Page 8 of The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom #3)

CHAPTER 8

DACRE

T he iron cuffs bit into my wrists with every step, the cold metal chafing against my skin. They weren’t tight enough to cause serious harm, but the weight of them was a silent warning. I was only here because they allowed it.

Torrin walked beside me, his distrust an almost tangible thing. His hand never strayed far from the hilt of his sword, his narrowed gaze flicking to me at every shift of my footing. He might have been a councilman, but he was a soldier first. One who was loyal to my father, and he wasn’t alone.

Liya moved a few steps ahead, her pace measured and steady.Unlike the others,she didn’t keep a hand on her weapon or cast me wary glances, but she was here all the same.Watching. Weighing every decision I made.

She had been the only one who spoke for me in the council chamber, the only one willing to defy my father, but that didn’t mean she trusted me.

Three other men flanked us, their stiff postures betraying their unease. These weren’t just nameless warriors; they were men I had fought alongside, men who once followed me without question. Now, they watched me as if I were the enemy.

I clenched my fists,forcing myself to ignore the coil of anger tightening in my chest, but it was Wren’s silence that gnawed at me most.

She moved next to me, her shoulders taut, her hands flexing at her sides as if she was moments away from reaching for her dagger. Her head was high, her expression unreadable, but I knew her well enough to see the battle raging beneath her cool exterior.

She had fought for this.

The moment we left the council chamber, Wren had been there. She had faced the council head-on, yelled at my father before anyone else could speak as she stood in front of me, guarding me from the very people we had always thought would protect us.

She had not been allowed to leave the hidden city since they had dragged us back, ever since the ambush, and she was not permitted to visit me at the cells. I hadn’t been able to stop the small smile that curled on my lips when she slammed her finger into my father’s chest and demanded that if he was going to treat her like a prisoner than he should lock her up at my side.

Her body had trembled as she had yelled, and I could see the weight she was carrying, the way she had thought she had failed.

I had been able to see it in Kai’s eyes as well, when he leaned against the wall and simply allowed Wren to tear into the council, into my father.

It had been Liya who finally stopped her, who had told her the plan as Kai wrapped his hands around Wren’s shoulders and pulled her back from our furious father. They would be accompanying me to the palace, accompanying me in saving Verena, and Wren’s eyes slammed into mine when those words slipped past Liya’s lips.

But even now as we walked through the forest, careful with our footsteps and vigilantly watching the trees, I could practically feel the regret pouring off her, the guilt that threatened to eat her alive.

I knew it wouldn’t stop until we got to Verena, until we pulled her from that palace and saw with our own eyes that she was okay. I knew because those same feelings gnawed at me, devouring me in a way that I couldn’t escape.

But we were going to get her back.

Kai walked ahead of us, his long strides purposeful, hands buried deep in his pockets. His magic pulsed faintly in the air, the telltale hum of it barely perceptible. To anyone else, it might have gone unnoticed.

But to me, it felt like home.

Torrin’s men were uneasy, their eyes darting into the shadows before quickly snapping back to me and Kai, watching us both carefully as we walked. But it was Torrin’s stare that burned into me.

“You’d better not be lying about the tunnel,”he finally said, his voice laced with suspicion he had no chance of hiding.

I clenched my jaw.“I’m not.”

“Convenient, isn’t it?”A sneer twisted on his lips.“That the king’s daughter just happened to confide in you.”

I stopped walking as a quiet, simmering anger curled inside me. I had expected the council’s doubt, expected their distrust, but hearing the accusation out loud settled like iron in my stomach.

“She isn’t just the king’s daughter. Not just the heir.”My voice was low and steady, but I could feel the weight of Wren’s and Kai’s attention shifting toward me.“She’s my mate, and you’re the one who agreed to come with us, Torrin.”

Torrin narrowed his gaze, but he didn’t stop walking.“You can dress it up however you want, boy, but that doesn’t change what she is. I came because we need this tunnel. If you don’t know where it is, I’ll?—”

“What will you do?”Wren cut in, her voice sharp, clipped,lethal.

She stepped in front of him, forcing him to a halt, and the air between them pulsed with barely restrained hostility.

“Go ahead,”she continued, tilting her head slightly,her expression more deadly than I had ever seen it before.“Tell me exactly what it is you’ll do to my brother. The man who has fought for this rebellion while my father and the rest of you have been blinded by your own greed.”

