Frustration crinkled the skin near his eyes, but Topp didn’t press, choosing to drop her shoulder and stalk away. She eyed him curiously now. Topp Blatz showing restraint? She didn’t trust it for a second.
As they trudged on, the wind began to whir. It grew louder, an overwhelming static buzz filling the air as the wind frenzied. But it wasn’t just the sound—the wind was picking up snow and ice, spiraling the frozen precipitation faster and faster in a moving cone-like spiral. One arm thrown up against her face to protect her eyes, Elysia dropped to the ground in a panic as she tried to understand what was happening.
In the eye of the windstorm was the one and only Crown Prince. Lost to his own frustration, he appeared immune to the destruction he wrought. Ice and wind cut into Elysia’s skin. Screaming as loud as she could, she tried to get his attention. “Topp, you’re hurting me!”
She wasn’t sure how he even heard her considering how the wind was swallowing all other sounds, but his influence cut off abruptly. Elysia collapsed to the snow in relief, bringing her handsto her face. Her fingertips came away with tiny pinpricks of blood.
Looking both startled and guilty, Topp crouched beside her. “Shit, I—” He brushed a hand through his hair, completely befuddled. “I have no idea how I did that, Lys, I’m so sorry.” He frowned and wiped at the blood speckling her face with his sleeve.
She stared back at him equally perplexed. “I know we’re not in Kava, but your magic still shouldn’t work. Try it again,” she urged, no longer giving a shit that her face was a bloody mess.
The crown prince closed his eyes, faded freckles dusted with snow, and the air danced again, picking up in intensity as it went. He opened his eyes and it stopped, returning to its lazy stirring through the trees.
Her brown eyes met his green, both gaping.
Voice rough, Topp spoke. “Something is changing, Elysia.”
She swallowed.Everythingwas changing.
Chapter 15
Elysia sat at a sticky,beer-covered table, waiting for Topp to return with their drinks. She looked out the window back in the direction from which they had come. The Endless Forest remained in a constant state of gloom with only tiny swaths of bright, shooting light breaking through before disappearing again. Deep within its reaches, the trees and snow muffled sound, blanketing the world in a beautiful silence. Just like at the Bone Temple, the unfamiliar cries of creatures she didn’t know escaped into the air. It was unnerving how they were the singular sound to escape the forest’s persistent quiet.
No mortal could possibly step foot into that forest and think they would be the one to conquer it. Elysia wasn’t especially familiar with the magical creatures that lived in its darkness, but she was positive she didn’t want to meet them.
Bringing her attention back to the tavern, her magic crawled out, slinking over floorboards and half-spilled beers in search of the juiciest secrets this Saarspur bar could offer. Excitement surged right as Topp plunked down two sloshing mugs of brown ale.
He shoved one at her before heaving himself into the chair across from her with a grin. The rowdy tavern fit him. If youthrew on his usual battle axes and added a bit of facial hair, he would have looked like every other burly Bellian man currently tipping one back in the fire-warmed room. Elysia listened to the rapid Bellian. Side by side on the same continent, Kavian and Bellian were closer to dialects than separate tongues. Still, even though she could follow along, it wasn’t without concentration and some confusion.
Tucked away, their knees bumped under the table, his warm thigh now touching hers. Elysia grabbed her mug of beer, wishing the tavern wasn’t so fucking packed, and took a sip, mulling over the flavors. She wasn’t used to beer, and couldn’t decide what to make of the bitter, roasted taste.
“My magic is working here too,” she commented with a raised brow.
Topp chewed on this, drinking most of his beer in one gulp before shrugging. “What isn’t strange in the world right now? None of the rules are real anymore.”
Elysia laughed roughly, putting her chin in her hand. “Isn’t that the truth.”
Topp continued to drink his beer while fidgeting with his coat. He stopped abruptly, switching to bouncing his leg before setting his mug down. “Things’ve changed fast in Kava.”
“The kind of changes that lead to a prince smuggling himself out of his own kingdom?”
Splotches of red appeared on his high, wide cheekbones as he messed with his already unkempt hair. “It was too risky to stay. My father has lost his fucking mind, and it was getting harder to believe that I wouldn’t be a casualty sooner rather than later. And I’m no good to anyone if I’m dead.” The words sounded like he was convincing himself as much as her.
Skeptical surprise shone across Elysia’s face. “He’d really leave himself without an heir?”
Topp leaned in closer across the small table. “I’m telling you. He’schanged.Ever since the Raven Ball, it’s like he’s just completely gone off the deep end. Lysia, he’s beenthreatening other kingdoms with that disgusting magic and traveling to small cities, testing his ability on our own people. Can’t be long before he tries his hand at other kingdoms.”
This information rattled around within her.
“Since the Raven Ball,” she repeated flatly.
Topp gave a tight nod, his eyes scanning the tavern. Seemingly satisfied, he leaned back even though there was nothing relaxed about the posture or his face. “He had this woman half-starved and locked in a guest suite. He went to her immediately after you disappeared. Stomach still bleeding, medics trailing after him, raging about the god of the dead and demanding she tell him what was going to happen.”
She gripped her beer tighter. “Did you catch her name?”
“No, but she was one of the rebels in that group you met with. I recognized her.”
Her stomach sank, hating that she’d called it. Victoria’spremonitions were always right according to Mari and Jessa. “What did she tell him?”
