Her words hold weight, but her gaze pierces through me as if she already sees my answer.
“Free me, Princess,” she purrs, her voice almost soft, “and none shall stop you. Not the prince. Not the court. Not the ones who swarm your thoughts each time you breathe within these walls.”
And there it is—the end of my choice before it’s even begun. The question isn’t whether I will act. It’s how much I’ll lose along the way.
“A bargain is struck,” Sphinx says, her ominous tone igniting shivers along my skin. “You must go now.”
Burning questions linger on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them as the sharp hiss of metal scraping against stone fills the air. The sound is both near and far, accompanied by the faint, haunting clink of chains. My eyes dart toward the source of the sound, settling on another sealed door. There’s an inexplicable pull, a force tugging at the core of my being, drawing me closer.
I take a step, but Sphinx blocks my way, her golden eyes flaring.
“He comes,” she growls.
I don’t need to ask who she means. Without another moment’s hesitation, I turn away, leaving Sphinx and her guarded secrets behind.
The echo of angry voices doesn’t reach me until I step back into the main tunnel. My heart leaps to my throat and I dart to the opposite side, retreating into the shadows of the exit passage Titaia showed me earlier. I press my body into the curve of the wall, shoving the aura deep inside the folds of my gown to smother the glow. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I press my mouth into the crook of my arm, muffling the telltale sound of my breath in the otherwise silent space.
“What do you mean ‘it failed’?” a familiar voice carries to my hiding spot, the fury in the words making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Keres. I know his voice well enough by now, but I’ve never heard him so angry. Not even the night he forced Helen to drink the nightshade.
“The subject died, my prince,” another voice replies, and I stiffen at the same raspy voice of the hooded man. “He was not a strong enough vessel to hold the power.”
A growl of frustration echoes down the tunnel.
“You will try again,” Keres demands. “I don’t care how manyvesselsyou have to go through.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
I remain frozen in place as the voices fade and a door slams in the distance.
Once I’m sure enough time has passed, I creep out of the opening. I glance to my right, cocking my head to listen for any signs of movement in the tunnel.
An icy breeze claws its way out of the dark, like a cold hand sliding against the surface of my skin, causing the ever-present warmth of my soul magic to shiver within my chest.
And with deep certainty, I know.
I’ve found what we’ve been searching for.
I scream and the sailsnaps open. Too much—too hard—and the boatflies through the water, crashing into a dock on the other side of the canal.
A sob rips from my throat as her hand disappears beneath the bubbling surface last, as though she’s reaching for me—begging me to save her.
A cold grip tightens around my throat—
A door slams in the outer room of my chambers and I bolt upright in bed, my heart racing as I blink away the remnants of my nightmare. They’ve been much too frequent since I stopped taking the somniseed.
The sound of raised voices and heavy footsteps gets closer, and I scramble toward my nightstand, grabbing my dagger and ripping it from the sheath as the door explodes open.
“Fucking Notos!” I shout, relief washing over me at the sight of Nyssa and Raven. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
I throw the dagger onto the bed and rub my hands over my face, flinging myself back down among the pillows. An expectant silence fills the room, and I peer through my fingers to find two furious faces watching me.
“What?” I ask, dropping my hands.
“What?” Nyssa repeats, her voice dangerously calm.
“You can’t ask what. I asked it first.”
