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A s soon as their lips met, Cora felt a rush of emotion. She nearly sobbed with relief as it flooded in. Opening her senses and dropping her shields, she welcomed more of the energy that was his . His affection. His attraction. His emotion. He’d been acting so strange since the night in the tower, his energy muted and nearly impossible to read. But now it wrapped around her, infusing their kiss with a silent promise. She pressed into him, desperate to erase every inch of space that he’d so stubbornly tried to maintain with her these last couple of days. The way he held her now, one hand cradling the back of her head, the other clutching her body tight against him, stood in contrast to the cold, formal man he’d become. She wound her arms around his neck, wishing he’d lift her off her feet already?—

He stumbled back a step, breaking their kiss. She blinked up at him and found his eyes were closed, expression pained. Unlacing her hands from behind his neck, she palmed his cheek. Lightly, she ran her thumb just under the nearly healed cut on his cheekbone. “Teryn, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t have much time,” he said, voice strained. “He’s fighting me.”

Her thumb stilled. “Who’s fighting you?”

His body began to shake. A sheen of sweat coated his forehead. “Morkai,” he said through chattering teeth.

Terror ripped through her, muting her sense of his emotions. Or were they growing muted of their own accord? “Teryn, what’s happening? I don’t understand.”

His shoulders heaved with a shudder so violent, Cora was forced to release him. “No,” he ground out, eyes still closed. “Touch me again. Keep your hands somewhere on me. I can hold on a little longer if I can feel you. Hear you. Just…say my name.”

“Teryn,” Cora said, the word laced with panic. She reached for his hand, gripping it as tightly as she dared.

His tremors subsided enough for him to open his eyes. “Morkai has taken over my body using the crystal.”

“What do you mean, he’s taken over your body? And what crystal?”

He plunged his free hand beneath the collar of his jacket and lifted a leather cord from around his neck. As he withdrew it fully, Cora saw a large amber crystal tied to the end. Memories tugged at the edges of her mind, so potent they nearly overwhelmed her.

The crystal.

The gem that once topped Morkai’s cane.

The stone she took from the battlefield.

The object she’d tried—and failed—to clear. To break. To destroy.

Until she was trapped…in a realm of blinding white light…

Before she could remember anything more, he thrust the stone into her hand, closing her fingers around it.

“Take this, but don’t look at it. Just…just go now. Keep the crystal in mind and write this all down before it makes you forget. It’s been enchanted to be as indestructible as a unicorn horn. You must find a way to break it, but don’t let it come within sixteen inches of my body—” His voice cut off in an agonized shout. “Gods, he’s fighting me. I can’t hold him off much longer.”

Cora’s heart slammed against her ribs as she tried to take in everything he was saying. It was almost too much to comprehend. And what about Teryn? How the hell had Morkai taken over his body? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. And yet she felt the horrible truth of it. Felt the dreadful possibilities hidden in the palm of her hand where the crystal pulsed with that strange energy.

“You have to go,” Teryn said, his voice barely above a whisper. He closed his eyes again and stumbled forward.

Her eyes went wide as they fell on a lock of silver hair beside his temple. No, both sides were now shot with a thick streak of white. “Teryn, your hair, it’s…”

He lifted his face, teeth bared in a grimace.

Cora’s stomach bottomed out as a crimson stream trickled from his nose. “Take this,” he said, squeezing his hand around hers and reminding her of the crystal once more. “Run. Write everything down. Find a way to break the stone as soon as you can.”

“I can’t leave you like this.”

His knees buckled, and he slid to the floor. “It’s all right. You can. You must. Just go, and know that I?—”

He winced again and tugged his hands from around hers, severing their physical connection. “Run.”

That was the last thing she heard before his body went motionless, slumped to the side on the floor.

Everything inside her wanted to go to him, to help him, to ensure he was still alive.

But his words rang through her head, echoed by the pulsing warning that blared from her gut. She had to do what he’d said. She had to run.

Biting back an anguished cry, she ran for the door and tugged it open?—

The door slammed shut just as fast. She froze, eyes locked on the hand pressed against the door, fingers splayed out, arm trembling either from weakness or rage. A lump rose in her throat, and the back of her neck prickled with fear. She felt the heat of the body caging her in from behind more than she felt any emotional presence. She couldn’t turn around. Refused to. There was no way she could bring herself to look into the eyes of the man she loved and find Morkai’s hatred—or even his false affection—looking back at her.

“Do you want him to die?” The voice was too close, brushing against the shell of her ear. Worse, it was Teryn’s voice. His tone. Yet there was something wrong with it. Something she hadn’t heard when the sorcerer had been acting under pretense. He must know now that there was no use pretending anymore.

