take it all in, then turn to Lidiane. “You can sense her, you said? Where do you think they are?”

“I can sense Azur.”

“Azur?”

She rolls her eyes. “Yes. I don’t want to explain why right now. But they’re fine. They’re somewhere… Underground. He still has some of my magic, a silly glamour hat I gave him. I can feel it. We’ll find them.”

I’m so angry, so upset that I’m shaking. “She’s with Azur. Azur. That maniac. He wanted to kill me.”

Lidiane narrows her eyes. “You look quite alive, Marlak. I doubt he even tried to hurt you. Azur’s grumpy, yes, but he won’t hurt Astra. I’m sure they’ll help each other, and they’re both powerful. They’ll be back.”

Renel approaches us. “The enchanted fae were freed, you say?”

“Yes,” Ferer replies, his tone stiff.

My brother paces back and forth. “The Jewel City must be pure chaos right now, and some other places too. We need to act quickly to avoid?—”

“Let the lower fae be free,” I say, horrified at my brother and his calculating ways.

Renel huffs. “Prevent them from being massacred, you dimwit. They’re disorganized, even if they’re more numerous. I need to take control of the royal army before Zorwal and the council do. Or you take control. I don’t care. But we need to act.”

Ferer glares at my brother. “You’re going to pretend you care for the lower fae now?”

“I always did,” Renel says. “I always tried. Tried doesn’t help, I know, but I tried. Great excuse, you’re going to say. Regardless, this is urgent.”

“Finding Astra’s urgent too.” I look around. “And where’s Mirella?”

“Mirella?” Renel’s eyes widen.

“Yes, Mirella, who survived years of horrors, and escaped not thanks to you.”

He opens his mouth to say something, then closes it, and looks at the door. I turn, expecting to see my sister, but Ziven’s the one standing there.

“You made it.” I exhale, relieved to see that the human prince didn’t stay behind.

Ziven nods. “I jumped in the circle after you—not that you even bothered to look, but I understand. You were worried about your sister.” He takes a deep breath. “I know where she is.”

I don’t know if my heart can take any more bad news. “Where?”

“She left with an older man, thick scar on his neck. Tarlia was with him as well, I’m not sure why.”

“Zorwal,” Renel says.

“If he’s the fae with the neck scar, then that’s him. Mirella’s his ally.”

I’m sure he’s exaggerating. “She must have sought him for advice.”

“True. Advice on how to take the throne,” Ziven says. “Apparently, he promised her she’d be queen.”

That makes no sense. “When would he have promised her that? When she was thirteen ?”

Ziven shrugs. “It seems they had some deal, but things went wrong.” He stares at me. “You told us you killed your mother, Marlak.”

That familiar coldness fills my chest. “I did.”

Ziven shakes his head. “It was Mirella. Her air magic pushed your fire. To be fair, I don’t think it was intentional. Still, it’s why she was cursed. She doesn’t like Renel, but she says she would never hurt you. Still, she wants to be the queen of the Crystal Court. I’m just telling you the conversation I heard. Then they entered a flying carriage and left.”

Ferer frowns. “There should be no more pixies moving carriages.”

“There were not pixies, but something else,” Ziven says, a clear trace of fear in his voice. “Something dark, with wings. I couldn’t see well.”

Everything I’m hearing is too much, and doesn’t make me feel better. “Even if her air caused their deaths, it was still my fire. My fire , and she was the one in that horrific prison.” I turn to Renel. “You never told me.”

“I couldn’t. Zorwal warned me it would make you sad.”

I can’t believe him. “Sad? And yet you had no qualms telling me to run away and not threaten your throne or you’d hurt my sister.”

There’s an odd emptiness in Renel’s eyes. “At that point, you were already convinced I was a monster, and two heirs would result in one of us getting killed. At least that was the advice I got. It sounded wise at the time. You lived, I lived, and as to Mirella, it was her own doing and I could do nothing about it.”

“I saw you choking her.” I point at him.

“Yes,” Renel says, not a hint of remorse in his tone. “My hands around her throat blocking her windpipe. True. And what do you think she was doing to me? What do you think she did tons and tons of times with her air magic?”

“She was a child.”

“A poisoned child, I suppose. What about me? Was I an adult? I studied the king killer’s curse, Marlak, and intention matters. Had she been blameless, she would never have been cursed. You were not cursed.”

I touch the scarred side of my head. “I thought… this was the mark. King killer’s mark. The curse.”

“Those are scars , Marlak,” my brother says. “Your body was half burned. Sometimes we survive but still bear marks. Hate me if you want, for casting you out. In retrospect… I don’t know. For now, I need a truce, or else Zorwal will take control of the kingdom.”

“I agreed with your truce already,” I say.