Torrin’s mouth opened, but nothing came out as he searched her face. I watched as his anger overtook him, as his body trembled, and his hand tightened on his dagger.

But Wren didn’t seem to care.

“No?” When she got no response, she scoffed.“That’s what I thought.”

“Wren.” It was Liya who spoke then, Wren’s name a tense, gentle warning, but not one that she was willing to heed. My sister stared down Torrin a long moment before she finally turned on her heel.

The group fell into silence after that, but the tension didn’t falter.

As the last rays of sunlight faded from the sky, a dark canvas unfurled above us. The stars emerged one by one, twinkling like tiny gems scattered across the velvet night.

We were close to the city edge now,close enough that I could feel my own trepidation snaking up my spine. It had been roughly two hours since we left the hidden city, the same two hours that we had traveled many times before to get here.

To the right was the familiar path we would have taken into the capital, and they paused as I led them left.

The air grew damp and heavy as we moved farther away from the city’s main entrance. The tree coverage thicker as the sound of water echoed through the leaves long before it came into view.

The waterfall slowly flowed down into the pool below, its mist curling around us in a cool embrace. The water didn’t rush; it didn’t roar as it slammed into the waiting river. Instead, it glided over the rocks, trickling down moss and stone, as if it were desperate to meet the river once more.

You could see the erosion on the rocks where the waterfall normally raged, but those weathered spots were dry now, spectators to the way the water now perilously fell as if it were dying.

Torrinslowed his steps, and I could sense his hesitation without him saying another word.

Carefully, we navigated our way around the water, my footing slipping once on the slick stones, my heart racing with each step the closer we got.

Then I saw it.

The two trees stood where Verena had described them, their gnarled roots twisted and intertwined, thick with time and secrets. I stepped forward, reaching out my still bound hands to touch the roots, and a jolt of energy surged through my body, sudden and electric, sending a shiver up my spine.

“A kingdom torn in blood; a world turned to ash.”

The words left my lips before I could stop them.

I could still hear her voice, soft and full of awe, as she whispered them to me, as they wrapped around me until they stole the breath from my lungs.

“What?”Torrin’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts as he moved to my side, reaching forward to touch the same roots.

I didn’t look at him. Instead,I dug my fingers into the damp earth, pulling apart the mass of roots until light from the moon could filter past their cover. I pulled harder, the roots snapping and breaking in my hands, until a small and unassuming opening emerged from the earth.

I dropped to my knees before it and cleared away the debris, my fingers digging into the soil, revealing tiny pebbles and dying leaves.

I coughed, the air musty and not meant to be disturbed, but then it gave way, revealing the larger opening.

The tunnel.

Torrin exhaled sharply, his breath catching in his throat as he took a step back.

“Holy shit,” he murmured.

But before he could say anything else, Wren was at his back. Her dagger pressed firmly against his throat. His entire body stiffened, and it was far too late for him to grab his own weapon.

“Take off his cuffs,” my sister commanded, her gaze staring straight ahead at the tunnel before me.

“What the hell is this?” Torrin’s breath was ragged, but he didn’t dare move.

The dagger in Wren’s grip remained steady, the sharp point pressing against his throat, forcing him to still beneath her hold.

The rebellion’s council had voted; they had agreed to give me what I asked for in exchange for this information, but Wren didn’t trust them.

And neither did I.

Kai stood between Torrin’s men and us, leaning against the stone with his own dagger drawn limply in his hands, his magic curling faintly in the air.

“Everyone calm down.” Liya moved to step forward, but Kai’s hand shot out, blocking her path.

Wren’s voice was as sharp as the blade against Torrin’s skin.“Take off his cuffs.”

Torrin’s fingers twitched, hesitating for a fraction of a second too long.

Wren didn’t flinch.She pressed the dagger harder, just enough to bite into his skin.“Now.”

Torrin muttered a curse under his breath, then fumbled in his pocket before producing a key. He didn’t even try to meet my gaze as he held it out, and I extended my hands, the metal cuffs biting against my skin.

The key scraped against the lock, a grating sound that sent a shiver of anticipation through me, and then, a click.

The moment the cuffs fell away, I barely stifled a sharp inhale.Power surged beneath my skin, flooding through my veins like fire after a long winter. My magic.

