As I step back to let Lilis work, the Oracle’s command once again revolves within my mind.
When the stars go out…
I jolt as a possibility occurs to me: the bloodlands are starless.
Surely, Antony wouldn’t be so reckless as to take the Oracle there?
My focus rakes across the sky once more, but there’s no way to determine which direction he went after he passed the mountains.
And anyway, he would not dare travel through the bloodlands. It’s well known among the Frost Fae that his family’s power to repel that cursed land’s dark creatures did not pass to him with enough strength to ensure his safety.
Not even Maxim, with all his volatile fire, would venture into that dark landscape.
Besides, the Oracle specifically spoke of the starsgoing out.
That implies the stars would be shining first. The bloodlands are so completely covered in black clouds that stars haven’t shone there since the Kingdom of Serulia broke into three.
The stars had blazed when this female Oracle was born. Some texts even suggest new stars were born that night. If I follow that logic, it could stand to reason that the stars couldgo outwhen this Oracle?—
I jolt at another shocking possibility.
Nearby, Lilis and the men have covered the dead man in a film of transparent ice and are preparing him for transport on one of the wolves.
Lilis doesn’t miss my sudden movement. “My lord?”
I dismiss the question in her voice, my expression tightly controlled and coldly calm again. “Bring him to the Sacred Stone Temple and place him in a crystal coffin. I will be studying the texts in the catacombs.”
With that, I launch myself toward my wolf, alighting on her back and urging herinto a run.
Leaning low, I fight every impulse in my body to turn my wolf in the other direction and go after the Oracle.
Experience has taught me that preparation is essential. I can’t rush into another ambush or be lured into another battle. My next fight with Antony or Maxim must be on my terms.
For that, I need knowledge.
If the stars blazed when this female Oracle was born, they might go out if she dies.
Chapter Eleven
Thyra
The light behind my eyelids vanishes, and a spine-chilling darkness drops over me.
My eyes fly open, but I immediately regret it.
Far,farbelow, the landscape races past in a dizzying rush, a wash of sharp peaks and shadowed valleys so dark, it looks like rivers of black blood flow between giant rocks.
It can only be the place known as the bloodlands.
I don’t know exactly what kind of creatures live here. Nobody could tell me. As the stories go, nobody reckless enough to travel through here ever comes out again.Nobody. This place is a wasteland whose only inhabitants are primed to deliver a painful death.
As much as I fear finding out more about this land, my immediate anxiety is caused by the distance between me and the ground below.
I squeeze my eyes closed again, only to discover that the Iron King must have been watching me because he gives a sharp command.
“Open your eyes.”
My jaw clenches. “No.”
