“Where is the crystal now?” he asked, stepping closer to the bed.
She angled her head at the sleeping Teryn’s chest. “It’s beneath your shirt.”
“And Morkai is…”
“Resting his ethera. Controlling your cereba is taxing, especially since he has no link to your vitale. He’ll need to sleep, and that is when you have the highest chance of regaining control. It will be hard, though. He maintains the primary connection even during sleep. To loosen his grip, we must move the crystal more than sixteen inches from your sternum and open the circuit between your cereba and his heart-center.”
Teryn studied his body, saw the lump beneath his shirt that must be the crystal. If Morkai’s spirit was sleeping, now was Teryn’s chance. He surged toward his sleeping form and reached for the collar of his shirt?—
His ethera’s hands went straight through the cloth, resulting in nothing but that buzzing resistance. That thickening of the air.
“Breathe,” Emylia said, and Teryn realized his lungs had begun to contract again.
Teryn took a few steps back, deepening his breaths and watching his body’s chest rise and fall in tandem. “Seven devils, this is madness.”
“I know, and you had the right idea. But before you have any chance of manipulating physical matter, you need to strengthen what little connection you have to your cereba. You maintain a slim link between it and your vitale.”
“What can I do?” He had to do something. Anything. Morkai was in his body. He would wake. He would…
Teryn didn’t want to think about what he might do.Whomhe might do things to.
“For now,” Emylia said, “align your ethera with your body and simply breathe. Feel your heart. Your pulse.”
“You want me to just…lie down and breathe.”
“Do not underestimate your connection to your vitale. So long as your awareness of it remains strong, you hold the upper hand. If you let fear disconnect you from it, you leave it open for Morkai to take. He isn’t strong enough to take it yet, but he has plans to do so. I know he does.”
What were his plans? And how did Emylia know so much about Morkai, about utilizing the crystal’s magic? Who was she aside from a trapped spirit? Could he even trust her?
Emylia opened her mouth, but before she could speak, he said, “If you tell me to breathe one more time, I’m going to lose my godsdamned mind.”
She pursed her lips and gestured toward the bed with a pointed look.
With nothing else to do, he climbed upon the mattress, sank into his sleeping form, and tried to become one with a body that was no longer his own.
30
Morning dawned, but peace did not rise with the sun. Cora stayed in bed as sunlight streamed through her window, crawling up the walls and dancing over her ceiling. All the while she hoped she’d feel some of that light reflected in her heart. But she didn’t. She remained burdened with the same dark revelations she’d stumbled upon last night. No matter how she wished otherwise, a curse placed by a dead man had invaded her life, throwing all her carefully laid plans into disarray.
And yet, when it came to said plans, she had to admit some of the folly lay with her. She’d been naive to think she could easily exit her role as princess. That all she had to do was ensure Dimetreus was secure on his throne. There was more to this political game than she’d anticipated. A game of heirs and royal bloodlines. Now, because of Morkai, she was unable to play the game at all. She’d lost the one piece that had made her a contender on the board.
The ability to further the Caelan bloodline.
She hated that something so small—something so intimate and personal—determined her worth as a royal woman. Hated it so much that it burned away the edges of her sorrow, replacing them with something sharper. Wilder. Fiercer.
Where last night she’d felt pain, only anger existed in her now.
It was enough to drive her out of bed, to make her throw back the bedsheets with awakening resolve. She stomped over to her vanity, splashed water on her face from the ewer, and set about getting herself dressed. Sera hadn’t returned since Cora had sent her and Mareleau’s other two ladies away when they’d tried to fetch her from the tower last night. Cora hadn’t even deigned to deny them to their faces. Instead, she’d ordered the stairwell sentry to forbid anyone from coming upstairs. By the time she’d gathered her composure enough to leave the tower room, the three girls were long gone. Perhaps they’d been offended by her refusal to entertain their efforts, but Cora didn’t have it in her to care.
She donned a linen summer dress that laced up the front, tightening each row with far more force than necessary. Each pull was infused with her rage. Her hatred.
How dare Morkai. How dare he make a lasting impact on her life in such an invasive, perverse way. How dare he have so much influence beyond the grave, great enough to shatter Cora’s heart. To break what she and Teryn were beginning to forge.
Teryn.
Her hands went slack on her laces, and her shoulders dropped. The thought of him broke through her anger, blunting it with sorrow yet again.
Her eyes went unfocused as she tried to imagine what she should say to him today. How she should act. She couldn’t avoid him after insisting she only needed one night alone. Yet she didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know how to tell him about Morkai’s curse. Sure, she knew the words she needed to say, but it was one thing toknowand another to actually confess something so deeply intimate, something that pertained to the inner workings of her body. Her heart. Her soul.
