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Pressing my eyes closed, I willed the sudden, rising windstorm to quiet. Anger wouldn’t help. It certainly wouldn’t get Rune believing in herself.

“Look, I know you’re mad at me. I get it,” she said, sitting on a boulder that appeared from nowhere behind her, dainty shoulders slumped. “I don’t blame you. But I panicked. I only wanted to follow my mother’s advice. It was all she left me. But the book…it said something else. It talks about the power of the gods, and how they’re strongest on the Synbari Isles. I was thinking maybe, since they don’t seem to hear us anymore, maybe if we went there⁠—”

“Oh, Rune.” I went to her, sitting so our hips brushed and pulling her into my side. “The gods would’ve answered a long time ago if they were out there.”

“I’m not going to stop trying.” She lay her head on my shoulder and stared out at Mirror Lake, where the breeze did nothing to stir even a slight ripple on the surface.

“Thank you,” I said then braced myself as the next question left my lips. “Is there any news? From out there?”

“I’m to be married tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? That was so soon. Had a week already passed? “And what news of Rivven?” His name was a prayer. I squeezed my eyes shut willing her to say he’d somehow escaped. Please don’t say he’s gone.

Rune straightened, turning to take my hands in hers. I didn’t like the fact that she’d suddenly turned into the one attempting to comfort me. I held my breath.

“Alive.”

The word was weak, and she’d hesitated. Around us, tiny twigs and pebbles rose, spinning around us in a frantic dance. Rune frowned, then lowered her gaze to our clasped fingers.

“He’s weak. Torvo checked on him while I studied the book and continued searching the library. He also smuggled him some healing potions he found in the village. But from what I understand he’s growing…frailer.”

“I have to go to him,” I said, rising and taking Rune with me. She kept her hold on me even as our hair whipped around us in a tangled flight of white and brown.

“We will get him out tomorrow night. We have a plan. I was hoping you could be there with us to help, but…but we can do this. Torvo is sure of it.”

“Torvo?” I asked, the wind dying. “But what of you, Rune? Are you sure?” I hadn’t missed the fact that she’d gone to the library. She’d been somewhere on her own without a guide. That was quite the accomplishment for her. But there was a big difference between sneaking into the library and escaping from her father’s clutches with a fugitive.

She drew a deep breath, keeping her eyes locked on me. “We can do this. Together. We will do this. I promise. Just as I promise to find a way to give you your freedom again. I love you, Nye.”

The next moment, she’d thrown her body against me, and I caught her in my arms. I hugged her back with all my might.

I had to believe. She was my only hope. Rivven’s only hope. But I couldn’t shake the worry that the Rune I’d known my whole life could reappear at any moment and retreat inside herself when we all needed her the most.

Thirteen

Leuruna

Icouldn’t stop staring in the mirror. I’d grown up wearing one pretty dress after another, but seeing myself in the blood red of my ceremonial wedding gown was something completely new. The tight bodice corseted my ribcage, pressing painfully into my breasts just above my nipples so that the tops swelled in the open air like tiny mountains. The gold brocade around the drop sleeves and waist was patterned in the traditional interlocking chains that represented the forever union of souls, reminding me of the seriousness of the vow I’d be taking.

The skirt swelled and fell in layers where it brushed the ground so that only the tips of my gold velvet slippers peered out. My shoulders and neck were bare, but my white hair was swept up on top of my head and interwoven around the crown atop my head much in the same pattern as the trim on my dress. I’d thought bright colors like this would wash me out, nearly erasing what was left of me. But the person who stared back at me had the regal look of a mature queen, not a child. She was a ruler, a sorceress, a woman. The attendant who was assigned to finish my makeup behaved like all the others I’d ever met when I’d been dressed up like a doll and paraded around court. She wouldn’t meet my eyes let alone speak to me other than to offer a color choice for my lips.

I chose the red to match my dress.

I think I saw a smile cross her lips as she brushed the paint on mine, then outlined my eyes with lapis ink. I’d tried talking to my helpers once, when I was still a child, after my mother passed away. I was so lonely shut up in my room without her, and so far removed from the palace and grounds I’d taken for granted that were nothing but shadowed memories now.

The poor thing I’d dared speak to had frozen like a rabbit surrounded by predators. She’d gone very pale and mumbled apologies as she rushed to cinch my gown, painfully so, and left as quickly as possible. Serano scolded me, having been watching from the shadows. He spooked me so badly that I jumped in the air when he appeared behind me in the mirror that day. He told me the servants were instructed to never dare to address a royal. That my father would become irate if he heard I’d contradicted that rule.

Since Serano had been hidden in illusion that day, I’d started teaching myself how to detect illusions. Over time, I learned to see the unnatural glow that swirled around them. It was how I’d become an expert. Some expert, unable to recreate an illusion you created without effort as a child.

“Stop thinking like that,” I scolded my reflection.

I drew back my shoulders and turned, bearing the weight of the skirts that were easily twice as heavy as I was, like the royal I’d been raised to be. Torvo deserved that. He deserved the best, the kindest, the bravest, just like he was. And I was determined to give that to him.

He may have had feelings for Nyah once, I reasoned, but he was marrying me. Tonight, before our escape, he would lie with me. I would earn his complete love and attention, and I had to be worthy of it.

And to prove it, I’d agreed to do what I never thought I could. I smiled to myself as the doors swung open, and the guards parted to escort me down to the courtyard, where I’d insisted at the last minute the ceremony take place.

Lifting my head high, I rounded the corner to the final stairway, finding it lined with my father’s men all in burgundy uniforms, standing at attention, swords in hand and held down to their left. But the moment I attempted to take the first step, the two at the top crossed their blades, blocking my path.