Wren lowered her dagger but didn’t step away from Torrin. She turned andpressed the blade into my palm instead. She trusted me to finish this.

I curled my fingers around the hilt, adjusting my grip as I studied Torrin’s face.

“It’s real,”he murmured, barely more than a whisper. His gaze flicked to the entrance of the tunnel, the roots still peeled away like a wound in the earth.

I met his eyes then. “We’ll take it from here, councilman.”

Torrin hesitated, as did Liya. “Dacre.” She tried to take another step forward, but Kai still didn’t allow her to pass.

“This is what you wanted,” I answered her and pointed my dagger to the tunnel. “And I’ve given it to you. I kept my promise.”

Torrin looked back at her, and I wondered if he could see the hesitation in her eyes as I could.

“Wren, Kai, and I will go forward from here.” I took a small step closer to the tunnel. “I don’t trust any of you to go with us. I don’t trust you with my mate.”

“I made promises too, you know?” Her gaze shuddered, and absently I wondered if she was talking about the promises they made to me in the council chambers or the promises she had once made to my mother.

“And I expect you to keep them.” I nodded to Wren, and she moved to my side, farther away from them and closer to the tunnel. “Once we have Verena, we plan to escape back through this tunnel. We plan to come back to the hidden city because we have nowhere else to go, nowhere else where I can protect her.”

Kai moved then, grabbing a torch from one of Torrin’s men, his grip unbothered by their protests. “We need this more than you.”

I smirked at my friend despite the tightness in my chest, but then I returned my gaze to Liya. “Verena is not to be harmed.”

She nodded once, and I tried to allow trust to bloom in my chest, but it wouldn’t come.

“We’re not staying here,” Torrin spat as Kai passed him. “We’re not waiting in hopes that you all make it out alive. We’ll return to the hidden city, update our people.”

Kai snorted.“You mean report back to his father?”

Torrin shot him a glare but didn’t argue.

I didn’t care what they did.Let them go. Let them run back to my father and tell him what we found. Let them tell him that his son had found the very thing he had been desperate to find.

It didn’t matter.Verena was waiting.

She was my only concern.

I stepped forward, feeling the earth shift beneath me as I knelt at the tunnel’s entrance.I placed a hand on either side, feeling an odd thrum through the stone, but I didn’t hesitate. I took one last breath before I squeezed through the narrow opening, descending into the dark tunnel on my hands and knees.

The air inside the tunnel was thick and stale, pressing against my lungs like the weight of the past. I reached out, running my fingers along the stone as I moved forward, and let my magic ripple beneath my skin.

The walls were damp; old magic unlike any I’d ever felt before clung to them like whispers of something long forgotten.It wasn’t strong, but it was there, lingering as if it were waiting for something, for someone.

Wren climbed in after me, a soft curse falling from her lips as the darkness swallowed her, but then there was a flicker of light as Kai followed, the torch still clenched between his fingers.

It only took a moment before the tunnel opened up, widening enough for us to climb to our feet.

Kai moved ahead of me, holding the torch high. His magic pulsed subtly in the air around him, the faintest tendrils ofshadow curling against the stone as if sensing the way forward and searching for danger.

Wren trailed behind me as we moved, her breathing steady but sharp, her movements cautious.

It had been years since any of us had been in a tunnel like this. Not since we were children.Not since we believed that the rebellion was something untouchable, something good. When we had run through the hidden city, searching every alcove and hidden passage, typically hitting dead ends and coming home covered in mud.

I exhaled slowly, pressing my palm against the wall again.This time, I let my magic sink deeper. Heat licked against my fingers, the stone warming beneath my touch.

I frowned, pulling my hand back.

Kai paused ahead of me.“What is it?”

I hesitated, flexing my fingers before shaking my head.“Nothing. Keep moving.”

Kai didn’t look convinced, but he turned and pressed on.

The tunnel twisted, curling into a narrow passage that forced us to slow as we squeezed through. The dampness increased, our leathers becoming slick with the moisture, until finally, the tunnel gave way, spilling into an open cavern.

And it wasn’t empty.

A towering stone statue loomed in the center of the chamber, its features worn by time. I circled around it until I reached the front, taking in the woman’s face.

