“What did you do with the Memory Orbs? Those memories belong to my people,” she grits out between her teeth.
Marin steps closer, sensing blood in the water.
But Elyssara is not chained. She is not a prisoner.
She is the fucking Lightborne.
A snarl of warning rumbles in Kael’s chest. He’s still there. Still accessible beneath the force of the Decay.
“You lay a hand on my Starbound, Marin, and I will rip your fucking heart from your chest before you even realize I’ve moved,” he growls, the words landing like a promise and a threat.
She smiles something wicked. “Is that how you killed my brother, Kael? You always were a vicious creature.”
Fuck.
Prince Vaelor.
“Yes. And now I’ve perfected it,” he taunts, voice almost amused.
The footfalls descend the last steps, a symphony of rasping steel, clashing metal, and the steady thud of boots on stone.
“The Memory Orbs!” Elyssara demands, her composure loosening.
Marin’s deep-brown eyes settle on her, steady and calculating.
“Honey, we never had them. Mother told you. It’s funny what you’ll ignore when your mind has already decided. Belief and reality are so rarely the same thing. That’s the thing about belief though: it’s built on such limited perception,” Marin croons cryptically.
Her eyes bore into Elyssara’s, piercing and unflinching. The kind of look that conveys more than mere words.
It sounds less like a taunt, and more like a message.
Elyssara studies her.
But her stare is broken by two dozen soldiers descending on the vaults with gleaming silver shields. The ones from the entrance that buzz with the presence of somethingother.
They fan out, surrounding the room in a wall of armored Caelorian soldiers.
And then they part.
Splitting through the center of the soldiers is Maireth, her wolf mask still perfectly placed, onyx gowns still falling in a perfect spill.
Magic flares at Elyssara’s fingertips, washing the room in a golden light.
She grits her teeth, dropping into a low fighting stance, and the only sound is Kael’s heavy breathing escaping through his teeth.
A small, pursed smile lifts up Maireth’s lips. “Your heart bleeds for the Outsiders,” Maireth says, repeating Elyssara’s earlier words. “I hoped it would. You see, we have new weapons of Aether ready to launch on the Outside that will level the entire population beyond these walls at the first sign of your magic, Elyssara. So, I’d lower your hands.”
She wouldn’t.
“You’re bluffing,” Elyssara snaps, and she raises her hands to strike, Lightborne magic hammering at the gates of her control.
She notices a movement.
Almost imperceptible.
But real.
Marin.
