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Chapter forty-five

HYACINTH

My cheek connected with Nithra’s scales, feeling the rise and fall of her belly as she rested under the morning rays. Her sisters surrounded her, coiling tight at her side in protection and letting their tears bathe her in healing.

A shuddered breath left my chest.

Physical pain wracked my body with every inhale I took without them here—without them close and safe. Every vein pulsing toward my heart was being choked by dread.

I couldn’t think past the need to get them back; no thought could take root before their faces flooded in again. Despair skulked at the edge of every thought, waiting for me to break the seal—waiting for me to crack and let it consume me.

Nithra shifted, her head lifting from the grass as she eyed me softly. Go, child. Bring them home. I will heal.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice shaking as I looked into her golden eyes and willed the door to the dam to stay shut. “I’m so sorry.”

She huffed. This is war. None of us will survive it without wounds if we survive at all.

Her voice was sharp and commanding as she spoke down the fastening.

You have a duty to your realm, and as long as you are breathing—as long as you are living—there is still hope.

Her eyes softened on me as her nose nudged my body away from her.

Go, child, she said again. It’s time the realms learned who they bow to.

My eyes glanced to where Andrues waited for me at the edge of the field as I pushed from the ground, letting her words settle into my skin and seep into my bones.

I could feel it as I took those first few steps away from her, feel it as I looked over my shoulder to see five dragons staring back at me—the sorrow that was heating, boiling into something else entirely.

She was right.

It was time for them to learn who I was and what I would become when pushed. I was done consuming the narrative the world had fed me, done believing that my emotions made me fragile or less than.

But I would let them think that.

I would let them see me as weak and na?ve so that when I struck, they would not understand how a scared girl like me could cause so much damage.

Warmth spread through my body like wildfire as determination and unbridled rage began to coil in the pit of my stomach like a viper readying to strike.

If they wanted violence, I wouldn’t just give it to them.

I would become it.

My limbs slipped into the tether as it pulled at me, dragging me toward the Fallen Ones.

War had started, and it was time for them to hold up their end of the deal.

Light seeped back into my vision as my boots connected with the grass at the edge of the clearing where their lodgings stood.

I strode forward, my steps deliberate, every one of them filled with purpose as I anchored my eyes on Royion’s home.

Andrues kept a steady pace at my side, watching me closely out of the corner of his eye.

“What?” I asked, the question landing with a sharpness I didn’t intend.

He smiled softly, gently inclining his head in my direction as we stopped a few feet from Royion’s door. “Your shadows—I have never seen you let them free like this.”

My eyes fell to my hands, momentarily widening as I saw the black tendrils seeping from my skin. I hadn’t noticed they were loose but I didn’t pull them back, instead I let them breath in the open air as I pulled my gaze back to Andrues.

“I guess they are trying to make a point,” I said, a smile curling at the corners of my lips. “Let’s see if it works.”

I pulled in a deep breath then pushed the door open, not bothering to knock.

It swung open, hitting the wall with a resounding thud as we stepped inside.

Royion stood near the hearth, his back to me as he gazed into the flames.

The others were already here, gathered around him in the small sitting room as their sight turned to me.

“I was wondering when you would come,” Royion said, his voice low and steady. He turned to face us, his eyes raking over the shadows filling the air around me. A flicker of something crossed his features before he schooled them back into a veil of indifference.

I took another step forward, my mouth opening to speak then halted. Anger collided with panic, both flaring between my ribs and up my throat as Andrues took a sharp step in front of me.

“Did you really think you could reject me that easily, dearie?” Cain’s voice rang throughout the packed house as he slid from behind Royion’s large frame, a mocking grin slathered onto his lips.

A snarl rippled from Andrues’s throat. “Another step, and it will be the last you ever take.”

“Ah, Andrues, still the loyal dog, I see. I believe the last time I saw you, you were also spewing hollow threats.” Cain chuckled, but didn’t move as his eyes refocused on me. “I have no interest or need for the mating bond and if I am being honest, I was as displeased about it as you.”

“Then why are you here?” I snapped, moving to Andrues’s side, shadows curling around me like a second skin.

