Page 99 of The Dark Lord’s Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny)

They paused while Arabella and I digested that information. My hand clenched. “How?”

The Alchemist’s voice dropped. “In his greed for power, Auremar let the prison threads fray. The sacrifice was the final blow—it caused enough damage for the Shadow King to seep into the exposed ley lines. Now he’s spreading through them, taking them over, searching for a way to manifest physically again.”

The Alchemist’s fingers drummed against their knee. “Within a year, probably less, every ley line in the realm will be his—and beyond our use.”

Arabella glanced at me. “Just as we took Solandris’s northern outpost, Auremar was releasing the Shadow King into the ley lines.”

The Alchemist nodded. “That’s my conclusion as well, based on the timing.”

I stood and paced away. The Shadow King had stolen what should have been mine. All that planning, all that conquest, and another villain had slipped in and stolen my prize out from under me. The headache that had been building behind my eyes flared into blinding pain, and for a moment, I could have sworn I heard laughter—cold, ancient, and triumphant—echoing in the recesses of my mind.

I gripped the back of a chair, my knuckles white. “So what does this mean?” I demanded, forcing the voice back. “How do we stop it?”

“There are only two ways to fix the ley lines now.” The Alchemist held up one finger. “First, you could unweave the prison itself. Let the Shadow King manifest physically so he’s no longer inhabiting the ley lines. Of course, then you’d have an ancient god of tyranny walking the earth again, so perhaps not ideal. Given that it took the full might of Soriven and the Heirloom to imprison him the first time, I don’t recommend this approach.”

“And the second?” Arabella asked.

“That’s where things get interesting.” The Alchemist moved toward the door, their robes shifting to a deep silver. “And why I needed you both here, at the Spire, rather than anywhere else.”

29 Receive Your Assignment

(While Standing on a God’s Pelvis)

Arabella

The Alchemist didn’t wait for us to agree. They simply turned on their heel and glided toward the door. “Come along. What I need to show you isn’t something one discusses over tea.”

I glanced at Kazimir. His jaw was tight, shadows coiling restlessly around his feet—a sure sign he was contemplating violence. Through our bond, I felt his frustration mixing with something else. Fear? No, not quite. More like… recognition. As if some part of him already knew what the Alchemist had just revealed.

“We could still kill them,” he murmured, low enough that only I could hear.

“We could.” I rose from my seat. “But then we’d never know how to fix the ley lines. And you hate not knowing things almost as much as you hate being manipulated.”

His lips twitched—not quite a smile, but close. “You know me too well.”

“Not well enough, apparently.” The words came out sharp, and I saw him flinch, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel guilty about it.

The Alchemist led us through corridors I hadn’t seen before, past doors marked with symbols that made my eyes water to look at directly. Other villains passed us in the halls—a vampire countess dragging a sack of bones, a merchant whose skin gleamed like molten gold—but they all gave us a wide berth.

“Nothing says ‘trustworthy’ like secret passages in a villain’s lair,” Kazimir drawled.

The Alchemist laughed, the sound musical and strangely genuine. “You’re one to talk, Lord Blackrose. I’ve heard rumors about the hidden chambers at Skyspire.”

“Just rumors,” Kazimir said smoothly.

As we walked, I thought about everything we’d just learned, but some things were more confusing than ever.

That vision at the end of the Heirloom activation had been as real as the stone beneath my feet. The Shadow King’s consciousness, ancient and malevolent, wrapped around Kazimir like he was the darkness itself. Not a memory. Not an echo. Something that had felt utterly, terrifyingly present.

The vision had shown me shards—pieces of the Shadow King that had escaped during the binding. I’d watched them flee into the world, seeking vessels, seeking hosts.

But how could the Shadow King be escaping his prison now if pieces of him had been loose in the world all along? What did it mean that he was living in the ley lines from beneath Solandris while simultaneously… what? Growing? Awakening? Inside my husband?

None of it made sense. And the not-knowing gnawed at me.

I glanced at Kazimir. His jaw was set, shadows trailing behind us.

He didn’t remember the vision. Every day I kept silent felt like another stone added to the wall between us, but what was I supposed to do? Blurt it out in front of the Alchemist?