She only smiled, eyes still on me.“Selvarra’s salvation.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Verena
MY VISION OBSCURED, THEN BLACKENED, until a hand tightened around my arm, dragging me back.
Callum.
The world returned with a dizzying throb behind my eyes as the tavern snapped back into focus, the fog of Nezra’s trance lifting slowly.
“He said let her go,” Reve’s voice cut through, cracking like a sober warning.
My temples pounded, the pulse itself feeling different, rabid. I’d drifted too far, too deep into history. Into a memory that felt stolen, a truth never meant to be shared.
But ithadall been real.
The divinity stones. The Gods, the Valkaras, even Saintoria.
That was what myth had called it once. A secret realm hidden in the sky until its collapse, dropped from the clouds like its very wings had been cut.
That was all history had lent us about them.
There’s been whispers, stories of a meeting between Gods and Angels. But no records. No proof. Certainly, no mention of the divinity stone.
Of coronation stones and borrowed power, yes. But not their origin. Not that they had been formed intoone, a stone born from balance, for redemption.
My mind raced through every lesson, every lecture about the stones being gifted to each kingdom—had they even been real?
Nezra bowed, her voice as alluring as the rest of her. “My apologies, miss.”
The raven on her shoulder blinked, though only one eye, black as its feathers, seemed to understand the motion.
Reve stepped in again, perhaps before the damned bird could lure me back under. “Whatever you showed her, she’s not paying for it.”
Had it all just been a trick? A dream?
“On the house,” Nezra promised with a wink.
She turned, hips swaying as she made for the bar. I understood the appeal now; she certainly had my attention.
I sank back onto the bench. “How long was I gone?”
“Only a minute or so,” Callum said carefully. His eyes studied me. “What did she show you?”
The answer lodged in my throat and I didn’t know why. I’d always told him everything. Every secret, every sin.
But this? This felt stitched into my core, meant for me alone.
I shook my head, temples still throbbing as though her magic clung there, refusing to let go. “I can’t remember.”
Callum’s eyes lingered a heartbeat too long, the corner of his jaw ticking.
My pulse sped up. He didn’t believe me, not for a second, and he didn’t have to say it.
Nezra was already at the bar when my focus caught her again, her hand outstretched. The barkeep rolled his eyes, digging into his trousers, dropping a small brown sack into her palm. She gave it a lazy swirl, judging its weight by sound alone, before nodding to the raven. A breath left the bird, and the bag vanished.
Fates, I needed to learn that trick.
