Page 163 of Blade of the Nightking

PART II

THE GATES

CHAPTER 34

The next morning arrived long before the sun.

The world was still cloaked in darkness when I found myself standing on a narrow, weather-beaten dock at the far edge of Noctharis, wrapped in a thick cloak that somehow remained wholly inadequate against the biting cold. The sea stretched black and endless before me, melting seamlessly into the night beyond. I looked out across it and saw only one thing. Levinica vanishing beneath the water.

She still hadn’t been found.

She hadn't washed ashore. Veylan had sent his shadows through the reefs at the mouth of the bay, where the jutting rocks caught bodies all too often. Drowned fishermen who'd misjudged the weather. Unlucky souls dragged out by the tide. Yet the sea had not surrendered her.

My gaze settled on Rìan’s back, and I scowled. His hood concealed his face, but I knew he was staring out across the bay, across the sea toward Elantis, as Veylan and Segolayne murmured quietly beside him.

The anger simmering beneath my grief flared anew. He should have dragged her back to shore. He should have forced her.

His eyes had blazed as he stood knee-deep in the surf, his power swelling until it seemed to smother the very air. Yet somehow he'd done nothing. He hadn't compelled her. Hadn't seized her mind the way he should have been able to.

Was Levinica's shield truly that powerful? Or had the fall of the Veil diminished him somehow? No. Not with magic like this. Even now, I could feel the sheer immensity of it crackling around him, pressing against my skin with every breath. I'd felt Aedric's magic before, and he was the most formidable Fae Lord in Elantis. Yet even he paled beside Rìan.

So why hadn't it worked? Why hadn't he been able to stop Levinica?

I tugged my cloak tighter around myself and exhaled, my breath fogging in the air.

I still couldn't believe we were leaving Noctharis.

Levinica had been right. Armed with the discovery she'd made, Rìan had unearthed an old map of Elantis from before the Dusklands had broken away from the continent. By cross-referencing it with the drawing of the Veins, he'd managed to pinpoint the locations of the wells. I'd glanced at it only once. It might as well have been a page of meaningless lines and ink. I didn't know how to read a map well enough to make sense of it, and after Levinica... I couldn't summon the will to try. I knew only that one lay somewhere in the Wildlands, another in the Court of Tides, and the last in the mortal lands.

The thought of seeing them filled me with dread. I'd warned Rìan the mortal realm might already be overrun with Bone-Wrought, yet he hadn't shown so much as a sliver of concern. In fact, he'd more or less ignored me.

Whatever awaited us at the third and final well, I'd deal with it when we got there. One gate at a time.

The boat waiting for us was a small sloop, little more than a weathered fishing vessel. Its hull was old but sturdy, worn smooth by years of salt and sea. A single mast rose from its center, the sail neatly furled against the boom. A pair of oars rested across the benches, ready to guide the boat through the treacherous mouth of the bay before the wind could take over.

Not exactly the vessel I would’ve expected the Dark Prince to travel in.

“It won’t be missed?” Rìan asked. It was the first time he’d spoken since we arrived. I wasn’t sure why he even cared.

Veylan snorted. “I bought it.”

Rìan lifted a brow.

Veylan rolled his eyes. “Well, technically, you bought it.”

Segolayne huffed.

“I paid the owner enough to buy three new boats,” Veylan continued. “The male nearly kissed me. He even offered me his daughter.” He sighed dramatically. “A shame my diet has changed so significantly over the centuries.”

A quiet breath escaped Rìan. It might have been the ghost of amusement, but if it was, it vanished almost immediately.

“The boat won’t be missed,” Veylan finished. “Trust me.”

Rìan nodded once before turning his attention to Segolayne.

“Levinica’s passing is still contained, and—” The words caught. Segolayne fell abruptly silent, her jaw locking as she looked away. She drew one slow breath through her nose, then another, her throat working once. Rìan waited. When she finally lifted her head again, her eyes shone but her voice was steady. “The servants have been told she’s suffering an episode and that I’m caring for her personally. No one knows. As far as they’re concerned, it’s life as usual.” Her hands curled into fists at her sides. “Until you return. With Dannis.”

I swallowed and looked away.