“Or made to appear that way,” Calla said, studying her carefully. “For those with magic, it’s not difficult to disguise what you are. Even more so if you weren’t aware of it in the first place.”
The words settled uneasily in Alora’s chest.
Lady Zinnia’s face rose unbidden in her mind. The yearly examinations. The careful lessons. The odd questions every year on her birthday. The way magic had always been forbidden.
Never spill your blood, her godmother had said, more than once.
Alora swallowed. She had never understood why.
“You ask what you are,” Calla said. “A question that is best answered by the Thornbearer who knew of your power and somehow kept it subdued. But I will tell you this much—” She nodded toward the horned kitten, who had stilled mid-grooming, golden eyes locked on them— “the appearance of creatures like him are a rare omen.”
Alora looked down at him, her chest tightening. “Nexus? Rune called him my familiar.”
Calla’s smile turned enigmatic. “In the old tongue, the nameNexusmeansbinding together.When a creature like him bindsitself to a soul, it’s because it recognizes what sleeps inside. And something in you recognized him as well.”
The room fell quiet but for the fire in the hearth. She flinched when the burning wood popped, casting a swirl of embers.
“Why were the Primordials sealed away?” Alora asked.
The Harbinger’s gaze flickered to the flames, her clawed hand absentmindedly wandering to a jagged scar on her chest. “They became something that the realms could not bear.”
Alora’s throat ached and something cold sank in her stomach. She whispered, “Then what sleeps inside me?”
Calla’s faint smile was both soft and terrible. “Hope, perhaps, or destruction.”
The words lingered in the air like a curse. Alora’s heartbeat thudded in her ears, the room closing in around her.
“I will give you some advice,” Calla said, straightening. “Stop dreading what you are. Don’t fear the magic or what it may mean. Command it. Wield it. Become what your enemies should fear instead.”
A breath escaped Alora’s trembling lips. She had spent her whole life being told to soften, to dim, to behave. But Calla’s words gave her permission to breathe again. She was so tired of helplessness, of fear. Now, at last, she had the means to never be powerless again.
She looked down at her glowing hands, energy coursing wild and unbridled beneath her skin. And in that light, she saw both salvation and ruin. What if she became more than the world could bear, too?
The firelight flickered, shadows lengthening over the walls as though drawn by her thoughts.
Before Alora could speak, a curl of black smoke rose in the corner of the chamber, twisting into a familiar shape.
Deimos stepped out of the haze, his expression stern. “You’re needed in the throne room,” he told Calla. “There’s been an occurrence.”
Calla rose immediately, shadows wrapping around her bare skin and hardening into black leather, her weapons gleaming into existence at her sides. “What occurrence?”
“An intruder found his way here.” His gaze flicked toward Alora, sharp and knowing. “The one you call Caelum.”
CHAPTER 28
Rune
Rune sat upon the blackened throne, one hand resting loosely on the hilt of Noctharion, the other tapping pensively over the armrest as he regarded the mortal below.
The man wore battered silver armor, the white stag of Argyle scorched across his shield. Sweat darkened his hair at the temples, gleaming along his jaw. And yet, with hundreds of demons lining the galleries above, his gaze remained steady.
Karag Dûr had alerted Rune of the intruder moments earlier, before Deimos dragged him in here. Hadeon stood at the base of the stairs, guarding the mortal as well as preventing the hundreds of demons that had gathered from getting too close.
Rune really didn’t have time for this.
The fate of his bride and his hinge on him breaking a Sleeping Curse. Now he had unleashed his bride’s magic, and the mystery of its source plagued his thoughts. He had thousands ofthings to contend with, yet he’d been dragged away from more dire matters to deal withthis.
A mortal had wandered into his mountain.
