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I moved toward the archway, Gavin a shadow behind me, and glanced back at Reiji, inviting him to follow with a nod of my head. The elemental’s expression betrayed nothing as he crossed the chamber, but tension radiated from him like heat from an impending supernova.

The antechamber was small but ornate, dominated by an altar carved from the same stone as the chamber beyond. Ancient symbols were etched into its surface, and the walls bore faded murals depicting what appeared to be shifter mythology—Helios bestowing his gifts upon the first of their kind.

As soon as the door closed behind us, Reiji’s careful mask slipped. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said hurriedly, “but you’re wrong. I’m not an agent of the Shadow King.”

Gavin positioned himself between us, his body straining with protective tension. “Then explain,” he said, his voice deadly soft. “Quickly.”

“It was a ploy,” Reiji rushed to say, raising his hands defensively. “Illusion magic to trick Sophie into coming here.”

I stepped around Gavin, my eyes never leaving Reiji’s face. “Ren,” I said simply. “What have you done with your sister?” She had been her brother’s captor, and I feared what it meant for her that he was here.

Something like genuine pain flickered across Reiji’s features. “She’s safely contained in my cozy cell at the Moon Sanctuary—under a disguise illusion that makes her look like me.” He flashed us a weak smile and held out his arms like he was saying, what can I say? “Illusion is my specialty.”

“No shit,” I breathed.

“She’s fine,” Reiji added. “I would never hurt her…permanently. She’s my sister. I love her. She’s part of why I’m doing this. She hates politicking, and she lives under a constant barrage of death threats from lower elementals. Our people aren’t like your vampires. Elementals don’t blindly follow; they plot and scheme and seek power.” His shoulders slumped. “She doesn’t want to be High Priestess.” The words sounded sincere, but I’d learned not to trust surface impressions.

“I didn’t want to be High Queen, yet here I am,” I snapped. “We step up, filling the roles as required, whether we like it or not.” I gritted my teeth and drew in a deep breath, attempting to cool my outrage. “Did Ren ask you to help her shirk her duty, or did you so generously take that upon yourself?”

Reiji paced the small space, running a hand through his dark hair. “You don’t understand the larger picture,” he said, frustration evident in the tightness of his jaw. So, no , she didn’t ask him for help. At least I knew Ren wasn’t complicit, as much a victim of her brother’s manipulation as me. More, even, considering their close relationship. “For millennia, the Houses have been at war,” Reiji explained. “This endless cycle of fighting and false reconciliation, while the real threat grows stronger beyond the veil.”

“And your solution to prepare for war with the Shadow King is to betray your sister and to ally with Veris?” I challenged. “A shifter king who nearly destroyed the House of the Moon and keeps vampire queens imprisoned for shits and giggles?” I scoffed. “ That’s the guy you threw your lot in with to promote unity among the Houses?”

“We have an arrangement,” Reiji said, his voice rising as he grew defensive. “I help him reclaim the shifters’ rightful strength by breaking the curse, and in return—”

“He helps you become the first High Priest of the House of the Stars,” I finished for him, remembering his earlier boasts to Ren. “A new era where the Houses work in harmony under your guidance.”

Reiji nodded, a flicker of ambition burning in his eyes. “Precisely. No more petty conflicts, no more divided loyalties.”

“I suppose being bound to the High Queen of the House of the Moon is integral to your plot. Like once you were my consort, the vampires would magically fall in line?” I laughed, the sound harsh and ugly and stepped closer to him. “What do you think your magic dick can do that my guys don’t already do for me? What makes you so exceptional?” I sniffed, my gaze moving down his body and back up. “Nothing other than your exceptional lack of scruples. Manipulation and emotional abuse. Lies. Illusion . That’s what you’re good at, right? Your own words…”

The color had drained from his face as I spoke, and he swallowed roughly but said nothing. His first wise move since we met. I studied his face, his eyes, searching for the truth beneath his carefully constructed reality. “My mom’s ghost is here. She’s trying desperately to manifest, but the suppression wards are too strong.”

