“If there is another way, I would like to know it.”
“That is not for me to tell.”
“Then what the Seven Hels am I doing here?” I snapped.
“You are asking for help,” she said, eyes flashing. “But that is not the same as someone else doing it for you.”
“So fucking cryptic,” I muttered, sitting back. Of courseshe would go this far and then refuse to give me anything actionable.
Meerdra tilted her head. “The gods are watching you closely, Autumn. You stand at the threshold of legacy or ruin. And I fear both roads will feel the same beneath your feet.”
This was nonsense. A lecture disguised as wisdom.
I shoved back my chair and stood. But one last question held me still.
“And if I fail?” I asked quietly, bracing myself for the answer.
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Then I’ll see your bloodline again in the next life. Kings always come back.”
Outside, I pulled my hood up and started toward the castle, Meerdra’s words echoing like the wind itself.You stand at the threshold of legacy or ruin.
I had a rune etched on my arm to prove it.
I’d wanted to believe I could save my realm with a throne’s power. Now, I wasn’t sure if that same power might destroy it in the end. But one thing was certain: If Heliconia thought she couldclaim every throne in Menryth, she’d have to go through me first. I now had two thrones to protect.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aurelia
The air in the tunnels was still and heavy. It pressed against my ears like the walls were closing in, reminding me far too much of the silence I’d endured inside the walls of my own castle.
I thought I’d left that kind of silence behind. Finding it here, now, left me gritting my teeth as I followed Eirnan and then Rydian deeper into the network of caves that led straight through Nygard Peak. We’d only been walking for an hour, having broken camp just inside the tunnel’s entrance at first light this morning.
I dreaded to think about how many hours we had left in the close stillness. Most of us carried torches, chasing the darkness away. I opted to use my own flame if necessary and keep my hands free to grab a weapon should I need one.
It felt good to expend some of the power that built up inside me. A sleeping beast that grew every day, though I’d yet to mention it to the others.
We moved in a narrow line, torches flickering against the rock walls. The flamelight carved our shadows into twisted shapes, tall and crooked, across the stone. Everysound—every step, every scrape of a sword hilt against armor—echoed back a thousand times over, like the mountain was whispering our progress to itself. Or to whoever else might be listening.
The path had a noticeable descent. The deeper we went, the more the world above felt like a dream I’d once had and forgotten. It was warmer here, and while I’d been grateful for it at first, it soon became a stagnant sort of warmth that left a sheen of sweat on my brow.
Just ahead of me, Rydian’s shadows curled along his boots, testing the path ahead in a way his torchlight couldn’t. Keres followed close behind me, her daggers drawn. Behind her, Daegel and Thorne carried torches, along with half the Withered soldiers who brought up the rear. We’d left several of our ranks back at camp, including Vanya and those like her who could not fight. She’d been teary-eyed at our parting. I’d sworn to see her again soon, a promise I intended to keep.
The walls glistened where the torchlight hit them—black rock shot through with veins of quartz that caught the flame and held it like trapped stars. In places, the ground shimmered faintly. More quartz. Or something like it.
“It feels so old in here,” Keres said softly.
“And crowded,” Slade muttered.
Eirnan’s voice drifted back. “These tunnels were carved long before the courts,” he said. “The legends say smugglers used them during the Calidium wars. They say you could travel all the way from the Concordian Mountains to the Vorinthian border and never see daylight.”
“They go that far south?” I asked. “But the mountains end here in Autumn.”
“The tunnels burrow beneath the land. Below the Osphanis itself. They say there’s a place near Rosewood where you can glimpse the caves above ground.”
Rosewood.
I could almost smell it—the riverbanks blooming withlilies in spring, my mother’s roses climbing the palace walls, the markets loud with laughter. All of that life gone now; cursed into sleep.
