Page 1 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

Chapter

One

“Back off, Solei.”

My voice cracked like ice over flame, intense enough to silence even the wind. “You don’t get to stand there and judge what you don’t understand.”

Solei raised a brow, not cowed in the slightest. Of course she wasn’t. Her posture relaxed, but her eyes didn’t soften.

“She’s new to Warriath,” she said with a shrug, like the words meant nothing. “Which means she wasn’t raised here. And if she wasn’t raised here… then she was raised by the enemy.”

“That’s true,” I said, stepping forward. Kaelith stirred behind me, her tail thudding once against the stone. “But it’s not her fault. She’s not evil.”

“No?” Solei’s eyes slid to Veyna, who hadn’t moved—stoic, but there was the tiniest flinch in her shoulders. “You think someone raised among the Blood Fae just… walked out untouched? That she didn’t see what they did? That she didn’t become one of them?”

“She was a child.” I cut her off before the next accusation could land. “She survived. That doesn’t make her dangerous.”

“She’s a liability.” Solei’s words hit hard. “And you—” her gaze swung back to me “—you’re letting your heart lead you again.”

Kaelith rumbled low in my mind. She’s not wrong to be cautious. But she’s not right either.

I ground my teeth. “This isn’t like Remy. Or Theron. Or anyone else who’s lied their way into our trust. Veyna hasn’t lied.”

“Not yet,” Solei muttered.

I bristled. “You don’t get to do this. Not after what we went through on the Blood Isle. She saved Elara. I have seen her scars.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve seen?”

I nodded once. “She showed me. Told me what they did to her. How her own grandfather used her, and twisted her magic. The way they punished her for even thinking about escape.” I swallowed, throat thick. “She wasn’t raised to be loyal to them. She was raised to break.”

“And broken things are unpredictable,” Solei snapped. “They cut the wrong people when they lash out.”

“That doesn’t mean we discard them.”

We stood there in silence; the tension pulsing between us like a live wire. Around us, the others had gone still—Jax frozen with one hand on Ferrula’s arm, Cordelle watching with wide green eyes, Naia’s jaw tight with unspoken frustration.

Solei’s arms finally crossed. “I don’t trust her.”

“I didn’t ask you to,” I said quietly. “I asked you not to destroy someone who’s already barely surviving.”

Veyna’s eyes met mine then. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice trembling slightly.

Solei saw it too. She exhaled slowly. “If she proves me wrong,” she said, “I’ll apologize.”

“And if she proves you right?” I asked.

“Then I’ll be the one to end her,” Solei answered flatly.

I didn’t argue. Because I already knew—I’d do it myself before I let her become the monster they tried to create.

The night air bit at my skin, sharper than it should’ve been. Kaelith’s shadow loomed above, circling once before settling onto the tower’s edge like a wraith of Stormlight and scale. I watched Solei vanish into the inner halls before I turned to Veyna.

“Come with me,” I said softly.

She didn’t hesitate—she never did. We slipped through the archway and down a quieter corridor, the stone humming gently beneath our feet as if it still remembered the last time blood had stained its cracks. I stopped just before the archway to the empty garden terrace, half-shrouded in ivy and dragon-bone torches that flickered.

“I’m sorry about Solei,” I said. “She’s my chosen sister and fiercely loyal. At least she is now.”