Page 27 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

“I doubt anyone here would betray their people like that,” Veyna added, glancing between us.

Solei, arms crossed, nodded. “That’s true. But…”

Her voice dipped.

“What if they didn’t know they were working with the enemy?”

I blinked. “What are you getting at?”

Solei’s eyes lifted to mine—calm, razor-sharp. “There are ways to bind someone’s will. Enchantments. Magic disguises. Even blood-pacts. All it would take is a guild member being manipulated without ever realizing the truth.” She glanced toward the tower. “If the Blood Fae is here, they didn’t walk through the gates in chains and shadows. They were invited in. Possibly wearing the face of someone we already know.”

A heavy silence settled around us.

I glanced around at the circle of familiar faces, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Are you saying… a glamour was used? It would have to be a pretty powerful one.”

Solei’s eyes didn’t leave Veyna. Her fingers flexed once at her side.

“I believe it was more than that,” she said, voice as flat and pointed as honed steel.

I turned to her slowly. “You already know who it is.”

She chuckled.

Not the usual dry, amused sound. This was lower. Darker. A warning disguised as amusement.

And then her hand moved.

Faster than my eyes could follow, the blade flashed in the sun—a gleaming arc of death. It whizzed past me, a breath from my shoulder, straight toward⁠—

Veyna.

But it never landed.

The dagger halted midair with a pulse of energy that knocked the air from my lungs. It hovered, vibrating, twisting slowly as if it were caught in an unseen current.

Veyna—no, something wearing her face—tilted its head. Her expression didn’t flinch. Didn’t fear.

“I did not expect a human without magic to be so… irritating,” she said, her voice echoing now with a resonance that didn’t belong to Veyna. It slithered down my spine like cold oil.

We all stepped back instinctively, weapons drawn, magic flaring at fingertips and throats.

“Veyna?” I breathed, my voice catching. “What is this?”

She turned her eyes to me, but they weren’t Veyna’s eyes anymore.

They were ancient. Crimson laced with silver, as deep as endless blood.

The thing in my sister’s skin smiled thinly.

And my heart shattered.

The world tilted.

For a moment, it was still Veyna standing there—my sister. Her face. Her posture. Her voice. But something inside me already knew. My magic recoiled. Kaelith hissed in my mind.

And then the glamour began to melt.