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Chapter fifty-eight

Nerys

Cries broke out. Screams. An explosion of satin and silk and courtiers rushed away from her.

“Isn’t that—”

“Who—”

“Callidora!” Qiana’s voice called out. Qiana?

Nerys groaned and rolled over. What would Fina have to say about this—she was laying on the Yitz’mal’s salon floor, barely covered with a shift, and bleeding.

A lot. Surely, that broke several rules of etiquette.

How was she still conscious? She felt…weird.

Like something was encasing her, moving her.

She called her stone eyes. Vine. Vine’s arms were wrapped around hers. His hands over hers. What…

“Time to move, Sweet,” Vine whispered in her ear, adjusting a few strands of hair behind her ears. Then he picked her up, moving her like a puppet.

What the…?

“What is going on here?” Aherin thundered, running over to them.

“Adelyna” ?Nerys coughed? “she’s dying. In the R?ll’s rooms.”

The room fell silent. Then Aherin erupted in laughter. “She’s mad.” Aherin nodded to his guards. “And obviously ill. Take her.”

“No!” Nerys cried out, sending away her stone eyes. “Adelyna needs help. The R?ll sacrificed her to a demon. The R?ll’s dead.” Aherin laughed with his courtiers. Music started once more.

The guards approached. Qiana moved towards the door, as if to leave. Would she be able to help Adelyna?

The guards reached for Nerys.

“Stop,” Vine said, his voice echoing on the physical plane. Suddenly, his hand appeared on Nerys’s shoulder, his strong fingers firm against her skin. Frantic murmuring broke out in the room. The guards hesitated.

His hand? On the mortal plane? How …

Aherin was undeterred. “This creature has engaged in dark magic. Take her.”

“No.” Jesta stepped forward, pushing some nobleman out of her way. Oh, that’s right. She was supposed to meet Jesta here. Huh. Nerys ended up making it after all. “If you want Pelia to remain an ally, you will investigate her claims.”

“I need do no such thing,” Aherin said, scoffing.

“You have a courtier, who appeared out of literally the air with a demon, claiming that the R?ll is dead and that the Kor’yitz, who is now R?ll, is dying.” Jesta’s eyes narrowed. “Unless you want to be deemed complicit in this, Yitz’mal, you will listen to her.”

“What does this matter to Pelia? Or Ca’mail, for that matter?”

“You are claiming to be our ally. Or has that changed?”

The fuck… Nerys had too massive a headache to listen to them bicker.

And who exactly was Jesta, to argue with him like this?

Jesta was so friendly that Nerys never thought to ask.

Vine was keeping her upright, and she had an uneasy sense that he was also keeping her alive, but…

damn. She couldn’t follow the arguments.

She collapsed on the floor, sitting upright, despite Vine pressed against her back.

His ability to interact on this plane still had limits.

And then a crash and thunk sounded in the corner of the room, and more screams broke out.

Qiana was on the floor, her head in the middle of a pool of blood, pieces of skull next to her like the rind of a smashed melon.

An axe was in her face, right between her open eyes.

An axe that had been mounted on the wall.

“She fell!” a woman cried out.

Qiana…her guardian. Her protector. How....?

“The curse…” Nerys muttered, before she fell into oblivion.