Oh yes, Edmund was the king’s son. He knew precisely where to press to elicit pain. And in this case, twice at once. I would never allow him to see the impact that his words—and Koryn’s reaction to them—had upon me. But Koryn did not contain her ire.
“Play with frost at your own risk, princeling,” Koryn said. She was nearly a foot shorter, but she glared down her nose at Edmund, reminding us all.Shewas the senior here. A captive, yes. But willing. A four-hundred-year-old frost witch who, despite separation from her coven and a dying continent, retained her full power. Who had managed what only one other ever had, conquering five of Velora’s Seven Gates.
I hoped they underestimated her, just so I could watch her vengeance.
‘Presence chamber’was a misnomer for throne room, and it was the same one I’d watched my life fall apart in for the first time twenty years before.
Edmund fell back to my side as we entered the final stretch of the spiral.
“Compulsion isn’t the kindest way to greet your brother after ten long years,” he crooned.
Koryn kept her gaze forward. Isanara’s spikes prickled. They both listened. More than fine. I’d have no more secrets from my Lifebind.
“I take that resentment to mean you never manifested a mind-gift of your own,” I said, giving my brother only the minimum of my attention. Every step brought us closer to the dark heart of Balar Shan, and I refused to be caught unawares here. Again.
Edmund’s step did not falter. He had more control over his temper than the king.
The fact that I alone of his four children had inherited a mind-gift, while his three legitimate heirs did not, was an offense to the king’s pride. An embarrassment to the court, and a threat to Edmund.
It was why he’d murdered my lover—so that the Prince of Balar Shan would not suffer by comparison.
I shoved the pain of the memory aside before it could find purchase. Pain was debilitating, and I had enough weaknesses as I brought my beloved to face the worst male alive in all of Velora. My father.
CHAPTER 13
KORYN
“Good luck,”Garrick’s brother said over his shoulder as he strode past me. The malice shone through despite his grin.
So it began.
There was no temple, but this was a trial nonetheless. The Court of Lies could kill me just as easily as one of the Seven Gates.
Without the curse, I might have grown up to be a courtier. Now I was a witch, and I’d have to learn anyway. What pride my father would have felt. My stomach tried to heave.
Isanara stayed by my side, Garrick just behind my right shoulder. I hated that the comfort they gave me was nearly equal. Garrick’s presence should make me feel ill. But my body had decided to ignore that reality.
The upward spiral floor leveled out. Edmund braced his palms on a set of ornate filigree doors and shoved them open. My mouth fell open.
My father had dubbed one of the rooms in our house as his presence chamber. There he received politicians, traders, and social callers. Every person who came through that room was there for a purpose—to raise my father’s social standing, or their own. But this was not even comparable to my father’s richlyappointed room of dark velvet and tapestries woven with golden thread.
The red brick floors gleamed despite the hundreds of feet that must traverse them every day. There were at least that many people crowded around the dais. Tall, angular windows alternating with painted spiral columns supported the domed roofing that soared overhead.
I’d seen drawings of the exterior of Balar Shan, etched in books in my father’s library when I was young. Before. But I’d been unconscious when they brought me here.
I reached for Isanara.
It is beautiful,I admitted where only she could hear me.
It is a façade,she countered. Her head whipped from side to side, taking in the crowd of fae courtiers. We were surrounded on all sides by opulently dressed fae nobles. So much velvet. I’d imagined more silk. My ice dagger would cut through either.
I’d built a block of ice in my chest to protect myself from feeling. But the hatred I felt for these people threatened to crack it. They were warm, well-dressed, and safe. While the rest of the continent—my family, my Kyna and Kyrelle—suffered for their hubris.
There, at the center of the glorious domedpresence chamber, was the man who oversaw it all. The fae king.
Garrick’s father.
I would not allow sympathy any space in my mind or body.
