After patting Alora’s arm, she glided down the path toward the waiting carriage. Bramble, ever dutiful, held the door open as the Thornbearer stepped inside. With a nimble hop, he scrambled onto the driver’s box and snapped the reins. Theelk let out a sharp bugle, hooves striking the earth. Then the carriage rolled forward and vanished into the mist.
Alora closed the door, her mind echoing with Lady Zinnia’s warning and the strange spell Eldrik chanted last night.
She turned, catching the last of Calla’s soft words.
“…we have kept the news from the courts, though I suspect the Dominions have already received word. There is no hiding it, sire. All have seen the sky. They know he’s coming.”
Rune gave a slight nod, his jaw tightening.
“Who?” Alora asked. But she already knew.
Rune rubbed his face. “Calla, could you give us a moment?”
The Harbinger bowed and vanished in a plume of smoke.
“Alora…please stay calm.”
She marched past him toward the back window and flung the curtains open. “Calm? How am I to remain calm when the sky isbleeding?”
Rune retreated to the shadowed corner of the cottage, his eyes grim. “I should have known that not even your eyes could be veiled anymore.”
“What do you mean?” she demanded. “What is this? Who tore the sky?”
He exhaled a heavy breath.
“I did.”
Alora gaped at him in shock. The curtains slipped from her fingers and fell back into place, leaving them in shadowed darkness.
Rune rubbed his face, cursing softly under his breath. “Your godmother is right, the siphoning array is dark magic.”
She held her breath.
“I know… for it is a spell from my archives.”
The confession sent her heart into a wild gallop as she stared at Rune. She was hit with a brief memory of last night when he found her, and his uneasy expression when he saw the array.
Her body went cold.
“It’syourspell?” Alora asked shakily. “Why would…have you used it before…?”
He took a sharp breath. “I have. It requires the source’s blood to function, but carving into your flesh was for Eldrik’s own vile enjoyment.” A muscle flexed in Rune’s jaw as he looked to the fire crackling in the hearth. “As soon as you slept… I hunted him. So blinded by my wrath, I had not even stopped to think or interrogate him about how he procured the siphoning array.”
But even without answers, the truth was clear.
The Hellstones, the array, the spell used to keep shadows out of the castle—were all signs that someone from Rune’s court had helped Eldrik.
And they could both already guess who.
The bond shook with Rune’s quiet rage, but he took her hands with a gentleness. His fingers lightly traced her wrists, soothing the distant sting where the crystals had burned.
If the Dominions were involved, Deimos fill find out. The prince, however, paid in full for what he did to you.
Alora’s pulse quickened at the darkness in his tone.
“And… what did you do to him?” she dared to ask faintly.
“I took him apart.”
