“Isavorit.”
He yanked her wrist again—
But she moved first.
Viktor felt the shift before he saw it.
Her hand flashed to his dagger, steel slicing the air.
She drove forward, the blade biting at Ryvka’s throat.
Gasps froze the hall.
Her chest heaved, breath ragged, arm steady as stone. A bead of blood welled at the edge of steel.
Viktor’s pulse thundered, every instinct screaming to reach her.
The silence broke with the slow clap of jeweled hands. Zeporah rose slightly, wings rustling.
“Marvelous,” she cooed.
She swept her hand out with a flourish.
“But do give Captain Seraphim back his knife, Lady Zrynon.”
Amerei’s blade didn’t waver until fear flickered in Ryvka’s eyes. Only then did she shove him back, scraping his throat as he stumbled.
The court held its breath as she turned—slow, measured—and set the dagger into Viktor’s waiting hand. Their eyes caught, held—burned.
That was when Zeporah saw it.
Her smile sharpened, the pause long enough to brand the moment into memory. Then she clapped, each strike ringing like thunder.
“Let it begin,” she declared, voice bright as blades of ice.
“The Vykenraven.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vykenraven
Through smoke, he found her eyes—and truth drove shadow to ash.
Twin braziers flanking Queen Zeporah roared to life, black fire coiling like serpents into the vaulted dark. Her chant cut the air, each word a dagger until even the stone seemed to bow in fear.
Elves in sable robes swept forward, hurling roots and herbs into the blaze. Smoke rose—but not upward. It fell, a veil of ash drifting down, feather-light as snow yet heavy as ruin when it touched skin.
A hush seized the hall.
One gasp, another—
then stillness.
The ash clung to lashes, to lips, to hands thrown up in vain. Wherever it settled, breath stuttered and limbs locked.Lords and ladies froze mid-movement, laughter caught on their tongues, the chamber turned to a forest of statues breathing shallow in the gloom.
The great doors slammed.
Viktor’s hand shot to Amerei’s, gripping hard. The ash burned his cheek, clawed at his lungs, but he fought through it, dragging her close.