There was nothing particularly unique about the woman, every bit of her covered in a weathered bronze, but when I looked up into her eyes, I suddenly couldn’t catch my breath. Long robes were draped across her body in bronze, her face forlorn, but it was her eyes that seemed to follow me, to see so deeply within me that my magic quivered.

Wren reached out and ran her fingers over the base of the statue, tilting her head slightly.“There’s something carved here.”

Kai lifted the torch higher, casting flickering light over the weathered inscription. I stepped closer, brushing my fingers over the ancient words, and it burned inside me like fire ravishing through a dry, thirsty forest.

I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to rein in the feel of it crashing through me.

Kai shifted beside me, his grip tightening around the torch.The flickering light barely reached the cavern ceiling as he leaned closer to Wren.

And neither seemed to be affected by the statue, neither aware of what was happening inside me.

“A tethered soul to shifting sands.” Wren read the words as she traced over them, each one slamming into me harder than the last until my knees threatened to buckle beneath me. “What does that mean?”

Wren glanced back at me, and her eyes widened as I shook my head.

“I don’t know.” I pressed my hand against my stomach, and I couldn’t control the word that thrashed through me, tormenting me.

Verena.

My stomach twisted violently, bile rising in my throat. This was a warning.

“Are you okay?” Wren climbed to her feet, and I glanced at my sister, panic weaving through every inch of me.

“We need to get to Verena.”

Kai lifted the torch higher, scanning the towering cave.“There.”

I followed his gaze, a small, dark opening directly above the statue’s crown. A way out. The tunnel stretched on, but we had no idea which way these tunnels led.

Wren took a step back,assessing the climb, before she steadied herself with her hands upon the statue. She lifted her foot, placing it against the woman’s hand, and she appeared to be helping Wren as she climbed.

I held my breath as Wren reached the top, placing a foot on each of the woman’s shoulders before she jumped.

Her fingers caught on the lip of the passage above, and she pulled herself up.

“Wait,”Kai growled.“We don’t know what’s up there. I should go first.”

“I’m more than capable, Kai.”Wren groaned as she pulled herself higher, until the top half of her body disappeared from view.

Kai cursed under his breath, turning toward me.“Say something.”

“To Wren?” I asked as I glanced between my sister’s dangling legs and the statue. “I’d prefer not to be stabbed.”

Kai shot me a glare but wasted no more time arguing. He followed her up,his movements slower, more precise. I tilted my head back, watching them disappear through the opening.

I stepped closer to the statue, and a cold gust of air slipped from the passage above. We weren’t just going up. We were going outside.

I grabbed onto the statue, my magic crackling beneath my skin and colliding with the magic that pulsed within the statue as I climbed. The statue was slick with condensation, but every place my fingers touched,heat surged through the rock.

Verena. Her name whispered through me in a voice that wasn’t my own. A woman’s voice that called out for her until I reached for the opening, my skin slipping away from the stone.

It stopped immediately, my head feeling too quiet as I pulled myself the rest of the way up.

Wren and Kai were already crouched near the edge of the passage, our view blocked by twisting vines.

Wren turned, her eyes glinting.“You’re not going to believe this.”

I glanced past her, where her hands pulled at the trailing plant, and the capital city stretched before us, quiet and still beneath the stars.

We weren’t in the palace yet. We were on the streets just outside my grandmother’s house.

The night pressed against my skin,cool and filled with brine from the sea. The city was quiet, but that didn’t mean it was safe. The palace loomed in the distance, its dark towers stretching toward the sky.Every step we took brought us closer to Verena, closer to danger.

We moved quickly, keeping to the alleys, avoiding the main streets.The tension in the air was thick, a silent warning none of us spoke aloud.

“Look.” Wren’s hushed whisper caught my attention.

I followed her gaze to the brick facade on one of the houses, and I stumbled on the cobblestone as I looked up, high above their door. A rebellion sigil had been painted in stark black against the worn brick. It appeared that someone had tried to scrub it away, fading it in certain areas, but the mark remained.

I could feel my heartbeat, hear it rushing in my ears, and I quickly looked away.

The rebellion had been raging for decades, a fight that had been happening even before I was born, and the flames of revolution burned bright throughout our people. But I had never witnessed something like this within the capital city.

“Keep walking.” I pressed my trembling hand against Wren’s back and pushed her forward as we turned a corner.

