“Your mother,” she said, her eyes glittering. “She wouldn’t turn. She refused to serve him. She tried tohidefrom him. But you… you will. In time.”
The ground seemed to tilt beneath me. “My… mother?”
“She vanished after the fall of the fifth court,” Seraveth continued. “We didn’t know where she’d gone. We thought she’d died in one of the prisons. But now we know. She escaped. And she ran.”
She leaned in close, her breath as cold as the steel at my side.
“She took a human lover. It was smart. Veralin would have sensed a full-blooded heir. But you… you slipped beneath the cracks.”
“Veralin?” I whispered, the name tasting foreign and ancient on my tongue.
Seraveth’s smile stretched wider. “Yes. That is your grandfather’s name. But whisper it in that halfling court of yours… and they’ll know. They’llknowyou’ve conspired with us. His name has been erased from your world. His history scorched from your books. He is legend only to those who stillfearhim.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Keep this conversation between us,” she warned, rising to her full height, shadow falling over me. “Or you will die bytheirhands. The moment they know you carry his Fae Blood in your heart, they will carve it from you.”
Her gaze narrowed.
“Even that prince who covets you will not be able to save you.”
My throat clenched.
Zander.
I didn’t say his name.
I didn’t have to.
She already knew. And she laughed as if reading my mind.
The pain rippled through me like splintered glass pressed into every nerve. It wasn’t just from Seraveth’s magic anymore, it was in my chest, deep and cold, a truth that burned worse than any flame.
His granddaughter.
The Blood King’s blood ran in my veins.
My stomach turned, bile thick at the back of my throat. How could I behis? The mostdespisedfae in all of history, the killer of kingdoms, the distorter of magic, thecorruptor of everything he touched.
Veralin.
Even the name felt wrong in my mind. Like I was choking on it just by thinking it.
I believed her.
Gods help me, Ibelievedher.
The noble courts wouldkillme if they knew. No trial. No mercy. Just execution, quick and quiet, before the blood in my veins could reach my bones. Before Kaelith could rise to defend me. Before Zander could even speak my name.
Did Cordelle know?
The thought speared through me, sharp and sudden. He had warned me, hadn’t he? So many times. With too much care. Too much secrecy. The way he looked at me when the other riders weren’t watching, like I was walking a ledge he couldn’t pull me back from.
He knew.
Maybe not everything. Butenough.
My vision swam.
