Page 142 of Embers of Ruin

“Exactly. I needed you to know before…” He trails off, his expression darkening.

“The wrath of a god is coming.”

His jaw tightens, and I see the barely leashed anger in his eyes. “The Rebellion doesn’t fear magic, Lyra. They covet it. They steal it. They kill anyone whose gift isn’t useful to them. It’s easier to convince an entire kingdom that one man is a monster than to admit your own neighbor might belong to the organization responsible for the murder of thousands.”

He looks at me with quiet sadness. “They hate the gods. Or at least…they hate the gods Solaris worships.”

My head spins with this new information. “There are other gods?”

A chill crawls down my spine as he continues, nodding. “Yes. What the Rebellion worships is something far older.”

Silence stretches between us before he speaks again. “They knew you would come… the prophesied Cursebreaker.”

My heart stutters, because somehow... I already know what he’s about to say.

“When you were born, there were eyes on you. The Rebellion had been searching for you for years. Your parents wanted to leave Solaris to hide you. To teach you how to properly train your magic without fear.” His jaw tightens. The quiet patience he’s shown since walking into this room is gone, replaced by unmistakable fury.

“And they knew exactly how to get you from the palace because someone inside led them straight to you.”

“What?” I whisper. The word barely sounds like my own voice. My mind buzzes beneath the weight of everything he’s told me. The numbness I’ve been clinging to splinters, replaced by a slow, churning rage that settles deep in my chest. If I still had my magic, I would bring this entire place crashing down around us, wherever we are.

I took an oath as a healer to do no harm. But now… Now I understand why people choose revenge instead.

He gives a single nod and I squeeze my eyes shut.

No. Who would do this?

“I think I'm getting close to finding out who it is,” he says quietly, as though reading my thoughts. “I can't prove it yet, but I believe someone in the king's inner circle is working with The Rebellion.”

My head snaps up, and the glass walls of the cage suddenly feel too close. The air too thin.

“If my suspicions are correct,” he says carefully, “this person doesn’t fear your magic. Someone knew the king had been searching for you. They knew he was trying to protect you.”

His expression hardens. “They made sure The Rebellion reached you before you could discover who you really are.”

Silence settles between us. “Why?” I whisper.

“Because they don’t want this continent healed.” His voice drops, his intense gaze never leaving mine. “They want the darkness. They want the curse to remain exactly as it is.”

He hesitates, and something in his expression steals the air from my lungs. I brace myself for whatever comes next. He looks at me like he already regrets what he’s about to say.

“And Mara...” His voice is barely audible. “Mara led the Rebellion to your parents when they were preparing to flee.”

The world goes black.

CHAPTER 32

The first warning of chaos isn’t the shouting—it’s the explosion that damn near throws me across the glass cage.

The floor trembles beneath my feet, rattling the glass surrounding me. Before me, the rebel on guard lies unconscious on the ground. The force of the blast must’ve cracked his skull. Blood leaks from the wound as he lies there, his mouth hanging open. Another tremor follows, closer now. The ground shakes beneath me until I’m huddled in a corner with my hands clamped over my ears. I hear screams and the crash of thunder, as if someone is cracking this place in half. It sounds like a god has come down on Solaris.

I scramble backward as cracks spread through the glass Malveris insisted was impenetrable. Are the gods finally coming to obliterate Solaris? Gods. I didn’t get to see Thorin before we were wiped from existence. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye properly.

A rebel runs into the room, staring into my eyes as he makes the sign of a god I don’t recognize. His face goes pale before he turns and runs. The next thing I know…

The world erupts.

The walls around the cage don’t explode so much as split apart. Black lightning rips through the foundation, jagged veins of darkness carving across the rock before it gives way with a deafening crack. Boulders tumble into the chamber as shadows pour through the breach—not drifting or crawling, but surging like a living tide released from centuries of confinement. The temperature plummets and lanterns extinguish all at once. Darkness devours everything, and I notice the hum that has always surrounded the cage is gone before bolts of black lightning illuminate the chamber again in violent flashes.