“I have theories… Nothing certain.”
“Speak them anyway,” Kael snapped.
Aldwyn sighed. “The ‘dreamer’ may be Eiren herself, the lost goddess. Or the girl, if her power is… inherited. The line about chains and sky suggests a bond beyond this realm. Magic that existed before the gods’ curses.”
Kael didn’t blink.
The table fell into stunned silence. A breath later, heavy bootsteps echoed from the hall. The war room door burst open. Captain Nyreth, head of the city guard, bowed low.
“My King,” he said, breathless. “We intercepted word from the south road. A rider broke through the city wall at dawn, headed southwest.”
“Toward Calanthe?” Kael asked.
“Aye, sire. Sent by that of a disguised female. Alone. They were spotted in an empty area by the wall. Likely three to four hours ahead of our scouts.”
A pulse of pure, lethal calm spread through Kael’s chest.
He didn’t need to guess who it had been.
Valea swore a curse under her breathe and bowed her head.
“Do not let him arrive,” he said softly, the edges of his voice gleaming like a knife.
Captain Nyreth bowed again and vanished.
Kael stared down at the Seer’s riddle, the parchment seeming to glow faintly in the firelight.
What are you becoming?He silently questioned.
He didn’t know.
Chapter fifteen
Beneath the Wolf’s Cloak
-Maris-
Maris didn’t bother to rise when Kael came into view within her chamber. He didn’t knock. Of course he didn’t. He never did. She remained curled in the velvet-cushioned window seat, one leg tucked beneath her, a book half-forgotten in her lap. Outside, the grey light of morning draped the mountains like mourning cloth.
“Kael,” she said coolly.
Kael’s silver eyes flicked to her and lingered. “You were meant to be in the library tower.”
“I was,” she replied. “Then I decided I preferred a book that doesn’t try to decode my soul.”
His jaw clenched. “Aldwyn said you haven’t been focusing.”
“And Valea says I’m improving in sparring. Would you like to duel over my progress reports?”
He stepped closer. “This isn’t a game, Maris.”
“No, it’s a prison with prettier curtains.”
Their eyes locked — a breath between them stretched like the string of a drawn bow.
“You don’t know what’s out there,” he said lowly. “If I gave you a single day beyond these walls, you’d crawl back broken.”
“Why not let me see for myself, with you my great protector as my guide?”
