But my mind rips through every memory, every scrap of history I thought I understood, trying to make sense of it all.
Because that’s when the truth hits?—
“You did the binding spell,” I breathe, mind racing as I trip over my words. “You knew. You fucking knew he was going to kill my father! And you helped! You started it all!”
My breaths come ragged and furious.
Elyssara’s blade now points at Mavyrn’s heart, her eyes narrowed into pained slits.
“Exactly!” Mavyrn explodes. “I started it all. The prophecy wouldn’t be in play at all if it wasn’t for me. I knew. Iknewall these years that you were the Sky. And I knew you’d find your Light. And I knew from the minute you were born under the Obsidian Serpent sky, that you’d be the one to break and remake her into the one that could save these godsforsaken realms!”
My mind quiets into a silent storm—a clash of opposing truths whirring incessantly.
“So you executed my father for it? Gave up my Starbound? You do not get to play the role of the gods with our lives!” I bark the words with a viciousness that rattles my bones.
“Someone had to,” she snarls. “The gods are gone, Kael. They left us a prophecy and a broken world. So I stepped into the vacancy.”
I grip my blade tighter, turning my knuckles white. “To what fucking end, Mavyrn?”
“To theveryend of the realms, Kael. Because Ibelievein the prophecy. I believe it is Elyssara who can reunite them. I believeit isyouwho will help her do it—you must tread as one, boy. And I believe, with the very bones of my body, that love and war play by the same blood-soaked rules. Your father was a good man, but his obsession with peace stopped him from being a powerful king,” Mavyrn snarls back.
“My father was the greatest king Zerynthia has ever seen!” The words rip from my throat.
Mavyrn just clicks her tongue in disapproval. “You have his big heart, Kael. But you have your mother’s head—a strategist. And you won’t like me saying it, but you have your uncle’s ruthless cunning and violence. You’ll need all three to bring the world to heel.”
Disgust roils in my gut. Her words land like a blade sliding home—quiet, inevitable, and cold.
“How?” Elyssara cuts through the silence, tracks of tears carve clean rivers through the dirt on her face.
Mavyrn shifts her eyes to Elyssara, as if she finally asked the right question.
“I’m half-witch,” she says, voice flat. “The Codex wants the old blood, not purity. So I stole it. I performed Maldrak’s binding and vanished. When you showed up half-dead on my doorstep, I felt the witch-blood in Seren, the fire inyou,” she stabs a bony finger at Elyssara.“I knew it was time. I returned each moon to tend Maldrak’s hunger, to keep his trust intact—and the rest of the time I pulled strings. Lesara? She follows crumbs. She’s beenmypuppet from the start.”
She fucking played me. She’s known everything.
The contents of my stomach threaten to spill.
Elyssara says nothing, but she doesn’t lower her blade.
“You had her tortured,” I repeat, voice cold and lethal.
“Yes! I knew it would happen and I did it anyway. Who do you think got Rhyven to turn?” she snarls, and my veins turn to ice.She turned Rhyven on us.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised, you foolish child! I’d do it again. I’d make every hard call your parents were too scared to make, because look where that got us. War requires sacrifice!”
I still, muscles coiled so tight I can’t move.
Because I fucking hate her.
Gods, she’s horrifying… but she’s not wrong.
My father played a safe game of politics and our people continued to suffer. The Decay stayed standing, the realms remained fractured.
And still, betrayal does not go unpunished.
I lift my gaze, branding her with my stare.
“You will not see another dawn,” I vow.