“I come bearing gifts from Ammord.” Each word fell off his tongue like a leaden threat, pulling my heart into the pit of my stomach. His fingers flicked into the air and a box materialized at my feet. “Call it a welcome gift from the High Priest.”

I forced my features into an impassive mask as my eyes flickered down at it. Dread pumped through my arteries, eating away at each vessel as the box stared back at me—taunting me. My gut twisted, knotting around my spine as I swallowed back the itch of bile starting to rise.

“What is it?” I croaked, my voice giving me away.

Cain’s head inclined, his smile widening as he clicked his tongue. “Well that would ruin all the fun.”

A growl tore from Andrues’s chest and my shadows reacted, cutting through the air and wrapping around Cain’s throat like a noose as the others molded themselves to the walls. From the corner of my eye I could see Siggy’s widen as she stared into black tendrils that seemed to glare back.

“I asked you a question.” The words came out on the edge of a snarl so threatening even Andrues seemed to recoil. “What is in the box?”

“A”—Cain gasped—“warning.”

I loosened his bindings just enough to give him the air needed to answer and he swallowed it down in one greedy gulp.

“Malik . . . he betrayed us.” Cain panted as I nodded my head toward it, my eyes flickering to Andrues in silent command.

My heart took off running as Andrues squatted beside me and slid his hands over the box, inspecting it.

I swallowed back the adrenaline as Andrues’s fingers curled around the lip of the lid and pulled it open.

Relief flooded my system, disgust taking over as I stared down at a severed head I did not recognize. Bloody caverns where eyes should have been stared up at me, his mouth gaping open in a silent scream.

“It is Malik,” Andrues confirmed, his voice hollow as he looked up at me.

He slid the lid back over the opening, but the image still burned into the back of my eyelids as I slowly turned my head back to Cain.

With one small flick from my wrist, my shadows tossed him across the room, furniture cracking underneath the weight of him as he collided with the floor.

If they sent me the head of a traitor as a message, there was no telling what they would do to Landers, to Ata. But Dukovich—if he was truly on our side—his would be the next head sent if I did not get them out. I didn’t have time for him—for this—but I needed answers.

I lifted my boot, stepping over the box and let rage fuel my next words as I walked toward Cain. “I am going to ask you questions, and you will answer them. If you don’t, I’ll kill you and take your head to them myself.”

I didn’t give him a second to respond, to stand, before I was crouching to his level. Shadows pulled his chin toward me as I pushed death magic through their tendrils.

A deafening hush fell over the room as I asked my first question.

“Are they still alive?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Where are they keeping them?”

Cain’s eyes darted to the green and black tendrils, swallowing before he answered. “The House of High. There is a separate dungeon beneath the throne room.”

I sifted through the plethora of questions that flooded my mind. There were so many things that didn’t make sense, threads that I knew were connected but couldn’t untangle them. Two more. I would ask two more than leave.

“Who in Ammord is creating daemons?”

Cain’s brow furrowed as he blinked back at me. “No one. Daemons have not been created since the war. That magic is banned, it is too dangerous even for the Hanth.”

My eyes narrowed as I pushed the death magic closer to this skin. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I swear it.” The words stumbled off his tongue. “If daemons are being created, it is not the doing of the High Priest or Priestesses.”

There was an unease that plagued his voice, a nervous undertone that gave me pause. He really didn’t know. Taft said her plan, and if it wasn’t the High Priestesses, there was another powerful party at play that we were missing.

What were we missing?

“Who in our party has been feeding information to Ammord?”

Cain’s brow twitched upward, a smirk sliding across his lips as they parted. “It is true that you have a snake in your midst, and from the information I have been able to gather, I know that Ammord’s leaders have met with a man on multiple occasions. But I do not rank high enough to know who.”

My stomach hollowed at his words.

Maybe Andrues was right, maybe Dukovich had been playing us this whole time. He was the only other man I could think of that would betray us. It all added up perfectly— too perfectly . I pushed Cain back as I rose from his level. My gut twisted, screaming at me.

Something was wrong.

“Take him to the prisons while I deal with the rest of them,” I said, my eyes still locked on Cain as Andrues moved to my side.