Page 44 of Blade of the Nightking

Veylan just stared.

“This is rich.” Aedric laughed, a short, sharp bark. “You bartered yourself to him. Surrendered the full reach of your power. And after all that waiting… has he not even summoned you yet?”

“The irony,” Veylan said evenly, “is not lost on me.”

Aedric tilted his head. “Have you been a bad little dog, Veylan?”

“Aedric.” I couldn’t help myself. Something was making me uneasy—both with Aedric’s taunts and Veylan’s calm demeanor. I put my hand on his arm stopping him.

At that, Veylan’s colorless gaze slid to me again, something unfathomable in the depths of his eyes. “Hello, girl.”

My throat went dry at once. I parted my lips to answer, but no sound came. We stood there instead, suspended in silence, staring at one another through the wall of wards that caged him.

“Why were you caught in the Flamelands?” Aedric demanded.

Veylan didn't answer. He didn't so much as glance in Aedric's direction. Only a crooked hint of a smile ghosted across the good side of his face.

“I will ask you one more time,” Aedric warned, his voice dropping lower, “and then I will invite Calantha to try her hand at loosening your lips.”

That, at last, drew Veylan’s attention.

“No need for torture, Flame Lord,” he said calmly. “I will talk⁠—”

“Then answer the question,” Aedric cut in sharply. “What were you doing in the Flamelands?”

“Let me clarify.” The slack side of Veylan’s face twitched faintly as he inclined his head toward me. “I will talk to her. Not you—traitor of Elantis. I will speak to her alone, or not at all.”

Aedric went very still. The air around him seemed to tighten, sparks flickering briefly along his fingers before he crushed them into nothing.

“The only traitor here is you,” he rumbled, each word edged with restrained fury. “You—who chose to support a Dark Prince who would see this continent reduced to rubble. We spared you when he was sealed beyond the Veil. We accepted your oath. Levinica herself pleaded for your redemption before the Full Circle—and in return, you conspired with Hyperia to break him free.”

Veylan just smiled.

Aedric’s jaw tightened. “You defected from Levinica’s Court and appeared here. Why?”

“I told you already.” Veylan leaned back on his hands, his shadows flitting around him. “I will only speak with the human.”

“Kill him and be done with it,” Sairus said from behind us, his tone almost bored. “Calantha will extract what’s necessary.”

Aedric inclined his head once. “Calantha.”

She stepped forward, a slow, eager smile spreading across her lips. “With pleasure, my Lord.”

“No—” The word barely left me before she lifted the lens from her ember eye and fixed it on Veylan.

His scream shattered the chamber. Shadows lashed wildly around him, writhing like living things—then, one by one, they slammed back into his body, vanishing beneath his skin until nothing remained outside him at all. Without them, he looked wrong, diminished somehow, the sharp edge of him dulled into something pale and vulnerable.

He collapsed onto his side. His tattoos writhed feverishly across his skin as his body seized, a wet, choking sound dragging from his throat while pink foam gathered at the corners of his mouth. His eyes remained open, wide and unseeing, as Calantha’s invisible force tore through him from within.

“Anything?” Aedric pressed a hand against the wards, already impatient.

Calantha frowned. “No. His shadows are interfering.”

“Push through them.”

She stepped closer to the cell, her focus sharpening, and Veylan’s back arced violently off the ground.

“They’re bound tightly to him.” Irritation edged her voice. “He’s drawn them inward for protection. It will take time to reach his core.”