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ZION

I had never thought I was a good actor, but the fact that I was walking away from the throne room with my head still attached to my shoulders meant I must be.

I had waltzed into the room as if I owned the place, exuding confidence.

Donika would never take me in if she thought me the soft, thoughtful man from her childhood.

Annelise was on the run, and with Diana hidden…

someone needed to keep an eye on Donika.

Remain close to her. She had accused me of siding with the resistance, and I had been able to lie easily to explain away my association with them.

But in truth, I wasn’t simply acting as a spy for Donika…

Annelise and I had created the resistance ourselves.

There was a deep underground built into the cottage where Donika had grown up, and it was filled to the brim with resistance members. They would continue to plot and plan, and I would feed them information from The Stone Palace.

The immortality spell though…that had taken me by surprise.

The way she made it sound it was as if she weren’t going to age, not that she couldn’t be killed.

We would find out whether that was the case soon enough.

I would continue to get closer to her, and hopefully she would spill her every last secret to me.

She had taken me back so easily. She thought herself so powerful and indestructible…

but everyone had a weakness. For Donika…

it was family. She always felt slighted by Annelise for leaving.

Slighted by my absence during her childhood and years of training with Cirilla.

She blamed us for the way she turned out, despite relishing in it.

Despite thinking she was better off this way.

It was as if she couldn’t make up her mind—or perhaps she was in denial about her true feelings.

The first opportunity I had unmonitored after leaving Donika’s throne room I sent word to Isaac that I was still alive.

If anyone knew where Annelise was and could get word to her, it was him.

Donika hadn’t killed me, and I had successfully placed myself by her side as her advisor.

I would be able to report everything back to them and the resistance.

I didn’t have the faintest idea where Anna might be.

Perhaps searching for Alastir. She was drowning in the guilt of leaving Diana in the mortal realm—to live a mortal life—despite it being her idea in the first place.

I understood why she thought that was best for her, and for the time being, it was.

But I doubted any of us could stand between Diana and what the mother had foreseen for her.

The moment I composed a council on Donika’s behalf, Nightshades flocked to the opportunity.

None more so than Corian. He was skeptical of me, and I believed he wanted to keep a watchful eye on me.

He had quickly worked his way into Donika’s ear after the battle at Siraleth.

Annikin had been her second in command, but she had cast her lover aside in favor of Corian.

He was a genius of sorts, and she wanted to use him for all he was worth. I would need to be careful around him in my time at the castle. I knew that it was going to be difficult, that I would have to do things while I was here that would go against my every moral and conscience.

But it needed to be done.

There was no one else Donika would trust. No one else who could infiltrate the castle and report back to the resistance.

If Donika ever suspected me, she would kill me.

No hesitation. Family might be her weakness, but she would not tolerate betrayal .

I couldn’t understand how Annelise had escaped her wrath during the battle at Siraleth.

Whether it was because she had a moment of weakness—of humanity—or she simply couldn’t be bothered to kill her.

I believed it to be the former, but I would be a fool to let my guard down.

But that fifteen-year-old Donika was different from the seventeen-year-old that had stood before me in the throne room. She was colder and more hardened than ever before. Her humanity had begun slipping away that first time she had performed dark magic, and I believed it to be entirely gone now.

She was simply a void.

The daughter I had once known was gone, and the sooner I came to terms with that the better.

It would be a long game to remain by her side and keep my emotions in check, but it needed to be done.

Alastir had seen that she would torment this realm, and that Diana was the only one who could put a stop to it.

I only wished things had gone differently all those years ago.

That I could take those years back and never send her to Cirilla.

Never let her get her hands on dark magic.

The moment she touched that magic, she was lost to us. We could never get back what was already lost. She would never be whole again.

While she searched for Diana, I would need to steer her in the wrong direction.

I hadn’t expected her to be unable to travel to the mortal realm herself, but that only worked in my favor.

I could send my own spies to “look” for Diana and they would continue to let her slip through their fingers.

I could help to keep her safe, all while pretending to hunt her for Donika.

This was a tricky game I was going to play, and I needed to keep my wits about me.

I prayed to the mother that playing this role wouldn’t cause me to slip further and further into the darkness myself. I never had a want for power, but once it clawed its hooks into you…you could become a different person.

I needed to find a North Star to keep me sensible these next few years.

Donika was my daughter after all, and I was happy to be close with her once more. But she had already done things I couldn’t condone, and steering her toward the light would only draw suspicion.

Donika was hunting her sister, but I would need to do some hunting of my own. I would hunt for a cure to her darkness. All magic demanded a balance. Perhaps what Annelise had said back in the cottage wasn’t true. Maybe there was a reversal spell out there, somewhere.

I only needed to find it.

What was done could be undone.

Maybe in the end…I would be able to save her.