Chapter 2
Elariya
“The Echo in My Blood”
The Gilded Stag was already brimming with people by the time Emabelle and I arrived.
Borsai, our guard, remained outside to hitch the horses, promising he’d be along in a moment.
Emabelle and I had been coming to this tavern since we were twelve. Father used to let us sneak away for pumpkin pie and berry punch, as if sweetness could ward off the darker parts of Stormfell.
Being here—somewhere as familiar as home—felt like a rare kind of relief.
Night had settled in fully by the time we arrived. It was probably too late to be out, but Emabelle had persuaded my mother to allow it on the condition that Borsai escorted us and we didn’t leave his side.
Mother tried to argue that I wasn’t strong enough yet, but I assured her I was.
I was glad she agreed. I needed to get away, and the timing was a small mercy: Thayden had left before dinner on business, and Grandmother had been gone since dawn, traveling to the next town for medicinal herbs.
From what I’d been told, the only good thing to come out of the last month—while I’d been out of it—was that Mother had crossed paths with a wealthy merchant who’d enlisted her and Grandmother to tend a sick relative. He’d paid more than our family had seen in decades. I supposed the promise of stability had almost felt like hope.
Almost.
With King Varis fading and the court already shifting, no amount of coin could save us. Only my marriage to Thayden.
While I slid onto the bench in front of one of the corner tables, Emabelle set off to the bar to get us pumpkin pie and strawberry ale.
I shrugged off my shawl and folded my hands in my lap, forcing myself into stillness.
I took in my surroundings. Smoke curled along the rafters, blurring the lanternlight into something hazy and gold. The air smelled of ale, roasted meat, and the sweeter notes of pumpkin spice and baked sugar.
Stormfell’s working folk filled the long tables: traders with road dust still clinging to their boots, merchants hunched over tankards, and laborers rubbing at aching hands.
Across the room, the door opened, and Borsai walked in. His eyes found mine, and he cocked his head toward the bar, silently telling me he’d be over there where I could see him.
I nodded back and smiled, then shifted on the bench and let my senses stretch.
A group of traders at a table buried in the crowd caught my attention as their voices rose, roughened by drink and smokeleaf.
“…should’ve stayed home,” one muttered, dragging his finger through a ring of spilled ale. “King falls ill, and suddenly, every toll doubles.”
Another snorted. “Ill, my arse. The man isdying.”
“Exactly. Affected by the blight,” a third said quietly. “Picked it up beyond the eastern wards. Wind carried it straight through his lungs.”
“Doesn’t matter what it is,” the first man replied. “Court’s already circling like vultures. You can feel it, can’t you? Everythingtightening.”
I went rigid, my attention sharpening despite myself.
A chair scraped. Someone laughed too loudly. A barmaid barked for them to mind their tongues.
I lowered my gaze and smoothed my skirts, but the man’s words settled heavily inside my chest.
He was right. Everything was tightening. It was as though the world had drawn a slow breath and was waiting to see who would choke first.
King Varis’ passing would change everything. I couldn’t imagine what would happen to the other magic-born beings throughout the mortal lands.
I was half-human, half mage, but I was treated the same as if my human side didn’t exist. It was only due to my father’s friendship with King Varis that people tolerated my family. And I feared what might happen even after I married Thayden.
