Just the Heralds stirring up doubt.
But what if it wasn’t?
Another blow to my gut.
I didn’t fight it, I couldn’t.
Then I heard Maelis’s voice again.
“It’s not going to do any good to kill him here and now, Ignara. We need him alive so I can harness his power.”
My stomach turned.
Not from the pain, but from the cold, clean edge in her voice.
Ignara raised an eyebrow. “Has the Abbot told you what to do?”
Maelis smiled. But that smile belonged to someone who had left me behind long before today.
“Yeah,” she said. “It was almost too easy. I professed mylove for Auretheos and the Abbot practically licked my feet. I have the spells we need. Let’s go.”
It was like falling through ice.
Everything I believed about her cracked in one breath, and the world went still inside me.
She didn’t mean that.
She couldn’t.
I had seen the real Maelis, that woman didn’t vanish in a day. That woman was still in there, somewhere.
“Maelis,” I croaked, my voice rough. “Don’t do this. Whatever she promised you, you can’t trust her.”
She froze.
Turned.
Met my eyes.
“Can I trustyou, Auretheos?” Her voice was calm. Measured.
“You’ve had doubts about me from the beginning. I heard you. You and Malek, whispering in the Veilstead. I only trust myself. That’s the way it’s always been.”
The words didn’t strike like arrows.
They crushed like weight.
“You were just foolish enough not to see through me,” she added.
Lythandra charged toward us.
One of Ignara’s men cut her off.
Maelis didn’t even blink.
She reached into her coat.
Pulled out the Luminaris key, the one I gave her.
