Warriors nearby gaped at my hands. The silver-braided female stared at me.
“How did she do that?”
The warriors prepared to leave.
The mairen answered their riders’ whistles, their ghostly shapes slipping from the forest to appear by their masters’ sides. Kairos and the others grabbed food from saddlebags, joking about how the Sunken Palace had finally earned its name. They urged me to join them, but I couldn’t.
I feltterrible.
I’d seen the bodies floating in the water as we escaped. How many people had I killed? Servants preparing the feast. Guards stationed at their posts. Courtiers who’d dressed in their finest to attend a summit. They’d woken up that morning with no idea a human would tear their world apart by nightfall.
All those people, dead because of me. I could still feel the runes snapping. The way the threads had unraveled sofast, and I’d known what was happening but couldn’t stop it.
And Soren. He’d been trying to help. Had offered me sanctuary, treated me with more respect than I’d ever received from a fae, and I’d repaid him by destroying his home.
Kairos’s warriors had nearly died, and now they’d return to a realm that would soon be at war. The guilt clawed at my lungs.
What good was runebreaking if all I did was destroy?
I sat on the beach, watching the waves. Dawn was hours away. Sleep wouldn't come, so I let the golden sand and crashing waves steady me.
I scooped a handful of sand, and it was like powdered bone falling through my fingers. Shells glinted everywhere. I brushed one free. Pretty. My gaze wandered down the shore, pausing on a glint of silver.
No. It can’t be.
I clawed at the sand until my fingers closed on something familiar. Rheya’s mirror. Its frame was darker, warped at the edges like it had been submerged for too long, but it was intact. I’d dropped this thing in the palace. It should’ve been at the bottom of the ocean.
So how was it washed up here?
I peered into the clouded mirror, brushing off sand, but saw nothing but my exhausted reflection. It was strangely hot, like metal left in the sun. I flipped it over, where red stones circled a tiny rune. My finger grazed it, rolling over an unnaturally smooth surface. My hackles raised.
It felt likeskin.
Ugh, probably another sacrifice? I shoved the mirror into my satchel and fastened it shut.I should ask Kairosabout this.I found him near the center of camp, surrounded by warriors.
“Kairos.”
He turned. “There you are.”
I opened my mouth to mention the mirror, but then he handed me a scroll. I took it, scanning its contents.
“Vaeris states your presence at the summit was unauthorized and that I coerced you,” Kairos sneered. “He’s framing it as a breach of peace. He wants you returned or he’s declaring war.”
My hands trembled on the parchment.
“The Skyborn are already moving,” he continued. “Caelir’s mobilizing their forces. Thalir hasn’t responded yet. They’re still pulling bodies from the rubble. Queen Taressa claims your power ‘risks upsetting the natural balance of the realms.’ She wants to contain the damage. That could mean shackling you…killing you.”
My thoughts spun. “What about my sister? Vaeris said she’s in Skalgard.”
“I don’t trust a word that asshole says. He’s trying to lure you to him so he can activate the summons clause.”
“But what if he’s not?”
“If I march into his realm, it gives the other rulers the justification to unite against us.”
“So we’re supposed to leave her there?”
“For now, yes. Iwillget her back, but not by walking into Vaeris’s trap.”
