Flame’s voice rumbled in my thoughts.Perhaps you were a studious know-it-all. Why weren’t they eating?
I internally rolled my eyes at her playful chuff.Reds must befirst served their food when they break their fast. They consider it the height of rudeness to be expected to serve themselves.
“Please ignore my companion. We are weary from our travels.” Lian accepted the basket of dumplings I offered with both hands. “May your path always be bright.”
I walked back to the buffet. I tried to refocus as I made myself a plate, not to ruminate on the firen’s accusation, or wonder over and over where my knowledge had come from.
A warrior I didn’t know seated at the Azure table locked his gaze onto mine, his eyes filled with blinding hate.
“Traitor.”
My heart stopped as the weight of that word settled over me.
Traitor.
The tension that had been simmering in the hall suddenly sharpened, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Calla’s eyes shot to mine, filled with concern. Quinn growled at the man.
But I didn’t argue. If anything, there was a piece of me that understood, thatagreed. Iwasa betrayer, sitting at the table of the Silver Tyger Dominion, an enemy to my own people. My Azure family.
Even if I’d never felt like I belonged.
Everyone’s heads swiveled and I froze, terrified for a moment that it wasmethey were staring at, before I realized there were new arrivals.
Two men, three women, unnaturally tall and rail-thin, draped in flowing white robes that made them seem even more ghostly. Their onyx hair hung loose, adding to the hollow stillness of their presence. They appeared almost like specters from another realm.
But what truly shocked me were the manacles around the women’s ankles.
Their robes were cut higher in the front to reveal iron chainsrestricting each woman’s movement. While the two men strode forward with long, confident strides, never glancing back, the women were forced to shuffle as they struggled to keep pace.
The Dominion of the Onyx Tortoise had arrived.
Lian spoke in the Common Tongue, her lilting accent turning sharp. “What is this barbarism?”
The leader of the Onyx Tortoise team turned his head toward her. He stood at the front of the group, his lanky frame draped in flowing robes that rippled like funeral shrouds with every subtle movement.
His hair was long and sleek, falling loosely past his shoulders, and his eyes were nearly colorless, a translucent gray that glowed with an unnatural, otherworldly light, like something ancient and unknowable resided within him.
Those eyes scanned the dining hall with a dispassionate gaze, taking us in as if we were merely game pieces on a board, ready to be moved or discarded at his will.
With a single flick of his hand, the air in the dining hall grew heavier, the water in the atmosphere bending to his will.
“You wish to speak about something barbaric? Yins pretending at power.” His voice was a low, cold whisper, like the slow pull of death itself. “By the power of Yama, great god of the underworld, it is laughable you believe you stand a chance of surviving the Raveling.”
In perfect unison, the fire sirens rose to their feet. Heat rolled off their table in a sudden wave, crackling with barely contained fury.
Their combined magic hit the room like a wall, causing the air to shimmer. The end of the banquet table nearest the firens cracked, the wood splintering as the intense warmth warped it, and I moved quickly away. Plates of food began to steam, the delicate fruits wilting, and the carefully prepared food sizzled as ifthrown onto a hot skillet. Even the stone floor beneath their feet glowed faintly, the temperature rising so swiftly that the air in the room became thick and suffocating.
Lian stepped forward with her hands raised, flames pulsing between them, her gaze locked on the leader of the Onyx Tortoise. “We’ll see who is pretending when I fry you, worm.”
Across the room, the Azure shapeshifters stood, eyes flashing. Quinn flexed his fingers, his nails already sharpening into claws. The others followed his lead, their bodies trembling with intensity as if they were moments from shifting into their animal forms.
The Silver warriors tensed. Jace and the others exchanged sharp glances. Blake stood, his eyes finding mine across the room—the thread looping us together pulling taut.
Like he was calling me to him.
Slowly I moved toward the table, and slid in between Jace and Blake.
“I loathe Onyxes,” Jace hissed, angry in a way I hadn’t seen before. “Their yangs are hoarding power when magic must belong to all.”
