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My eyes fell to the movement at my ankle, watching as the manacles unclasped. I steadied myself against the weight of Cyloe’s glamoured form as she scaled the side of my body and down my arms, working to get the last of my bindings free.

They fell from my wrists, clashing against the marble floor as the High Priestesses finally began their descent from the dais.

They were calm— too calm .

Unease began to rise in my chest with every step they took toward us. Something was wrong. Something was off about them.

Kill them , I ordered through the tendrils of magic wrapped around the minds of the guards.

But they didn’t move.

I pushed the command down the flow of power again, but still, they did not listen. Blood drained from my features as the High Priestesses took their last steps to flank Oryn and a smile slithered across his face.

“I believe you are the only one who has not had the pleasure of meeting our High Priestesses,” Oryn said, his smile deepening. “May I introduce Varah and Sovana.”

Varah lowered her hood first, silver hair falling from beneath its fabric and framing her aged face.

Her eyes were haunting as if they did not truly belong to her.

I swallowed as my eyes turned to Sovana.

She was younger, but her skin still showed signs of weathering almost as if it had happened prematurely.

Her eyes held the same hollow stare as Varah, and I forced myself not to recoil from them.

“Thank you for the demonstration,” Varah sang, her voice younger than it should’ve been.

The muscles across Landers’s bare chest rippled at the sound, tensing as he took a small step toward me.

“We were informed that the ancient blood of Dymere runs through your veins. We needed to see just how strong your magic was, how big of a threat you would be for what comes next. The show was a disappointment really, all that magic gone to waste on someone who has not learned to hone it. You are powerful, I can feel it, but you do not know how to use it.”

Sovana flicked her wrist and my invisible threads of power shattered, the wall around Dukovich and Landers’s minds crumbling like sand.

The connection to the guards and nobles snapped, their minds slipping from my grasp.

A gasp tore from my throat at the sudden loss, my head throbbing with the backlash.

“Now,” Varah started, “where has this lovely familiar of yours gone?”

My heart seized at her question as her eyes locked on Dukovich. A groan slipped from his lips as the glamour around Cyloe dissipated. She stood beside me, her wolf form massive and imposing. A low growl rumbled from her chest as she bared her fangs.

“Looks like you have found your calling, Oryn,” Dukovich snarled as he pushed to his feet. “You are a better actor than you are High Priest.”

Oryn grinned. “Ahh, I do love the theater and this one was so easy to manipulate.” Oryn’s hand reached for me, but Landers’s fingers cut through the air, clasping around his wrist as he pulled me behind him.

Sovana giggled the sound, unhinged—manic—as it sliced through the silent room.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you . . .” she squeaked out as another giggle glided off her lips.

Oryn snatched his wrist away from Landers as Sovana pushed her ruby hair over her shoulder, the color exacerbating the glow of her pale skin.

“You know what is so fun about Ammord?” Sovana asked, her tone dancing with childlike amusement.

“It doesn’t matter what magic you have, how powerful a wielder you are, because all we have to do is slip into your mind and tell you not to use it.

” Another giggle collided with the air as she twirled around us, her robes fanning at her ankles.

“That’s what makes us special, why she chose us. ”

This woman was fucking insane .

“I see why you’re the mouthpiece of Ammord,” I snapped my eyes landing on Oryn.

“That wasn’t a very kind thing to say,” Sovana whined, her lips pursing into a pout as her arms slid across her chest. “For every mean thing you say to me, I do something mean back.”

A scream split the air on the tail of her words and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach at the sound. Dukovich’s hands shot toward his head, his fingers tangling and tearing into his hair as he collapsed to the ground, writhing against the marble in agony.

My knees buckled under me, my vision blurring as static built between my ears with every cry that fled his lungs.

No. No .

I wouldn’t let them hurt him.

I couldn’t let them hurt him .

The cold marble bit into my knees as they crashed against it, my lungs closing, suffocating me as the image of Ardan’s mangled body flashed behind my eyes. This felt too familiar.

I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose another person.

He didn’t get to die.

He didn’t get to fucking die on me .

Not now, not ever.

My fingers dug into Dukovich’s tunic as I dragged him toward me, tears building up in the back of my eyes as a growl tore from my lungs.

Landers took a step toward us and Sovana’s gaze shot to his.

“Stop,” she demanded, her voice squeaking. “She needs to learn her manners, learn how to respect authority.”