I stepped closer, tilting my head back to maintain eye contact, my voice softening. “What do you think she’s trying to tell me, Reiji? And why are the suppression wards so strong here? Veris should have no reason to fear invisible spies. Ghosts aren’t free roaming. They’re anchored. Like my mom, who’s anchored here.” I pulled the small enameled box out of my pocket and held it up on my open palm. “Because Veris kept a piece of her before he burned her remains and scattered her ashes.”

I shifted my focus from the box back up to Reiji’s face, furrowing my brows dramatically. “Why would he do that? Why would he trap her here, then suppress her into near oblivion?”

Uncertainty crept into Reiji’s expression. “I don’t know,” he admitted reluctantly. “The wards were Veris’s idea. He claimed they were standard protection against interference. She must—” He shook his head, struggling to voice the truth. “She must know something that would destroy him.”

“Something worse than the world knowing he committed genocide upon vampires?” I asked. “Because he certainly doesn’t try to hide that, does he?”

Again, Reiji shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, sounding truly lost.

“Lower the suppression wards,” I demanded. “Now, here, and I’ll make my mom visible so you can hear what she has to say. No more secrets, Reiji. No more illusions . Unless you really do want to be my enemy.”

Reiji hesitated, calculation flickering behind his eyes.

Gavin moved closer to my side, his hand brushing mine in silent support.

After a long moment, Reiji nodded. “Very well.” He raised his hands, power gathering around his fingertips like crystallized starlight. With a series of fluid gestures, he traced complex patterns in the air. The antechamber shuddered as the wards began to dissolve, ancient magic unraveling like threads pulled from a tapestry.

The effect was immediate. My mother’s ghost materialized fully beside us, her form more substantial than I’d ever seen it. Her eyes—just like mine—blazed with urgency.

“Daughter,” she said, her voice carrying that peculiar echo of the dead. “At last.”

“Mom,” I whispered, emotion closing my throat. I reached for her, and she curled her fingers around mine, the contact pulling her partially into the physical world, making her visible to Reiji and Gavin.

Gavin dropped to one knee and bowed his head in deference.

My mom smiled down at him approvingly but quickly returned her attention to me. “Listen carefully, daughter,” she said, her form flickering as she struggled to maintain her manifestation even with the suppression wards down. “Veris isn’t just the Sun King. He’s an agent of the Shadow King—has been for centuries.”

I sucked in a breath.

“I maintained a relationship with him to justify frequent trips here so I could identify the shadow-bound among the shifters,” my mother continued, her gaze never leaving mine. “But I never imagined he was the lead culprit. I learned the truth only after he killed me.”

“Is this why he kept a piece of you?” I asked, grief and anger tangling in my chest at the thought of him possessing even a lock of her hair after what he’d done. “To prevent you from revealing the truth?”

She nodded, her form wavering. “He thought burning my body would silence me forever, but he kept my hair, just in case. He couldn’t risk that I would attach to an object in the absence of my remains.”

Reiji had grown pale as he listened, suspicion crystallizing into horror. “The Shadow King,” he whispered, like he was testing the weight of those words. “Is this true?” He directed the question to my mother’s ghost, apparently forgetting I was in the room.

“You’ve been played, Star Prince,” she replied, her voice carrying a trace of pity. “Your ambition made you an easy target—just as my pride made me one.”

Reiji staggered back, hand braced against the altar. “I didn’t know,” he insisted, his eyes finding mine. “Sophie, you have to believe me. I wouldn’t align with that.”

“The curse,” I said, turning back to my mom’s ghost. “Is it even safe to break it now? Won’t that just make the Shadow King’s hold over the shifters stronger?”

She nodded, her form growing more translucent. “Yes, but now it must be broken.”

I frowned, confusion swirling. “But if it shields them—”

“The curse was meant as a shield—from the shadow taint corrupting their magic, not from the Shadow King directly,” she explained. “But it’s hamstringing their magic now, making them more vulnerable to direct influence. With it broken, the shadow taint will be obvious to all immortals.” Her gaze shifted to the chamber door, beyond which Veris waited. “His power comes from secrecy, from slow corruption that goes undetected.”

She looked from me to Reiji and back. “Work together. Break the curse, and he’ll be exposed.”