Her soft gasp filled my ears, and I pushed harder. An older man, whose hair was leeched of color and face lined with years of life, hung from the side of the building. His feet swayed in the air just above our heads, his neck turned unnaturally against the rope that held him, but it was his arm that had fear sinking through me.

His left sleeve was rolled up past his withered bicep, and there, just above his wrist, was the same mark that stained the brick.

I could feel Wren shaking beneath my hand, feel Kai’s magic as he tried to keep it under control, but none of us stopped. We pushed forward until my grandmother’s house emerged before us.

It was small, tucked between two other brick buildings,the familiar glow of light seeping from the front window.It should have been comforting.

Instead, nothing but unease curled in my gut.

I hastily climbed the three wooden steps, my boots landing too loud against the worn planks. I rapped my knuckles against the door,counting the seconds in my head until finally,it opened.

My grandmother stood before me, eyes widening. “Dacre.” Her voice held more trepidation than relief.

I never showed up here unannounced.

Her gaze flicked behind me, taking inWren’s and Kai’s rigid postures, the way Kai’s hand hovered near his weapon and the way Wren was still looking back at the man that neither of us knew.

Then, without another word, she stepped aside, motioning us in, and the warmth of the house swallowed me whole. Trinkets and books filled every available space, the scent of vanilla and old parchment curling in the air.It was painfully familiar.

An ache formed in my chest like it always did, an ache for my mother.

“What brings you here tonight?’ She smiled as she moved to the window and calmly slid the curtains closed.

I started to pace, running my fingers through my hair.”We don’t have time to explain everything, but we need?—”

Movement. I stilled just as my grandmother’s face slid past me, and I followed it.

And then,I saw him. A man sat at her small dining table, his posture tense, his eyes locked on to mine. I hardly recognized him; it had been years since the last time we saw one another.

I reached for my dagger on instinct.”Micah?”

He nodded once, wiping his hand over his mouth where crumbs of bread had lingered. “Hi, Dacre.”

“Micah.” Wren breathed his name as she passed me, heading straight for him.

He smiled at her as he stood, but it didn’t reach his eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he buried his head in hers as if breathing her in.

Kai shifted beside me, his magic thrumming slightly harder than before.

“Where have you been?” Wren asked as she squeezed him tighter against her. “It’s been years, Micah.”

“I know.” He nodded, and I glanced over at my grandmother who was carefully watching me, too carefully.

She wrapped her wrinkled hands around the back of one of her dining chairs, her bony fingers clenching tightly to the wood. “Why are you here, Dacre?”

Micah went rigid against my sister, but he didn’t pull away.

“I’ve come for Verena,” I answered hesitantly. “The king has taken her back. He has her.”

There wasn’t an ounce of shock in her silver eyes as she watched me. “I know.” She nodded and pressed one of her hands to her stomach, patting there as she spoke. “The tides have risen.”

I looked to Kai, but he shrugged his shoulders as he still stared at Wren.

“We have to get into the palace.” I turned back to my grandmother. “We used the tunnels to get here, but I’m not sure which one leads into the palace.”

“I can help,” Micah spoke as he finally released Wren. He was still looking down at her, his fingers pushing stray pieces of hair behind her ear. “I can get you into the palace.”

He turned to face me fully then, and I sucked in a shocked breath as Wren no longer blocked my view of him. He stood there in my grandmother’s kitchen wearing the uniform of a guard, a king’s guard, and on his chest, the king’s crest. A symbol of his power embroidered in gold thread.Worn only by the guards sworn to his service.

My blood turned to ice.

Kai stepped forward, his magic crackling around him, and he reached for Wren, jerking her away from Micah. “What the hell is going on?”

“This is where you’ve been?” My voice clapped like thunder. “Your loyalty is to the king?”

“No,” Micah started, but I didn’t believe him. The truth was in front of me, the uniform covering his body until he became one of them instead of one of us. “I am not loyal to the king.”

“It sure as hell looks like it.” I lifted my hand, motioning toward him.

“Stop,” my grandmother’s voice commanded, but I was too busy watching him.

“I am his prisoner, just as she is,” he spat, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t have a choice.”

I took a step forward, closing the gap between us, and my power felt desperate within me. “You always have a choice, and it looks like you’ve made yours.”

Kai shifted, his body blocking Wren slightly, and the only sound in the room was Wren’s slow, measured breathing.