Landers’s face twisted in pain as she stared at him and I could feel her magic slipping into my mind, trying to break past my barriers but I pushed back with everything I had. She would not fucking control me.

“I will fucking kill you!” I screamed up at her as I pushed another surge of power against the tendrils she was trying to sink into my skull. She staggered backward at the force and her eyes widened.

“There it is,” Oryn said, satisfaction dripping from every word as his lips curled into a vile grin. “Our little bird sings for a traitor.”

Cyloe slipped from her wolf form at the sound of his voice, scurrying underneath my legs and pressing herself tight against my body.

I felt her shift again, from mouse to snake as she slithered under my tunic.

Her scaly body slid up my abdomen and wrapped around my arm, coiling so tight I could feel the flow of blood slow.

“Who . . . are you . . . working for?” Landers panted out through clenched teeth, his body shaking against Sovana’s power—resisting it.

Varah stepped forward, her eyes studying Landers, intrigue slipping into her gaze at the strength he had against their power.

“She is not ready for you to learn who she is, not yet. Our Queen is not one for the spotlight, but soon—very soon—she will have everything she needs to make herself known. And when she does, all of Nimbria will know her name.”

I felt it then, my magic flaring, burning underneath my skin where Cyloe’s body connected with mine. Andrues’s voice, the ghost of it, whispered against my ear again as Dukovich let out another scream.

‘They are known to be an extension of the witch they are bound to.’

My eyes slid shut, and clinging to Dukovich’s tortured body, I let go.

Every resistance, every wall that had been building crumbled. For a second, there was silence in my mind. Pure, calm silence, as if I was floating into the ether, my body free of every weight and pain that had plagued it from the moment I was brought into this world.

Then came the fire.

But it was not the burn of a flame, it was the scorch of a million stars, the power of unending galaxies pouring their silver flame into my bloodstream.

I could hear it all, every whisper and muted voice from conversations that had yet to be spoken. See every detail of coming scenarios playing out behind my eyelids with blinding clarity. The thrum of magic collecting in the center of my forehead, the tap of Yenne’s finger against my skin.

My mind’s eye, the eye into the universe my magic held, broke open.

It was easy now, pushing Sovana from Dukovich’s mind. Soothing the pain her magic left in its wake. He stilled in my arms as my eyes slowly peeled open. With each second that passed, as I rose to my feet, her magic slipped from Landers’s mind, the claws she had dug in slowly dissipating.

A gasp left Sovana’s lips as all three of their eyes snapped to me.

“How? How are you doing this?” Varah hissed, taking a half-step back as sincere shock fractured her features.

Landers’s spine straightened, black ink rippling over his olive skin as if the patterns had come alive. His muscles flexed underneath them, magic now flaring at his fingertips.

He was finally free.

Free of their power, gaining back his strength from the poison iron. Those chains were the only thing protecting them from the wrath coiling around his tendons, crackling and pleading to be unleashed.

Through gritted teeth, Dukovich stood.

He did not flinch against the pain of his broken body as he rose to his full height, his own magic now radiating off his skin.

My heart stuttered as I looked at him.

The rage in his gaze matched my own, and unbridled fury seeped onto me. He would die protecting me, and I knew then, I would do the same for him.

Dukovich took another step forward, his body blocking me from view of the others as he slowly opened his palms. Crimson magic snaked from the center of his hands as a shimmer began to slide across my skin.

He was shielding me.

Finally, Landers answered Varah’s question, his voice cutting into the tension with lethal precision. “I told you, you underestimated her.”

Dark clouds rolled over the sky on the tail of his words, suffocating the sun from pouring its light into the room as thunder clapped in the distance. Candlelight flickered against the stone walls, the fire no match for the storm that was coming.

Landers spoke again, taking a step toward Oryn as raw fear bled into his irises. “Tell me, Oryn, have you met my wife?”

Screams began to echo from somewhere in the House of High—a chorus of death inching toward us. Oryn’s gaze flashed to the exits of the throne room as Sovona and Varah slowly retreated, their eyes searching for the cause of the noise.

“N-no. I did not know you had taken a queen,” Oryn stuttered as another scream sounded right outside the corridor. The room filled with gasps, commotion breaking out as nobles scrambled to flee the hall. “Who is she?”

A smile dripping with death split Landers’s face, shadows pouring into the room as he answered. “Darkness.”