They recognized someone.
My breaths grew shallower. Despite the fact that I’d altered time with my lorafin magic, the wards here still knew me. Just like the university’s magic on the Isle of Song had recognized me. And it hit me that the courts’ building was constructed of the same, ancient rock—stone that the gods had formed.
It felt like my heart was going to explode from that devastating revelation, but before we could even reach the main doors to enter the courts, the doors sprang open, and a rush of kingsfae erupted from within. Their armor clinked, and their stares were deadly.
Magic rising, Jax immediately positioned himself in front of me. “What’s the meaning of this?”
The kingsfae ground to a halt as potent power billowed around them. “Step aside, my prince. This doesn’t concern you.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. “Like fuck, it doesn’t. She’s my mate. Why has Elowen been summoned?”
My eyes widened when the kingsfae commander, the same one who’d appeared in the dining hall the night Jax and all of his friends had been arrested, pushed forward to the front of the group.
His gaze settled on me, but there wasn’t even a flicker of recognition. He’d obviously never seen me before.
Some of my panic eased, but then I remembered the wards. The courts’ wards had known who I was.
“Elowen Emerson?” The commander drew himself up to his full height and looked me square in the eye.
“Yes?” I hated that my voice shook.
His nostrils flared. “You’ve been summoned to appear before the supernatural courts for breach of unified kingdom law. You will present before a King Justice to hear your charges. You are to follow me immediately.”
It felt as though the realm had dropped out from beneath me. I swayed, but Jax caught me before I could fall. His large hands closed around me, his snarl following.
“What in the realm is going on?” A rush of magic barreled out from him. “She’s donenothingwrong. I demand to know why she’s been summoned.”
The commander turned his frosty gaze on the prince. “Your mate is being charged with using her lorafin magic illegally. She twisted fate. The ancient wards have spoken, alerting us to this atrocity, and as you may know”—his unwavering glare slid my way—“that is a crime punishable by death.”
CHAPTER 26
The prison’s walls closed in around me. Rock. Magic. Suffocating chains. Everywhere I looked was the darkness of my future.
I’d only been here a day, yet already it felt like a lifetime. The King Justice had sent me to the maximum-security prison on the Nolus continent as soon as my charges had been read. He hadn’t even listened to me when I tried to tell him I’d twisted fate to protect the realm. That I’d tried tostopKing Paevin from destroying the kingdoms. That I’d done it to save fae.
Instead, a sneer had marred his lips when I’d spoken so unbecomingly of a recently deceased monarch. Jax had grown so irate of his treatment of me that they’d slapped the magic-stealing cuffs on him to stop him from exacting his power. His cries of rage when I’d been dragged away and forced into a bright jumpsuit still echoed through my ears. At least they hadn’t arrested him too. It was the only saving grace.
To make matters even worse, the magic used in the maximum-security prison was the same as the ancient magic surrounding the supernatural courts in Jaggedston and the Isle of Song, and since I couldn’t access my magic, I couldn’t command the fates again to break me out.
I shook my head and closed my eyes. Everything had happened so fast.Sofast. All of it felt like a blur.
But one thing I knew. The courts considered me an extreme threat. They wouldn’t even allow me to walk freely before my trial. And that was all because the ancient wards had told them what I’d done. It was only the remnant of the gods’ magic that had the power to do so.
Fate has been altered, their wards had whispered to them...and since there was only one lorafin currently alive on the Silten continent, they’d known it was me.
I didn’t even know such intricate magic existed before becoming involved with Jax, and it’d all worked against me.
Head pounding, I lay on the simple cot that my cell provided. A hard, scratchy pillow felt like a brick beneath my throbbing skull. Tears threatened to fill my eyes.
I was now contained in the most feared prison of our realm. As if I was a lethal criminal who couldn’t be trusted within a normal prison cell. As though I truly was a danger to everyone around me.
“Emerson!” a guard barked from the outside hallway. “Time for your potion.”
I blinked the tears back and winced, then brought a hand to my aching temple.Not again.They’d forced one down me after being arrested yesterday. The potion had been a sickly sweet concoction and had tasted like poisoned syrup sliding down my throat. Even worse, it had instantly suppressed my magic, and not only that, it’d hidden my mate bond too.
I could no longer feel the threads of magic linking me to Jax. Of everything that had occurred, that was the hardest part of all of this.
But I knew Jax still lived. They’d done nothing to him other than remove him from the premises in Jaggedston, but after that, my awareness of everything got fuzzy, as if the potion had clogged my mind too. I wasn’t sure how I’d been transported here, yet I knew it all occurred yesterday since the morning alarm that woke me up today had confirmed the day and time.
