Page 27

27

NORA

T he moment I feel them, I know.

The pressure shifts in the air like a storm rolling in over bone-dry land, thick and slow and unnatural. The magic prickles along my spine before I even see them—an ancient, raw hum I haven’t felt since I was a child standing before a Matriarch’s altar. It’s like breathing in smoke laced with memory.

I sit up slowly from my makeshift bedding beneath the shattered archway, Rhaegar already rising beside me, every inch of him alert, coiled, his eyes slitted in suspicion.

“They’re close,” I whisper.

“I know.” His voice is gravel, already hardening with purpose.

From between the crooked spires of half-buried ruins and crumbling statuary, they appear—silent and spectral, their outlines sharpening as they step into the pale light of a dying moon. There are five of them. Robes of black, gray, and deep crimson hang off thin shoulders. Their faces are streaked with ash and warpaint, but there’s no mistaking what they are.

Purna.

My sisters. My past. And from the way they look at me—my judgment.

The one at the center steps forward, and though her hair is streaked with silver and her mouth is a bitter line, I know her.

“Ivenna,” I breathe.

She was never Matriarch when I knew her. Back then, she was a Second, strict but fair. She taught me how to feel the breath of the world beneath my feet, how to coax vines through stone cracks.

Now she looks like someone who’s carved power out of fire and blood.

“I had hoped the whispers were wrong,” Ivenna says, her tone quiet but sharp as cut obsidian. “That our fallen sister hadn’t broken covenant.”

“I didn’t break anything,” I snap, standing. My bare feet dig into the soot-crusted floor. “You abandoned me. You left me to rot when you thought I was a threat.”

Her eyes narrow. “Because you were. You still are. Medea stirs in you. We can see it.”

My throat dries. Rhaegar steps forward, silent but solid beside me, and her gaze slides to him like oil across glass.

“And this?” Ivenna’s voice dips lower, venom coiled in silk. “The cursed beast you lie with?”

Rhaegar growls. The sound is quiet, but it makes every bird for miles scatter.

“He is not your concern,” I bite out.

“He is our concern if you still claim to be one of us. The blood pact you made with him is a blight. Unforgivable. It is spreading. Even now, your magic—our magic—is tainted.”

I lift my chin. “You came all this way to lecture me?”

“No.” Her gaze sharpens like flint to blade. “We came to give you a choice.”

The other Purna move behind her, and their silence is more dangerous than anything else.

“Return with us. Sever the bond. Cleanse the power. Become what you were meant to be. Or—” Ivenna’s eyes flick to Rhaegar again. “Kill him. And prove to us that you are not Medea reborn.”

I go still.

There’s a beat of silence, and then Rhaegar chuckles—low, mirthless, and utterly without humor. “You have no idea what she’s capable of,” he says. “And you will not command her.”

Ivenna’s eyes flash. “We command what is ours.”

“You command nothing,” I snap, stepping between them. “I am not yours. Not anymore.”

The magic around me flickers—mine and not-mine, old and new. The earth beneath my feet shivers.

“You’ve always belonged to us,” Ivenna says. “You were born of the coven. You were trained in our ways. You carry our blood and our burdens. You owe us.”

“I don’t owe you anything.”

Behind me, Rhaegar shifts, as though preparing for violence. His wings arch subtly, framing me like a shield.

“She won’t go with you,” he says, and his voice could shatter bone. “And if you try to force her, you will regret it.”

Ivenna stares at me, long and hard. Her expression is unreadable, but her next words are full of warning.

“Think carefully, Nora. Because the next time we meet, there will be no offer.”

My heart hammers in my chest. Her voice softens, as if negotiating. Ivenna moves as if they’re leaving. Thank the Gods.

Rhaegar doesn’t touch me, but his voice is close as he orders, “Leave.”

Suddenly, there’s a flash of light and I’m momentarily disoriented as it blinds me. I try to reach for him but I can’t find her.

What the hell? What did they do?