When she made no reply, Morkai spoke again. “Teryn may think he’s found a brilliant plan in getting you to take the crystal away from his body. Distance will certainly tear my soul from Teryn’s body and make it impossible for me to control it. But what the prince doesn’t understand is that the same goes for him. If I can’t reenter Teryn’s body due to physical distance, neither can he. Without a soul, the body will die. Teryn will have nothing to come back to even if you manage to break the crystal.”

Cora’s lungs constricted as she took in this new information. What was she supposed to do? Fight him off? Take the crystal and run, killing Teryn in the process? No answers came, only growing anxiety. She curled her hand so tightly around the crystal, it sent pain radiating up her arm.

Cora! Valorre’s voice cut through her fear. Danger. You’re in danger .

Yes , she sent back, unable to form anything more complex than that.

“Besides,” Morkai said, voice deepening as he pressed in closer behind her, “the crystal is unbreakable. You haven’t managed to sever a single one of the enchantments I’ve placed on the crystal, despite your best efforts. You will forget about the crystal as soon as your mind slips down a new train of thought. And when you next lay your eyes on it, it will take your soul instead.”

Run away , Valorre said. Please come here. Now .

An image shot through her mind, of the castle wall, blanketed in shadows and a sliver of moonlight. Valorre was showing her where he was, just outside the hidden crevice on the other side of the wall.

So badly she wanted to simply be there. Without having to fight Morkai off. Without having to rely on running faster than him. Was there anything she could do to get through the wall before Morkai could catch her?

Her palms tingled in answer, not from the crystal she held, but from power surging from her chest, down her arms, and into her hands. It radiated down her legs, her feet. It was soft yet strong, yielding yet powerful.

Turn inward , her magic told her. It was the same feeling she’d gotten when she’d hidden herself and Teryn under the tree not long ago. Then again when she was locked in the dungeon, her magic smothered by her own resentment. And finally, she’d felt it on the battlefield when she’d been trapped under the horse.

Calm moved through her, stilling her thoughts. She focused on the strength of the stone floor beneath her feet, the air that flooded her nostrils, the warmth of the blood rushing through her veins.

“What will it be, Aveline? If you don’t play nice, I will make you. I’ve gone easy on you long enough. Do you recall when I offered you half my heart? I no longer have half to give, and I didn’t come this far just to be stopped by you again.”

She barely heard him. Barely let herself focus on anything but the elements moving through her, wrapping around her. On the Art that radiated through every inch of her body. Its presence was louder than Morkai’s. Stronger.

But what was it asking her to do?

Hide , it had said the first time.

Forgive , it had urged the second.

Stop fighting , it had told her the third. Her mind settled there, on the battlefield at Centerpointe Rock. She recalled how her Art had somehow transported her through space, past physical matter and across a short distance in the blink of an eye. She needed that now. Needed to get to Valorre. To safety.

But how could she repeat that feat? She’d tried to replicate it a few times since that singular incident, but each attempt had been futile. She knew it had to be some form of astral travel, the rare gift witches only talked about but never performed. She knew no one who could do more than astral project—the invisible form of the Art that allowed one to project their souls during meditative states—and it wasn’t something she’d ever trained in. So how had she traveled the once?

Feel , her magic told her.

She remembered then.

Emotion had driven her at Centerpointe Rock. She’d moved because she’d had to. Because Teryn’s life had been at stake. And then there’d been that time in the council room, where anger had made her feel certain she could take a single step and find herself on the other side of the table, confronting Lord Kevan in all her fiery rage. She’d stopped herself then, had written it off as simply a whim.

But she knew now it hadn’t been. It had been her Art.

Morkai gripped her shoulders and whirled her around to face him. “The longer you keep that crystal from me, the more it hurts Teryn’s body. The more it ages him. Kills him.”

She shuddered but refused to look him in the eye, refused to lose focus. Valorre called out to her again and she latched onto his presence, to his view of the castle wall, to the smell of the earth, to the sound of his hooves beating an anxious rhythm on the forest floor.

“Give me the crystal or I’ll take it from you.” His hand covered hers. From how feebly he struggled to pry her fingers from around the crystal, she could tell his strength was waning.

If she wanted, she could wrest it from him. She could take the crystal far away, just like Teryn had asked.

And kill him in the process.

Or…

Calm settled over her heart, and she knew there was only one thing she was willing to do.

With a slow exhale, she closed her eyes, fully immersing herself into her connection with Valorre. She could almost feel the earth give way beneath her feet, as if she were standing beside him, could almost sense the mild summer breeze dancing through her hair.

Yes .

She felt it.

Felt everything about the location as if she were already there.

Tugging her hands from Morkai’s, she opened her palm, dropped the crystal to the ground, and took a wide step back. Soft earth cradled her heels, rooting her upon moss and soil.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself outside the castle wall, a startled Valorre blinking back at her.