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“It’s worth the risk.” It was the truth. There was no price he would not pay if it meant getting her back.

The trio walked in silence for several more minutes, with nothing but the thudding of boots on stone as accompaniment, along with the eventual meow that came when Sid was apparently tired of walking and demanded to be hoisted onto Cedric’s shoulders. She curled around the back of his neck, her shadows a soothing mist where they touched his skin. She felt just the barest bit like Elyria, and Cedric tried to take comfort in that.

It was all the comfort he would get. Because as they ventured deeper into the mountain, those contradictory feelings of strange newness and recognition only grew, like Cedric’s very insides were warring. The cavern, too, seemed in contrast with itself. Shadows thickened along the edges of the luminescent stone walls, but light seemed to grow too. Silvery veins spread from the ground, spidering through the walls. Flecks of white crystal appeared embedded in the rock, all of it glowing dimly, emitting a soft light.

Cedric was very much on edge when the trio got to a bend in the path and rounded a corner to see . . .

The gasp he drew was so sharp that Sid startled on Cedric’s shoulders, sliding from her resting position and disappearing into the ether. He barely even noticed. Not when his eyes were roaming across the impossible sight before him.

In each corner of the massive cavern, spiraling pillars of white crystal wound up from the stone floor, stretching so high that Cedric wondered if the entire mountain had been carved hollow. He had to squint to make out the ceiling, but just like the walls and floor, just like the tunnel they’d emerged from, the luminous stone was covered with more of those white flecks. Each one flickered and winked like it was made of light. It gave the illusion that the entire cavern was constructed from stardust.

The glowing silver veins from the tunnel were more plentiful here too, interweaving with the floor, the walls, the crystal spires, like bursts of lightning that had been frozen in ice. They all flowed toward the very center of the room, where a pool of black liquid sat, so smooth, so undisturbed, so shiny, it looked like it was glass.

It was all so, so beautiful.

Thraigg’s former surliness was a distant memory when he released an awestruck breath and said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“Hopefully not,” said Nox, their voice soft.

Cedric blinked back the burning sensation prickling the inner corners of his eyes. “What do we—” He cleared his throat. “What do we do now?”

Nox didn’t answer the question. Instead, they rolled their shoulders back, then took several tentative steps toward the black glass pool in the center of the room. Thraigg and Cedric shuffled close behind them, watching with wide eyes as Nox bent on one knee and bowed their horned head before the pool.

It was like the very air around them changed as ancient words rumbled from the nocterrian’s lips, their palms splayed on the ground. There was a change in the pressure around them, the weight of reality shifting. Shadows crept from the corners of the room, the base of the spires, deepening, darkening. Simultaneously, the stars in the cavern’s ceiling flared brighter, glowing.

Light above.

Dark below.

And then, without a ripple or a splash or any other such indication that the black pool in the center of the room was indeed made of liquid at all, something rose from it.

Shadows coalesced in the shape of legs, a torso, arms, a head—all black as the void, even as they took the shape of a man. And then the darkness peeled back, forming a long, flowing cape, revealing skin like the night sky—star-speckled and majestic.

“My lord Noctis,” said Nox, keeping their head bowed, their eyes down. Idly, Cedric thought perhaps he should be averting his gaze as well, prostrating himself in reverence to the star god before him. This was the Warden of Shadows, the Master of the Hereafter. But Cedric’s eyes were pinned to the galaxies comprising the celestial’s skin, the midnight void of his hair, the stars bursting in his eyes.

Eyes that met Cedric’s own with such divine power, he didn’t know whether he would be able to break away if he wanted to. And so there his gaze stayed, even when Noctis opened his mouth and out came layers of voice, a multitudinous chorus that sent a shiver down Cedric’s spine.

“My child. You have brought the sun into my sanctum.”

Cedric’s vision clouded for the briefest of moments, the image of a different sky-skinned celestial standing before him overtaking the reality of what he was seeing. But Noctis was not Aurelia. And this was not the same Celestial Sanctum where Cedric had sacrificed his life—and been brought back—during the Crucible.

Nox’s voice was steady, if quiet, when they said, “Yes, my lord. I have with me the son of prophecy. And he needs your help.”

8

THE PRIORITIES OF KINGS

KIT

The skies over Aerithia were almost as restless as Kit. Gray clouds rolled over the city, the air charged, weighty. They cast a muted haze over the domed rooftops, something ominous wrapping itself around Kit standing on the balcony outside the royal council chamber. Like it was the very winds of change currently blowing through her hair as she waited.

Kit narrowed her blue and green eyes on the silhouettes of her uncle and mother, the latter of whom was gesticulating with fervor on the other side of the glass. The long, bell-shaped sleeves of her orchid-colored gown slipped up her tawny forearms the longer she spoke.

The king’s attention was on his sister, his shoulders sagging, like they were weighed down. Every so often, his gaze would shift surreptitiously, flicking toward Kit. It was subtle, the movement of his head not even enough to disturb the tight white braids cascading from beneath his crown. But it didn’t matter. It also didn’t matter that there was a silencing ward cast on the room. Kit didn’t need to be able to hear to know exactly what they were talking about.

She sighed, twisting to lean over the balcony railing. She fiddled with the laces of the leather bracers wrapped around each wrist. This was taking too long. They were wasting time. She needed to get back. Wanted to get back.

“I like knowing where you are. I like being there too.”