Micah didn’t move. He didn’t flinch. He just stared at me, jaw tight, and when he spoke, his voice was quieter. “You don’t understand.”

I curled my hand into a fist, feeling my magic pushing against my skin, as out of control and confused as I felt. “Then make me.”

Micah exhaled sharply, his gaze never leaving mine. “The king has my sister.”

He let his words sink in as Wren gasped, but I knew of no sister. When Micah had lived with my grandmother years ago, there had been no talk of a sister, no talk of anyone.

I turned to my grandmother. “I thought you said that he was brought here on a ship, fled from his kingdom with nowhere else to go, no one to help him when you found him on the streets.”

I remembered it vividly, the first time we had come to visit my grandmother with our mom, the two of them exchanging notes between their hands, intel for the rebellion that my grandmother somehow knew, and Micah had been here. I had felt sorry for him then, pitied him, and the tale my grandmother had woven about his past.

“He did.” My grandmother nodded, not an ounce of regret in her tone. “He came from my kingdom, the kingdom of my mother before me. The kingdom of Verena’s mother before her.”

Her words slammed into me as I searched her silver eyes. “And his sister?”

“She was taken the day we arrived,” Micah said, his voice now laced with fury. “My feet hit the sand, and they pulled her away screaming.” His gaze shuddered, haunted by his past. “I didn’t see my sister again until two days after Verena was arrested.”

“I don’t understand.” I looked back and forth between the two of them.

“I made promises to Verena’s mother, to our queen,” my grandmother started before glancing back at Micah. “And after your mother was killed in that raid, after Verena managed to escape, I knew that I had to do something.”

I tried to suck in a breath, tried to calm my thundering heart, but it was no use.

“She fled to the streets, and the moment I saw her, I knew that her father would have her back within days if she was on her own.”

My gaze slid back to Micah, to the way his jaw worked. “You were the one on the streets with her. That’s the reason you were suddenly gone from here, why she let us believe you ran.”

I looked at my grandmother, and the bitter taste of betrayal coated my tongue.

“I asked this of Micah,” my grandmother insisted. “He protected her on the streets until his protection wasn’t strong enough anymore. And when she was arrested by the guards, I feared what they would do with her once they realized who she was. I made the queen promises,” she demanded, her voice louder than before. “I sent Micah searching for her, only to find that she had already been taken by the rebellion, by you.”

“That doesn’t explain this,” Wren finally spoke, and she was staring at Micah, unable to look away from his uniform.

“I was arrested while trying to find Verena.” His hands shook at his sides as he balled them into fists. “And that’s when I saw her inside the palace, my sister.” He looked up at me then, and all I could see was rage. “They had taken her off that ship and straight to the king. She was far too young.” He shook his head. “A royal courtesan.”

Bile flooded my mouth, but he didn’t stop.

“I screamed for her, begged for them to take me in her place.”

Micah’s eyes were unfocused, his body tense, like he was no longer here but back in that moment.

“The guards didn’t listen.”His throat bobbed.“But the king…”

The room seemed to constrict, and I could feel Kai’s barely restrained magic as if it were moving around me.

“What did he do?”Wren’s voice was careful, quiet.

Micah let out a slow, shuddering breath.“He laughed and made me watch as he paraded my sister in front of me. He had her sit on his knee as he ordered his guards to drag me to the dungeons.” Micah’s voice dropped lower, his next words hoarse. “I was desperate, mad with rage, and I said the very thing that I never should have.”

The world felt like it had stopped spinning because I already knew what he was going to say.

“You gave him Verena.”

Micah flinched.

“What did you tell him?”

He didn’t want to answer at first; he swallowed hard, his jaw trembling as he clenched it.

“I told him that I had been with her on the streets. That I protected her.”His voice was weak.“That I had been the one who gave her the rebellion mark.”

Everything inside me went cold. The rebellion mark. The one carved into Verena’s skin.

Kai swore softly, Wren sucked in a sharp breath, but I couldn’t look away from Micah.

“I didn’t mean to.”His voice broke.“I tried to fight him after that. I did. But he knew exactly what to say, exactly what to do, to make me?—”

I forced my voice to stay steady.“And what did he do to get your loyalty?” I motioned to his uniform.

Micah swallowed hard.“The king made me a deal.”

