She hated that room.
Her mate was gone. He had erased himself. He took everything that was his and everything he ever gave her. Her crown was gone, her gowns, her ring, her sword, even the headboard with his scorched handprints. He removed every trace of himself, including his scent.
But her memories? She still had those.
Leave you? That will never happen…
Liar.
Dyna took a step in but could go no further. The curtains were drawn against the sun, leaving the room dark and gray. His ghost remained, regardless of all his efforts. Because she saw him in every corner and heard his voice in the shadows as if he were still there.
“All but a dream,” she whispered to the empty space.Now we have to wake up.
Soft light shone from the edges of the nightstand drawer. Dyna pulled it open, finding her crystal necklace glowing on a bed of black feathers.
The feathers were the one thing he hadn’t known she kept. Dyna banished away the reminder of how she got them, refusing to think about the last night they were together. But the necklace—that had been left behind on purpose. He had fabricated a new memory of her father giving it to her instead.
How absurd.
She couldn’t stand to wear it anymore.
Dyna slammed the drawer shut so hard it rattled.
Glancing at the scorched floor, she smirked bitterly at the false memory used to explain it. What other memories had he planted?
Dyna retreated into the brightly lit corridor. Golden sunlight streamed through the tall windows and spread across the floor. It was a new day and a new life.
Her only purpose now was to reach Mount Ida at any cost once the snow melted. If that included a tentative alliance with the Captain of the Skelling Mercenaries, she would do it. Because nothing else mattered.
The steady clack of her boots rebounded against the walls as she wandered down the corridor. Whatever the past, her focus would only be her future. That required recovering her magic first.
Dyna looked down at her hands as she tried to call on her Essence. But it was contained tightly behind a thick wall. Solid and heavy, without a single crack.
She broke the barrier before. She would do it again.
Eventually, Dyna found herself on the fourth floor in front of King Yoel’s bedchamber. The door was slightly ajar. Icy air whistled past the thin opening, caressing her cheeks.
She didn’t know why she came here.
Maybe she subconsciously searched for signs of him. Maybe she only needed confirmation that some part of the dream had been real. But what could be more real than the remains of her shattered soul?
All the pieces had scattered like glass at her feet, and she would never put them back together again.
Dyna hesitated before pushing on the door. It creaked loudly as it slowly swung open. The harsh wind wailed through the broken windows like a tortured spirit, sending a shiver down her back.
The room was destroyed.
Furniture lay broken, tattered curtains billowed in the wind, with strewn glass and torn books everywhere. Her eyes fell on a dark red stain on the floor by the open balcony doors.
Dyna’s aching heart withered further as she imagined King Yoel cut down. Zev had told her Amriel had killed him. But she had no false memory of this room. There was no attempt to hide what happened here.
Hehad been in too much of a hurry to leave.
Or he hated this room as much as she hated theirs and couldn’t stand to be in it, even to clean up the evidence of his father’s assassination.
If Yoel had lived, would things have turned out differently?
Sighing, Dyna turned to go, but she noticed something at the foot of the bed. A long rectangular box wrapped in brown paper. An envelope was tucked in the twine. She knew immediately what it was and who it was for.
