To kill without blade or bow... that’s new.
All eyes turned to Alaric. His face had gone white. “Hale healers do not – we are taught restraint, control–” He broke off, jaw clenched, and folded his arms across his chest as if to distance himself from it. “That girl did not learn it in my walls. I would have known. I would have stopped it,” he said icily.
No, not in his walls. That’s Hale magic tangled with Thorne fury.
“If they make the Arcanth whole,” Evelyn said, cutting through the noise, “we are doomed. We must ready for Draknor.”
“It’s a four-week sail across the Valdrak Sea,” Simone said grimly. “My fleet patrols those waters. If Draknor gets close, we’ll know.”
“No,” Galen shot back. “We must redouble our efforts. Catch them before they unite the Shards.”
“Surely they have united them already,” Merrick snarled.
But Galen leaned forward, palms flat on the table, his voice booming over theirs. “It isn’t that simple. The Arcanth is mysterious, yes. I do not claim to understand it. But I know this: to unite the Shards, they must choose you.”
Elias’s gaze narrowed. “It appears they have an unusual bond. Perhaps they have been chosen already.”
“They have slipped through every defence,” Simone added, her face carved from stone.
Galen’s teeth ground together. “Because they are clever. That doesn’t mean they are chosen.”
Merrick rounded on Tobias, amber magic flaring. “They broke through your soldiers,LordThorne. How do you explain that?”
“And Evelyn’s archers fell just as swiftly,” Tobias hissed back. “Do not place the failure solely at Thorne’s feet.”
Evelyn stiffened. “My archers–”
Elias’s quiet voice cut over her. “I know how you feel for your son, Tobias. That much is plain for us all to see. Perhaps...” His pale eyes lingered, too long. “Perhaps you are more committed to him than to the Council, to Vallenna. It was your Keep he escaped.”
The chamber stilled at the accusation. Merrick and Evelyn exchanged a significant look. Tobias caught it – an alliance forming against him.
“And it was the Council’s keep that Kara Hale escaped,” Tobias said evenly. “I have already explained myself in this matter. So what exactly is it you are accusing me of?”
Elias didn’t answer, but he looked to Galen and gave an almost imperceptible nod.
A faint shimmer of ice-white rose in Galen’s palm. “A father’s love can cloud his duty. Say the word, Tobias, and I will know if you are compromised in the Council’s mission.”
Crimson erupted hot along Tobias’s hands, threatening but contained. “Don’t try it,” he growled dangerously, eyeing the creeping white light. “I love my son. That has not, nor will it ever change. But I have done my duty. I sent my soldiers – manned the Temple and Thorne lost lives. That is the truth of it.”
For a breath, the two men locked eyes. Galen didn’t move, but Tobias knew that look – the intense focus, the stillness. He wouldn’t necessarily feel it if Galen tried to brush his thoughts, but he slammed the shutters of his mind closed all the same, forcing it blank. He’d always had a knack for keeping his mind his own with little effort, but it never hurt to be cautious. Finally, Galen’s glow dimmed, and the resignation in his face showed he gleaned nothing.
Good.
“The Temple was well protected,” Tobias added fiercely. “Garrisons on every approach, bowmen on the ramparts, a squad within the temple. Those are not the actions of a man who isn’t committed to the Council’s cause.”
Alaric looked at him, and Tobias saw understanding in his face. Two men who had chosen the Council over their own kin.
We are nothing alike.
Alaric had turned his back on Kara. Left her to burn. Tobias was fighting to keep Sebastian alive.
“How could I have known of the Hale girl’s magic?” Tobias demanded of them. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
The chamber seethed, accusation and fear thick in the air. But he saw it – the hesitation, the sideways glances between them. Merrick’s fist unclenched, Evelyn’s hand, halfway to a retort, stilled. Reason returned. He had made his point, and they knew it.
Then the great doors opened. Two figures entered, moving in such perfect step they seemed one shadow split in two. Serena and Kaelen Fatàn – twins, and heirs to their mother’s legacy and power. Serena was tall and slight with long silvery blonde hair that fell down her back. Kaelen was taller still, but stockier and darker featured. Both wore the black-and-violet robes of their house. They did not look at one another,yet every gesture mirrored – a tilt of the head, a pause, all perfectly synchronised.
“We hear much of failure. Much of blame. The Shards are taken, those responsible lost. Your arguments change nothing,” Kaelen said, his dark eyes sweeping the chamber. “When the Arcanth was shattered and spread, we decreed unity above all else. That unity has failed.”
