So, it was real…
Tears blurred her vision. She had forgotten about that day …or had beenmadeto forget. Lady Zinnia, Alora realized. The yearly examinations. All the rules. Her magic had been restricted since she was a child, but the hold had begun to fray.
And Rune had known.
That’s why he had provoked her, pushed her until she broke. The magic that surged… its light had burned through her beams like sunlight through glass, so immense she thought it would tear her apart.
It had thrown him clear across the arena, melting his flesh the way Delphi’s had… but he didn’t run or look at her like she was a monster.
Alora’s hand drifted to her lips, the phantom warmth of his kiss lingering there. Warmth flushed her cheeks. His touch had been a cloak that calmed her light, making her fall still. And somehow, during that kiss, she had seen something else.
A fragment of her … kissing him before. A memory so blurry, perhaps it was a dream.
None of it made sense.
Yet before she could find her bearings, Rune had put her to sleep.
How long, she didn’t know. It was nighttime outside her window.
A soft meow came from the pillow beside her. Alora smiled weakly at Nexus. The black kitten pressed against her knee, purring, his tiny wings fluttering.
“You knew too, didn’t you?” Alora murmured, scratching behind his ear. The creature blinked up at her, eyes gleaminggold, galaxies shifting faintly in their depths, steady and ancient, as if it reflected the same magic now threading through her veins.
A Primordial familiar that chose her.
Her fingers stilled on his fur as she whispered, “Why me?”
The kitten purred louder, the sound oddly comforting.
She exhaled slowly, trying to calm the tremor in her hands. When she finally looked up, her stomach dropped.
The door to her chamber was gone. Smooth, dark stone filled the space where it had been.
They’d sealed her in again.
The demons must fear her… as her father had.
He sent her to the Midlands not merely to live among her kind, but to subdue her. Lady Zinnia was deft at containment wards, naturally she must have done the same to her. And she had checked every year to make sure they held.
Why had it awoken now?
Her aching mind recalled the lark pin and Lady Zinnia’s gentle warning:Wear it always, so you may keep a piece of the Midlands with you.
How could she have been so blind?
The lark hairpin had kept her docile, binding the power in her blood. And now it was gone.
Alora drew her knees to her chest, tears tracking down her cheeks as she whispered into the dark, “My whole life was a lie.”
Her jaw trembled, sparks flashing at her fingertips. Nexus pressed his tiny paws against her leg and meowed softly. She inhaled a shaky breath, then another, until her magic settled.
“I’m all right,” she murmured, more for him than herself.
But she needed answers, and she wouldn’t find them here.
Alora flung the blankets aside and stalked to the solid wall, but it didn’t part as it usually did when sensing her will.She pressed a palm against the stone. “Mountain,” she said, frowning. “Please open the door.”
Nothing happened.
