“Yes.”
The room shifted when it breathed at last, when it was finally laid bare. The sword of Ryuu. The dragons’ lost heirloom.
I staggered back a step, the sight stealing air from my chest. Beautiful, yes, but dreadful. The weapon history swore had vanished the night Rhydan fell.
“How—”My voice cracked, knowing exactly what this meant.“Howdid you get that? It’s been missing for years.”
“Nothing is ever lost, Verena.”His hand hovered over the blade, not daring to touch.“Only waiting to be found again.”
“Gods.”I angled my chin, just enough to bare the sarcastic smile I wore. “You’re a bigger fool than I thought.” Its beauty was unmatched, its deep blue stone eclipsing even the finest gems. A sword born for kings and monsters.“I’m shocked he didn’t burn you alive the second you showed him that.”
Relief flooded my chest that Luamis’ relic was only a crown. Obrann with a weapon like this? Unthinkable. The crown was bad enough, amplifying his rot-born magic.
But the thought I couldn’t outrun was how untouchable Ronan would be with it back in his control.
Callum wound the fabric back carefully, hoping the sword wouldn’t remember his touch. His scent. He walked back to the window, lowering it into the floor, the wood groaning as if it, too, hated what it was forced to keep.
“He doesn’t know I have it.” Dust filtered into the air when he brushed his palms together. “I told him I’d retrieve itifhe helped us.”
Wind whistled at the window, a shiver threading through the cottage walls.
“And when he gets it? Who’s to say he won’t cut you down before the silk even falls away?”
The lone candle burning on the windowsill guttered low in warning. Any moment now, our company would arrive.
A quick adjustment to the cuffs of his sleeves, a hand smoothing a crease that wasn’t there in his shirt, and he was primed. Like that could tame the chaos he’d invited.
“Trust, V.”His tone was maddeningly soft.“Just… try to have some faith, yes?”
Trust. The most fragile currency. The more you offered it, the faster betrayal came scrapping back for its due.
I kept my list short. Four souls. Maybe five. If Duke would ever start calling me by my godsdamn name.
My path curved toward the kitchen, and I slid the cracked frame into a drawer beside the stove to fix up later, the wood closing with a muted sigh. The kettle’s handle was already cool beneath my fingers as I refilled it.Callum moved to my side without a word, sparking a flame under the iron belly until it hissed.
“You never answered my question,”I murmured, eyes on the rising heat.
“Verena—”His hand found my wrist, pressing our hands palm to palm, an impression of the way he’d steadied me as a child.“You are our light,”he said, Gemma’s words reborn in his mouth.
My head shook once. “No.” Ruin burned under my second skin. Callum’s throat moved, his gaze flicking to where my fingers traced the hollow at my collarbone. “I am our darkness.” The confession spilled too easily, too true.“And leaving me out of that meeting proved it and provoked it.”
The candle on the sill trembled, its flame sputtering lower. His eyes shifted, his palms growing warmer against mine. “So, you’ve started taking the tincture again?”
My stare snapped to him. “I will not go numb just to make everyone else comfortable.” A beat as I studied him like a stranger. “Is that what this is about?”
The line of his jaw tensed. “Show me your hands.”
I blinked once, looking down to where our hands touched, then back up to him.“What?”
He didn’t look away. “Show me. Your hands.”
I cursed under my breath, suddenly chilled and burning all at once, then let a single, ancient word roll off my tongue. “Alluro.”Unglamour.
Black seeped across my fingertips, creeping past the nailbeds like ink, like corruption.
He shifted his weight. “This,”his stare stayed on my hands,“this is a big deal, Verena.”
Yes. Which is why I had planned to conceal it.
