Page 162 of Blade of the Nightking

His pupils flared. It was the only sign that my words had affected him at all.

“Why wasn't I told.”

The sick feeling in my stomach only worsened. Yet the lies came easily, slipping from my tongue as though they belonged there. As though I wasn't betraying Levinica with every word.

“She told me to wait,” I heard myself say. “She wanted to see if she was right before she said anything.”

His eyes searched mine for a moment. Then he moved to the door.

“Have Nadja prepare you a bag.”

“A bag?”

“We leave on the morrow.”

My heart skipped.

“Leave?” I stared at him. “Where?”

“To the Gates.”

The words hit me a second before their meaning did.

“With you?” I blurted.

“Yes. With me.”

For a moment, I could only stare.

I didn't know why I was so shocked. What had I expected? That we'd find a way to sever the bond and I'd remain here in Noctharis, reading books with Levinica while Rìan ventured out alone to break it?

Levinica. She was gone.

There would be no more afternoons at the dining table. No more lessons. No more tea growing cold between us while I stumbled over words I'd only just learned to read.

The emptiness she'd left behind yawned inside me, a cavernous hollow that threatened to swallow me whole. And lining its walls was something darker: dread. Because for all my desire to break the bond, I'd never truly pictured what came next. I'd never imagined crossing Elantis at Rìan's side, spending days—perhaps weeks—with no one but the Dark Prince for company. The thought made my stomach turn.

“What if she was wrong?” I called after him, trying not to let the despair bleed into my voice.

He paused at the doorway and turned his head just enough to look back at me over his shoulder. Gods, he was a terrifying creature. Beautiful in the way a storm at sea was beautiful—powerful, inevitable, and devastating to anything caught in its path.

“Then we'll find out when we get there.”

And before I could think of another argument, another reason why this was a terrible idea, he was gone.

I stared after him for a long moment, my heart galloping in my chest, my lies bitter and foul on my tongue. I had to do it. I had to keep from him the truth about Dannis, the truth about Levinica's death. But the guilt lingered all the same. Not because I'd deceived Rìan—but because I’d dishonored Levinica. She was scarcely gone, and already I was using her final discovery, her final act of hope, as leverage for my own plans.

The realization should have horrified me. Instead, it settled over me with a grim sort of resignation. If I was going to break the bond—if I was going to find a way to destroy Rìan—I needed to do this. I needed him to think the madness had finally claimed her, not that the truth about Dannis had sent her walking into the sea.

I had to choose Aedric. I had to choose Elantis. I had to choose… me.

Selfish, my inner voice hissed.

Closing my eyes, I reached down, down toward the dark place where my magic slept. Usually it fled from my touch, vanishing deeper into the void whenever I sought it.

This time, it lingered.

And then, like a serpent lifting its head from slumber, it slithered forward to meet me.