She didn’t care about him. He had made his choices and they led him to this moment. She couldn’t feel sympathy for the Pillars. These were the people who had killed her brother.
But nights with Ferro whispered across her memories. He had taken her in with little more than smiles, looks, and charming words. He had made her feel wanted and special in a way no one else had. That had been enough to make her loyal to him and blind to all his faults. What were these young men’s stories? How had the world treated them? Had they suffered a life of torment until the moment the Pillars took them in with their serene smiles and promises of belonging?
“Eira?” Alyss whispered. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, fine, why?” Eira pushed the words past a tight chest.
“You’re crushing my hand.”
Eira looked down at their hands, still clutched tight. “Sorry.” She tried to release her fingers but Alyss wouldn’t let her. Her friend held fast.
“Don’t apologize. We can go if you need to.”
Noelle and Cullen were noticing their conversation. They both gave Eira concerned glances.
“I’m fine, really.” Eira looked to the stage with determination. If these men were going to die because of a plot she concocted then she needed to be here to witness it.
“Are those the men?” Levit asked.
Eira could only nod. She was certain there were Pillars all around her. Perhaps it was a Pillar that pointed out her presence to begin with as a test.
Lumeria raised her hand, a curtain of fabric catching on the breeze with the motion. The crowd fell into an even deeper thrall. No one said a word.
“You have acted against the crown—my own and the crown of Solaris,” Lumeria said softly. Her voice was like the whispering of wind through willow branches, as cold as moonlight, as hard as steel. “You have conspired to act against the Treaty of Five Kingdoms by endangering our revered guests from Solaris. For these crimes, it has been decreed you shall be put to death. Do you have any last words?”
The two men continued to look skyward, straight into the sun, smiling in an unnerving, placid way.
“Her light warms,” one of them finally said. “Yargen shines down upon us. Even when we have forsaken her ways, her goodness does not abandon us.” His eyes dropped from the sky and onto the crown princess, Vi Solaris. For her part, the princess didn’t even flinch, but Eira’s stomach clenched on her behalf. The man had a slightly murderous, unhinged glint to his eye. “You are the true agent of Raspian and your roots run deep. Beware… Beware to you and to everyone who aligns themselves with you. Her holy fire is coming, and only those who stand on the pillars of truth, justice, and light will be spared.”
The crowd looked on in stunned silence. Lumeria turned her head to the crown princess and gave a small nod. Vi stepped forward.
“I am not afraid of fire.” As she spoke, flames danced up her bare arms for emphasis. They ringed her neck and tangled in her hair like a lover. Vi Solaris moved with the same grace and power as her father.
“She truly has the blood of Fiera within her,” Noelle breathed in awe. Fiera Ci’Dan was Vi’s grandmother, and argued to be the greatest Firebearer to ever live.
“Your people were the ones wronged,” Lumeria said to Vi. “Justice falls to you.”
The crown princess wore an emotionless mask as she lifted a hand and two columns of fire engulfed the men. Their screams echoed across the square. The stench of burning flesh singed everyone’s noses, causing most to turn away and some to gag. None from Solaris averted their eyes.
Eira watched as the silhouettes of the men burned away and, when the fire vanished, there was nothing left but ash.
20
Eira sat up in her room long after everyone else had gone to bed. She’d told Alyss she’d join her if she couldn’t sleep, or was plagued by nightmares. But sleep was still far from her.
Ducot would come to her tonight, she was certain of it. The Court of Shadows would want to see her sooner rather than later, and it had already been a day and then some since her return. But while she waited, she stared out the window, perched on the edge of her bed, and looked past the glass and back to the events of the day. She saw the men as they burned; their screams filled her ears. Yet, within her chest was the void of the pit. The darkness that had encapsulated that night with Marcus, hardened by the Pillars into something so unfeeling that Eira was certain a corner of her had broken beyond repair.
Whenever she needed to, she could retreat there. She had turned the solitude and darkness into her weapon. If necessary it could numb and harden her more than ice could ever hope to do. It could hone her magic and make her powers sharper than any blade they could ever wield against her.
Holding up her hand, Eira envisioned her magic pooling in her palm. It tipped back and forth as she twisted her wrist—a little ocean of her own making. Yes, magic had beendifferentsince the pit. She’d tapped into something there that the Pillars hadn’t been intending for her to find.
Or…maybe they had. Ferro had thought she could take powers away and that was part of what made her useful to him.
“Steal magic,” Eira murmured, and reached under her bed, relieved to find the journals just as she’d left them. She knew she had seen something jotted down about closing a sorcerer’s channel. “Here it is. Closing a sorcerer’s channel…” Eira skimmed the page, beginning to learn magic her uncles would’ve never taught.
A soft scratching finally broke her from her reading. Eira was faced with a familiar mole when she opened the door. Ducot barely glanced at her before dashing off, disappearing behind the mantle. Eira moved silently through the moonlit room. She waved a hand, summoned an illusion around her, released the latch, and stepped into the hidden passage.
They made their way between the walls. Eira pushed her magic through her feet, using her ice to help guide the way so she didn’t trip and fall. When they had finally descended underneath the manor, a pulse of magic surrounded the mole and Ducot—the man—stood before her.
