Page 120 of Black Sea

“He’s an insult to Spirits and our blood,” Father growled. “He shouldn’t exist!”

“Erech,” Mother warned him.

“No!” he shouted, turning away and walking toward the windows. “You won’t silence me again!” He let out a furious exhale as he pressed one hand against the glass, almost as if physically weakened by the situation. “If you hadn’t convinced me to spare that man, none of this would have happened.”

“ Erech,” she repeated imperiously.

“What, Annael?” he snapped, piercing her with a rancorous look—one he had never given her before.

My mother held his gaze with all the regality she embodied. “Let our daughter speak.”

She raised her thin eyebrows, daring her mate to retort. When he only let out a frustrated, throaty sound, the ghost of a smile touched her lips. Victorious, she turned to me and gestured for me to speak.

It was at that moment, when I noticed her eyes shining with affection, that I understood she already knew what I was about to say.

Before I could hold back, I smiled like a little girl once more, my eyes welling with tears of emotion. I then took a breath to form the words I had longed to utter for millennia.

But something within me suddenly shifted.

Something tore through me.

My breath caught.

My heartbeat, initially strong, gradually slowed.

Happiness left me little by little.

The tears began to recede.

My brow knitted.

Slowly, my eyes moved to the west wall of the room. In the direction of the temple where Calien’s Crystal was kept.

One, two, three seconds went by.

Then my heart began pounding so forcefully that it seemed like it might break through my chest.

“Darling?” Mother said, confused.

“What’s happening?” Father asked me, suddenly wary.

Terror coursed along my spine like a blade as I gazed at him, suddenly out of breath. “Call Araton,” was all I said.

Then I dashed out of the room.

Holding my skirt up above my knees, I ran breathlessly out of the palace and along the paths of the gardens and through the trees of the forest.

Until I abruptly halted in front of the steep white stairs of the smaller, older temple of Aegel.

At the top, the doors that the Queen of the Witches and our wisest and most skilled druids had sealed with a spell were wide open. I no longer felt the vibration of their magic that shielded and hid the building from evil.

The only thing I sensed was a presence within the temple.

I instinctively reached down to my waist, grimacing when, of course, I didn’t find the dagger’s hilt. I called myself an idiot for not stealing a weapon from one of the sentries.

Without wasting another moment, I climbed the steps.

Inside, short flames flickered in the tall bronze braziers positioned between statues of soldiers holding gold pikes, shields, and swords. I stepped across the threshold, trembling at the thought of the upcoming battle.