Lidiane puts a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get Astra back.”

I realize then why she can sense Azur, why she was the one telling him to leave me alone, and why he was listening to her. It was so obvious. She’s suffering too. I place a hand on hers. “Azur too. But he needs better manners.”

Her chuckle is sad but relieved.

I glance at Ferer. “Nelsin too. We’ll get him back.”

“I know.” He nods.

“And Tarlia,” Renel and Ziven say at the same time, then stare at each other.

Ziven then adds, “And your sister.”

I take a deep breath. “We’ll fix this.”

ASTRA

“ W ake up. Wake up. This is not the time for magic fatigue. Not the time.”

The voice calling me is grating and unpleasant, and I don’t want to listen to it.

“Wake up.”

I open my eyes just to make that voice stop, and see stalactites hanging from a cave’s ceiling. Then I realize someone’s carrying me in his arms like a baby. Azur.

“I can walk,” I say.

He exhales and whispers, “Oh, finally. But not yet. I need to talk to you.”

I glance around and realize we’re walking towards a humongous throne made of stone, hundreds of ghouls on either side of us parting the way for us to approach it. Two of them are behind us, and I suppose they’d push us if he stopped.

Something about them is different. I don’t feel that I can control them, even if I don’t think they’re going to attack me.

It’s embarrassing to be carried like that, but it makes sense that it’s the only way we can talk.

“What of the castle?” I whisper.

“You fainted, but I finished the job. Something pulled me here though, and I decided you didn’t want to remain back there in the middle of nothingness, so I pulled you with me. My magic’s not working. None of it.”

“Fatigue?”

“Something else. I’ve had it before. I think we’re in the Shadow Lands.”

I glance at the ghouls around us and raise an eyebrow. “Think?”

“I’m pretty sure. Look, I have no beef with you. We’ll need to stick together if we want to survive. You’ll need to trust me—and vice versa. Trust me, please.”

“I don’t think we have a choice.”

“Of course we do. We could backstab each other or decide to care only for ourselves, but that won’t help us. I pulled you with me, and I didn’t have to do it. Maybe I could have escaped if I hadn’t used my last magic to bring you here. The least you can do is trust me.”

Trust the fae who told Marlak he wanted a taste of me? I still remember his words in the Court of Bees, when he didn’t know I was listening.

Even if he was testing him, it was gross. But it’s true that our chances are better together.

“I’ll trust you.”

We stop in front of the throne. He nods and finally puts me down.

Entirely made of some rugged stone, that throne gives me the creeps. More than that, it clouds my mind and even my body with a horrific presentiment.

A man comes out from behind the throne, a man with long, black hair and fae ears, wearing a crown with a black stone, his face pale, and his eyes black.

I suck in a breath. The Witch King.

Above the throne, I see the crystal ball that had been enclosing him—broken.

Shit. We didn’t prevent him from escaping. While we might have saved the Jewel City, I couldn’t prevent everything.

“Welcome, visitors,” the Witch King says. “And thank you for freeing me from my inner prison. Are you friends? Or enemies?”

“Friends,” I say.

Beside me, Azur kneels, and I do the same. I realize why he needed me to wake up so desperately; he can’t lie.

“Now, are you useless, or have you come to free me from this cave?”

I smile at him. “We’re at your service. And came to free you.”

He descends from the dais and stares at Azur.

“Why do you look familiar?”

Azur bows, then says, “My great-grandfather fought beside you; King Faliel. My name’s Azur Sestin, king of the Nether Court. I was raised to seek revenge upon the Crystal Court. And now I’m here.”

His words stun me and make me shiver. King? Revenge? None of that sounds good.

Azur then adds, “And I’m committed to protecting her.”

I think he wants to remind me that he’s still on my side, that we need to work together—despite everything. At least for now.

The Witch King smiles, then stands in front of me, placing a long-nailed hand under my chin.

“I know you.” I try to keep my face calm as he stares at me with his dark eyes. “No, not you. Your mother.” He sighs. “I still miss her dearly.”

Could this creature have ever loved? Could he have known my family?

He tilts his head. “Or grandmother? Great grandmother? It’s been so long. And yet I’m glad to see my blood alive—and here to help me.”

His blood. I feel cold inside, then glance at him again. His hair is not truly black, but dark purple. It takes a lot of effort to control myself to keep from trembling, to keep my voice steady.

“Family, right? We stick together.” I sound so dumb, but my head is buzzing and that’s the best I can do.

“Look at that,” he says. “The Tiurian heir herself, and the most powerful fae alive. We’ll be invincible.”

Azur looks at me. “Of course we will.”

Me and him. If we work together.

We’ll survive this.

And I’ll meet Marlak again. If we manage to escape and not unleash this evil upon the world.