There it was.

“He promised to let my sister go if I helped him with Verena. Helped get her back, helped break her.”

I exhaled slowly as I stared at him. I was going to kill him. It didn’t matter that he had done what he did for his sister; it didn’t matter to me what I would have done if I had been in his place. I couldn’t see past his betrayal of Verena.

“Does Verena know?” My fists curled at my sides, nails digging into my palms until I felt my skin break. “Does she know how easy it was for you to betray her?”

Micah recoiled. “You think this has been easy? You think this is what I wanted?” Micah’s eyes widened, and I saw the desperation there, the torment. “You’re not the only one who has ever loved her, you know, but what would you have done if it was Wren?”

The room shrank around me, the walls pressing in as my magic surged.

“Don’t you dare speak of loving her as if you have the right, as if you aren’t the one who fucking betrayed her.” My words sliced through the room like a blade I desperately wished to wield. “Don’t you dare speak of Wren.”

“Where were you?” Micah shifted uncomfortably. “She spoke of you when he still held her in the dungeon, cried out your name when I’m not even sure she realized she was doing so. You damn me for what I’ve done, but where were you as she begged?”

I could see black at the edges of my vision. “You were there when he tortured her?” I took a step forward, even as my chest felt like it was caving in at the image he had just painted in my mind. “You stood there, and you did nothing to stop him?”

I shot forward, the table scraping across the floor as I dove for him, wrapping my hand around his throat and slamming him against the wall.

“He knows,” Micah cried out, looking to my grandmother, and that only fueled my anger more. “He knows that she’s a siphon, that her magic was bound inside her.”

I tightened my hand around his throat, watching as he struggled before I looked to my grandmother. “What does he mean?”

“The king is a siphon,” she started, her gaze latched on to my hand that was still wrapped around Micah’s neck.

I already knew this. We all did. It was what made him so powerful, so dangerous. He didn’t just wield magic; he took it, drained it, bent it to his will.

He demanded magic at the tithe, magic that was meant for balance of our kingdom, and he stole it.

“This is what he’s been searching for, what he’s tried to force her to become, why he wanted another heir.”

My grandmother nodded.

I forced my voice to stay even. “Why didn’t she know? She has spent her life thinking she was powerless. How did she not know?”

“Because it was hidden.” Her expression didn’t waver. “The queen and I bound her magic inside her so he couldn’t use her. “

Wren’s breath hitched, and my hand flexed against Micah.

“When she was still small, before she could even understand what she was.” My grandmother nodded once more, and when she moved, it hit me how fragile she appeared.

“He wants her for the vessel.” Micah struggled to speak against my hand, and I dropped him, taking a step back, and looking at the two of them as if they were complete strangers.

“What vessel?”

My grandmother hesitated.

“Tell me,” I barked, and her silver eyes darkened.

“There were five vessels in the beginning. Five different kingdoms bound to control the magic they angered, but the one in the palace, it’s the only one left. It was meant for balance, to control the tithe.”

Kai straightened beside me, his entire body going rigid.”What happened to the others?”

“Destroyed.”Her voice was quiet.“One by one.”

“By him.”I already knew the answer.

She nodded. “And Veyrith was the last one. The last kingdom that stood against him, but our kingdom fell just like the others.”

The kingdom the queen’s family had once ruled. The kingdom my grandmother had once called home. That Micah had.

I shook my head.“Why? What does he gain from destroying them?”

My grandmother’s gaze steadied on mine.“Power.”

My stomach twisted violently.

“It’s the same thing he gains from being bound to the vessel, the thing he will gain if he manages to bind Verena.”

The word settled like a curse.

Bound.

“I don’t understand.”

“The king siphoned from the vessel, siphoned the magic and the tithe that was given by the people of this land. But he took too much, demanded too much, and the vessel demanded in return.

“He’s powerful, but at a cost. And that cost has finally become too profound.” She exhaled and ran her hand over her neck. “The vessel is killing him.”

“He will bind Verena to it to save himself.”

The realization slammed into me, cold and brutal.

A tethered soul to shifting sands. The words on that statue suddenly drummed through me, ringing in my ear.

The war we had been fighting wasn’t just against a tyrant. It was far worse.

I turned toward the door.“We leave now.”

Micah exhaled sharply.“Dacre, wait?—”