“What are you saying?” rasped the king. “This was Varyth Malchior’s doing. Lord Church?—”
“—isVaryth Malchior,” hissed Kit.
The world tilted. Cedric’s blood froze in his veins.
The room was nothing but a rush of shocked gasps and frightened cries. Sid’s low growl cut through the barrage of questions and memories and riotous thoughts suddenly pummeling the inside of Cedric’s skull.
“He is the stars-damnedsanguinagimastermind behind tonight’s attack,” Kit continued. “Behind whatever happened in Dawnspire and the actions of the Cult of Malakar. Responsible for what happened to my brother in the Sanctum and?—”
“This is preposterous,” said the king, his voice little more than a rough whisper. “I have known Leviathan Church for almost thirty years. He has been my most trusted advisor, my friend. I would know?—”
“Like you knew about what would happen tonight? You said it yourself, Your Majesty.” Kit’s breath frosted in the air when she exhaled. “The cultist presence in Kingshelm has been insidious indeed. Consider it. Where is the lord paramount now? How could the attack tonight have been enacted—cultists embedded so deeply, so seamlessly within your walls—without Church’s influence? His plans, his orders?”
“We found many suspicious things in the lord paramount’s office.” Tenebris Nox’s unique voice echoed into the room a half-second before the nocterrian stepped out of a shadow between Kit and Cedric. “But none so damning as this.”
Every living person in the throne room seemed to hold their breath as Nox waved their hands in an intricate set of movements before extending a single finger and jerking it downward, like they were slicing through something.
That was essentially what the nocterrian had done, Cedric realized. Shadows wept from a sudden cut in the air. Nox reached a hand inside and pulled out?—
“By the Five,” said King Callum. “The crown?”
Kit nodded, tapping a finger on one of the Crown of Concord’s gilded spires as Nox displayed it to the room. “We found this in a blood-locked safe in Church’s study. Amongst other things.” Her blueand green eyes flicked to Cedric. “I fear there is no other conclusion to draw. Lord Church and Varyth Malchior are one and the same. He has betrayed you. Betrayed his people. Betrayed Arcanis.”
A chorus of heavy breathing was the only sound flowing through the throne room, other than the small squeak of protest Barcroff made when Nox tucked the crown back into its shadowy pocket. After a minute, the silence broke, multiple voices carrying across the room, asking questions and spouting theories.
Cedric didn’t hear a single one.
“Cedric...”Elyria’s voice in Cedric’s head sounded very far away. His mind spun. It simply couldn’t be. Could it? It was impossible. Wasn’t it?
This was the man who raised him. Saved him. Made sure he had a roof over his head and food in his belly and an education and all the training he would ever need...
So that Cedric could take on the Arcane Crucible.
So that he could secure the crown.
So that he could obtain ultimate power for Havensreach.
No. Not for Havensreach. Not for humanity’s sake.
Forhim.
And when the Crucible was conquered but the power of the crown remained out of reach, Cedric became his new plan.
Because he had to have known.
Who Cedric was.
Who he might become.
Cedric’s chest felt as though it might cave in on itself as more than twenty years of his life flashed in front of his eyes. Two decades of lies. Of falsehoods and fake niceties and faux family.
Because Cedric’s own family had been murdered in cold blood bysanguinagicultists.
Because his mother had been ripped apart by dark magic that could only have stemmed from one source.
Cedric blinked away tears as a soft hand slipped into his. He hadn’t noticed Elyria coming to stand behind him.
“He killed my parents,”Cedric said, his voice barely a whisper, even in his mind.
