Page 227 of The Crown’s Temptation

The chanting continued, low and relentless, a single word worn smooth by repetition.

"Umbrelai."

"Umbrelai."

"Umbrelai."

Deep stood before the ward, looking at the barrier as it shimmered. She had stood here a hundred times before. She knew what it was supposed to feel like.

Then she felt it.

A breeze.

Faint and impossible, curling against her cheek where no wind should exist.

She frowned.

That couldn't be right.

She reached toward the barrier.

Her fingers passed through. No pulse of warning magic, no answering hum against her skin, just empty air where power should have pushed back, where something should have bitten into her palm and held.

The wards...

Before she could finish the thought, a scream split the air. She could not tell whether it was anguish or rage, only that it scraped up from somewhere below the throat, somewhere the body isn't meant to make sound from.

She turned, already knowing what she would find.

Dali was awake.

The Fifth Morning

SEVRIN

He came out of the Bloodhaven on the fifth morning.

The air hit him first. Cold and real and full of things he had forgotten he could smell. He stood at the entrance and breathed it and felt the clarity of a mind that had been emptied and refilled with something cleaner than what had been there before.

His chest did not hurt.

He had forgotten what that felt like.

He rolled his shoulders and looked at the sky and felt like himself. Not the diminished version that had hobbled through Kelsey Castle for weeks, rationing movement and hiding weakness. Himself. The version that did not think twice before crossing a room.

He wanted to ride. He wanted to feed properly and feel the Morraks answer him the way they were supposed to and then find Asharin and understand what had happened and fix it.

He walked back toward the castle.

The first thing he noticed was the quiet.

Not ordinary morning quiet. Something else. A place that had arranged itself around an absence.

He walked faster.

He found Flagsar in the east corridor. Three heads turned toward him at the same moment.

"Where is she?" he said.