The flame in my chest flared brighter. “Good thing someone has come to take charge. Riyan bestowed the power of the North to me, and you will do well to acquiesce to his wishes.”
Captain Mydina chuckled. “You don’t know the first thing about running a province, Serafina.”
A smile crawled up my lips. “I know more than you think,Evereon.”
Evereon Mydina’s eyes widened and he held his breath. “How did you—?”
“Oh, you are quite infamous.” I kept my voice low and calm as I moved around the long table toward him. “But I will admit, it took me a while to recognize you.”
I let my fingertips trace the edge of the oak dining table as I rounded the far edge. “Coppery hair like your father’s…” I flicked my eyes up to meet his gaze. “Yellow eyes and light brown complexion, just like your Sudrian-born mother, Baroness Mydina.”
Evereon’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but—”
“I have heard many things, whispers mainly, all of them conflicting with one another.” I rounded the second corner and stalked closer. “Your father kept most of the details quiet, but disinheriting a Baron’s heir was quite a scandal.”
I stopped in front of him, tilting my head up to look him in the eyes. To Evereon’s credit, he did not cower.
“You can threaten me with whatever tricks you learned on the mountain,” he said, “but I do not fear my past, I fear the future. What happened to him?”
I set my jaw. “You act quite concerned for someone who claimed this was his fortress. The disappearance of the last Bloodstone heir would be quite advantageous for you—a chance to have a Baronage again.”
His face hardened. “I can’t have a Baronage because I can’t have heirs.” His voice broke slightly, but his eyes stayed rigid. “Ican’t.”
As soon as I felt the heat radiate against the front of my throat, my hand flew up to cover my Nordingaard crystal. I squeezed my fingers tightly to contain its light, even as warmth filled my palm.
At that same moment, a tiny pinhole of white light opened up between Evereon’s eyes, right on top of the jagged white scar.
A moment later, I heard notes from a lone violin…but that was not possible. No one was playing music in the room. After a few more melancholy notes, I realized the music was in my mind, calling me closer to Evereon.
Power sparked in my fingertips. A few tears in the air sparkled and braided themselves into a rope that only I could see, connecting the white light on Evereon’s forehead to my own.
Wait…it was not just white light…it was a door. A door into Evereon’s mind.
Daigen had said that he had communicated with my inner self using a magical connection. Is that what I was doing?
As an answer, the violin music that only I could hear got louder and sadder. The music wrapped around my wrist and tugged me forward, like a child asking for help.
I swallowed and ignored the invisible magic pull. I had been so eager to use Evereon’s past as leverage for my own security, but now I did not want to know. It felt…too deep and too sad.
I could scarcely handle my own emotions, I did not want to take on someone else’s too.
My white flame retreated and the invisible magic connection weakened. Baron Mydina rejected his son because he could not have heirs, that I could accept. Evereon did not show any signs of disloyalty, so I would not need to enchant him after all.
I should have just trusted Erik’s instinct.
Evereon’s face stayed hard, unaware of the magical pull between us. “You and Riyan were the North’s last hope, the lasttwo people who could maintain our lineage and keep the Hytons from taking over. I need to know what you did to him on that mountain.”
“I did nothing, I—” I swallowed and the numbness in my chest grew, suffocating my white flame. My magic hold over Evereon disintegrated. “The Queen of the Giants took him.”
His eyebrows knitted and his nostrils flared. “What? What happened?”
My white flame awoke again, pushing my words out of my throat before I could stop myself. “He gave his life for mine.”
Evereon’s eyes were round as dinner plates. “He’s dead?”
“No! No, he is still alive!”
He let out a relieved breath. “Still married, then? That at least gives us some stability—”
