“That’s horrible,” Jubilee said. “Horrible—”
Osalor ignored her. “Ilondrel took everything from me. I had to pay her back in kind. And you, ever faithful, the best apprentice I could ask for, this realm is yours, all of it.”
“I don’t want Hearthaven,” Saeldian said.
“But it is yours,” Osalor said. “I promised you, didn’t I? All the power you would ever need, so you would be safe and no one could hurt you. Here it is. Isn’t it amazing how it wants to shape itself as you wish?”
He smiled while everyone realized what he had just said, then continued, “For as long as you’re alive, of course.”
Every fey blade in Hearthaven’s Repose pointed straight at Saeldian’s heart.
Saeldian had been loyal, all this time. Every time they had to choose, they chose Osalor. They trusted him. And all this time, he’d been using his pact-bound protégé to make this day come—and when they balked, he turned them into a target faster than the wind could change.
Kell couldn’t take his eyes off Saeldian, who had stood by Osalor through everything, had given everything to stand here and know how quickly he’d sacrifice them in the lanceboard game of his revenge.
Half shattered, Saeldian said, “You said you would never hurt me.”
“I wouldn’t be the one hurting you, my dear,” Osalor said. “And they won’t hurt you either, if you refuse to let them. You get to choose. The power is yours.”
Kell swallowed his horror as he saw what Osalor was making Saeldian choose.
Spears raised. Arrowsnocked. Swords aimed straight where Saeldian’s heart was breaking. No one would touch them if Saeldian didn’t allow it. They raised their hand, and everyone froze.
Everyone except Osalor, whose smile looked relieved for half a heartbeat.
Saeldian had to understand. They needed to hear Osalor say it in front of everyone. They had to know the truth before they freed everyone from being unable to move or speak or do anything but listen.
“You’re Lord Azaelea,” Saeldian said. “You were supposed to seduce Ilondrel. But you fell in love with Jadiris—no. Not love.”
Osalor smirked, unbothered. “Do they still tell that story? I guess they do here. Everyone needs to know the whole sad story. Poor Ilondrel. How she suffered.”
“That day I met you in the wood was the day you killed Jadiris, wasn’t it? You escaped to Faerûn to confuse their trail.”
“Why do you insist on poring over the details?” Osalor frowned.
Saeldian couldn’t look at Jubilee or Kell. They would know what Saeldian was doing. They would figure out that Saeldian’s will held all those blades and bodies still, that nothing could happen to an archfey in the realm they commanded that they didn’t permit.
But Ilondrel, unbound—Saeldian had to trust her to see what was happening. For now, Saeldian had to bet on what they did best: Lie.
“Because this is so complex, and you’ve been planning this whole clever scheme for years,” Saeldian said. “I think I know howyou did it, but I’m sure some of my guesses are wrong. But that was the day, wasn’t it?”
“You are correct, of course,” Osalor said. “It was sheer luck that I wound up where you found me. Or our destinies were meant to draw together.”
“It could have been either, my teacher,” Saeldian said. “Did it feel like destiny?”
“It felt fortunate,” Osalor said, “which makes sense. It felt perfectly natural to offer you power in exchange for your kindness to me.”
“It was the luckiest day of my life,” Saeldian said. “Nothing would have turned out this way without you.”
Osalor’s tiny smile was everything Saeldian had hoped for growing up. It was so easy to guide him along. Praise, an invitation to describe how clever he’d been, and then wait. “I never forgot. I promised I would give you everything you wished for. Beauty, and power, and safety. That the world would belong to you—and here we are.”
He swept his arm to indicate the sickly, disheveled grove. “It’ll need work, of course. But this is a world you can shape however you wish. Just as we agreed.”
Saeldian had control over this realm. They had carried a link to the realm’s power even when they’d left it. That was why they’d been so strong in the fight against the dire troll. But Saeldian had awoken in Kell’s bed after deciding to give the others the chance to escape, and that should have broken their oath.
They really should have figured it out sooner. Saeldian knew what they were doing when they told the others to run. But Osalor didn’t seem concerned with Saeldian breaking their pact. Why not?
“I was a child,” Saeldian said. “I had no idea what I agreed to when I made that bargain with you. I never dreamed of this.”
