The pool seemed alive, its darkness hungry, and Katell baulked, her courage faltering. She dug her heels into the slick stone beneath her feet, shaking her head. “No?—”
“Kat!” Leywani’s cry pierced the oppressive stillness.
Katell’s head snapped towards her friend just in time to see Velthur seize her by the hair. He drove the blade deeper into her skin, and Leywani’s scream shattered the chamber.
“Keep going,” he commanded.
Katell forced another step. The pool tightened around her, drawing her deeper, as if it sensed her fear and relished it.
She tore her gaze from Leywani and fixed it on the Emperor, her eyes burning. The smug triumph curling his lips sent fire licking through her veins.
“You can drown me in this pool,” she declared. “You can turn me into your weapon, your monster. But one day—” She steppedforward, her voice rising like a battle cry. “You will pay for everything you’ve done.”
The chamber seemed to hold its breath. The Emperor’s smirk faltered, his eyes narrowing.
Katell lifted her chin, defiance blazing in every inch of her. “Mark my words, Tarquinius,” she vowed, her words ringing through the chamber. “One day I will return—and I will finish what my mother,the Rebel Queen, started all those years ago.”
Tarquinius blanched, his mask of control slipping while Dorias stared at Katell as if seeing her for the first time. Around them, murmurs rippled through the priestesses and guards, shock turning to unease.
Katell smiled at the chaos she’d unleashed, satisfaction curling in her chest—until the high priest barked an order, snapping them from their stupor. In an instant, hands were on her, pushing her forward.
She barely had a moment to react before the ground beneath her vanished and she plunged into the pool, the warm liquid swallowing her whole. She kicked and struggled, but before she could find purchase, something snared her ankles and yanked her down.
No.No.
Katell thrashed, lungs burning, clawing against the pull, but the water held her fast, dragging her deeper into its suffocating depths.
The pressure built, crushing her chest, her skull. The surface was lost to her now—leaving only blackness stretching in every direction. Her arms flailed, searching for something, anything to hold on to.
Her body betrayed her. A desperate gasp wrenched from her lips, and the thick, inky liquid rushed in. It filled her lungs, her veins, burning through her like fire and ice all at once.
If she could’ve screamed, she would have.
But there was nothing left.
Nothing but darkness.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
LEYWANI
Leywani stared at the pool where Katell had vanished only moments before. The black surface lay smooth and unbroken, gleaming like polished stone. It was as if the water had swallowed her whole, erasing every trace of her existence.
No ripples. No bubbles. No sign that Katell had ever been there at all.
Leywani’s chest constricted. Her breaths came sharp and ragged, each one louder in her ears than the last.
No. No—this couldn’t be real. Katell couldn’t be gone. Not her. Not her dearest friend, the fiercest, strongest woman she’d ever known, who’d bled and sacrificed for everyone she loved. Snuffed out in an instant, like everything else the Rasennans touched.
Tears blurred her vision, and a choked sob rose in her throat. Beside her, Velthur sheathed his blade and yanked her to her feet.
“Did you know about this?” The Emperor’s roar shook the chamber. His fingers clamped around the priest’s throat, dragging him forward.
The priest gasped, clawing at Tarquinius’ grip. “No—I swear it! We never found her daughter. We assumed she had either perished or was hiding in the Western Lands.”
The priest’s words did nothing to quell the Emperor’s rage. His lip curled in disgust, and he shoved the man backwards. The priest went sprawling into the waiting arms of the crimson-clad priestesses, their hushed gasps rippling through the chamber.
“She wasn’t in the Western Lands,” the Emperor spat. “She was with the damn Freefolk.”
