Allaster’s cool voice cut through the noise. “I have a right to know the division of votes.”
Talthari bowed their head. “In favor of the Kalish plaintiff voted the leaders of Kalthos, Riviair, and Miraval.”
Utter betrayal filled Allaster’s face. “Ambric?” His brother stared forward, his thick fingers interlaced so tightly, the olive skin had turned white. “Ambric, look at me!” The room shuddered with Allaster’s voice.
Ambric’s gaze finally snapped to Allaster. Energy crackled about the Librarian, invisible to everyone but Kasira, who felt the magic gathering around him, saw it tracing through Allaster’s veins. It pooled in his shadow, tugged at the ends of his hair, and spiraledabout his throat. It spread great wings at his back and blotted out the balestone lights above.
“Subdue him, Assistant!” someone cried.
Kasira didn’t move. Her bargain did not include what came next, but more than that, she did not think she could. This was magic she knew nothing about. Magic Allaster had never said he had. She had seen glimpses of it, thought she had imagined the wings spread across the bed the day he caught her mid-fall and the claws tipping his fingers in Ayador, but it was clear to her now that whatever this was, it was not the same magic she knew—and he was losing control of it.
The Malik had drawn their swords and were edging closer, alongside the Kalish palace guards. Queen Sarren’s sentries were closing in from the other side. Even the Jacari guards had slipped on their makhet gloves, the living metal forming spikes along the knuckles.
“I had to do what was best for my people.” Ambric’s hoarse voice barely rose above the panicking crowd. His face had paled, but he stared resolutely back at his brother. “You would not treat with Kalthos, you would not even listen! And it is Miraval that paid the price. Spenshire. My family, Allaster!”
“I amyour family!” Allaster roared.
Ambric sprang to his feet. “You are the Librarian of Amorlin! You gave up your right to family when you took this position. You were given everything, Allaster,everything! Do not blame me because you decided to throw it all away.”
Slowly, the darkness receded, slinking back into Allaster’s shadow like a wounded animal. The room ceased its shaking, the air clearing of the growing pressure. The Library settled, leaving behind a man who looked more ancient than the catacombs below his feet.
“For you,” he said quietly, and Ambric reared back. “I threw it away for you.”
In that moment, Kasira saw their story laid bare between them. The older brother who had lived in his younger brother’s shadow, who had spent his life pursuing him to the ends of the continent, had ascended to the greatest Miravi heights as High Mage, and had still never felt like enough. And the lonely, five-year-old boy who had beenstripped from his family, had watched them die one by one across the decades, who had wanted nothing more than his brother at his side.
She had done this. She had broken all of this.
“Take him,” came Vera’s order, and her Malik seized Allaster by each arm. “I want him locked away until we’re prepared to transport him to Kalthos.”
She swept from the room, and Kasira snapped her fingers, teleporting herself to Allaster’s office.Heroffice. She was Librarian now, at least for as long as it took Vera to phase her out and take control of the Library. Then everything would change.
She leaned back against the desk to await Vera, forcing each breath out more slowly than the last. She had to keep control of herself.
The Ambassador glided into the room with her Malik. She barely spared her surroundings a glance, lifting a folded envelope. “One royal pardon, as agreed.” She tossed it onto a haphazard pile of books that teetered with the movement. “You’ve been absolved of all the crimes you were sentenced to Belvar for, your sentence considered served.”
Kasira waved her hand, and the envelope appeared in her palm. She tore it open, reading each word of the document, seeking the signature at the bottom that made it legitimate. It was real. It was done.
She was free.
“There is one problem, of course.” Vera studied her nails as she spoke. “Free or not, I need you here, under my command, until my control of the Library is complete. As we agreed.”
“And if I refuse?” Kasira tilted her head.
The Ambassador’s lips thinned in a smile as the Malik gripped their hilts. “You have worked so hard to protect this wretched place. Would you abandon it now?”
When Kasira only stared at her, something shifted in Vera’s expression. The barest hint of a crack that only widened when she demanded, “Do you understand me, criminal?”
“Perfectly,” Kasira replied evenly. In fact, she understood better than Vera likely did herself. The Ambassador saw herself a pious woman, her blasphemy delegated to lesser souls with the self-assurance that the sins they committed were for the good of the church.That was how she justified things like Spenshire, like hiring a con artist to lie on her orders.
It was why Kasira had trusted her to keep her word, even as the Ambassador compromised herself again and again, and why she knew that at the end, Vera would have a way around their bargain. One final trick.
“This was always going to end here,” Kasira said. “From the moment you offered Thane my life.”
Vera’s eyes narrowed. “And yet you performed your side of the bargain anyway?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I needed to stall you.”
At that, the crack became a rift, revealing Vera’s uncertainty. “Stall me?”
