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And read.
And read.
* * *
Teryn floated in nothingness,his surroundings shapeless and awash in pale light. He vaguely noted thatthismust be how it felt to rest his ethera. It was the same sensation he’d had before he’d awoken inside the crystal for the first time. His mind lingered somewhere between rest and consciousness. Thoughts began to sharpen at the edges, forming his last waking memory.
Cora.
Beautiful, fearless, formidable Cora standing in the hall.
Cora, frozen in place as her eyes fell on his body.
Cora, trying to confess a hurt she’d endured.
Cora, crestfallen as Morkai’s retreating footsteps dragged Teryn away from her, forcing him to follow the crystal’s path.
He woke with a jolt and found himself in an unfamiliar place. Instead of the muted gray stone of Ridine’s walls and regal tapestries, he found himself surrounded by pale marble carved in intricate patterns. Rugs covered the floor of the small room, and an array of bright pillows stood in lieu of tables and chairs. To the left was a low bed draped in gauzy curtains that hung from the ceiling, sheets the color of ruby and saffron haphazardly tucked in place.
“This was my bedroom when I was alive.” Emylia’s voice startled him, and he found her suddenly at his side. She was dressed in a sleeveless linen gown the same shade of saffron as the bedsheets. Her curly black hair was pulled into a bun at the top of her head. “I spend most of my time here. Is that all right? Or would you prefer I shape the crystal to mimic your bedroom at Ridine again?”
“It’s fine,” Teryn said, his mind still sharpening from the haze of rest. “But where are we really? Where is Morkai right now? How much time has passed since…” Fear clenched his chest as he realized he couldn’t remember anything after he saw Cora. His ethera must have forced him to rest, just as Emylia had said it would.
“Connect with your vitale first.”
He bit back a curse, but she was right.
With a deep breath, he focused on the feel of air moving through his lungs, the pulse of his blood, the beat of his heart. Calm settled over him.
Only then did Emylia answer his question. “A few hours have passed. King Dimetreus is holding court and Morkai is in attendance.”
“Doing what?”
“Just watching.”
Teryn arched a brow. “That’s all?”
“For now.”
Teryn had expected something more sinister, but as long as he wasn’t anywhere near Cora, he could let himself relax.
Emylia gave him a sympathetic smile. “You’re worried about the princess, aren’t you?”
“How can I not be worried? He’s using my body to marry her and become king. He—” His voice cut off as he recalled Morkai and Cora’s interaction. He’d nearly exploded in a futile rage, expecting Morkai to put his hands on her, to touch her or kiss her the way Teryn would have. Instead, he’d kept his hands behind his back, maintained a steady distance between their bodies. Then there were the things he’d said, telling her she was right to ask for space. The fact that he knew about what had happened between them in the tower last night told him Morkai had indeed been spying on them, the same way Teryn had begun watching Morkai.
But why had he acted so cold?
Teryn faced Emylia. “If Morkai is determined to marry Cora, why did he try to keep her at bay today? Wouldn’t it serve his purposes to keep her close?”
Emylia shook her head. “He will have to ensure your engagement remains secure while avoiding her as much as possible until the marriage contract is signed. Cora is dangerous to him because of her magic. The crystal likely keeps her from reading Morkai’s true emotions, and it might be muting yours as well, but she may grow suspicious if she realizes she can no longer read you.”
“You know about Cora’s magic?”
“I’ve been in this crystal a very long time, and I’ve spent most of my time projecting myself outside of it, watching. I’ve witnessed every moment between her and Morkai, starting with when he first arrived at Ridine Castle. I watched her struggle with her magic as a child, long before she’d learned what she was. But I’ve always known she was a clairsentient witch. A strong one. She’s what my people call an empath.”
“An empath,” Teryn echoed. He remembered Cora saying that word when she’d confessed about her magic. She’d told him about witches and their six sensory magics, said that an empath was a witch with the strongest form of clairsentience.
“I’m from Zaras,” Emylia said, “in the Southern Islands. There we respect magic. Almost everyone feels a connection to at least one of the six sensory magics. The strongest in the Arts train as priests and priestesses at the Zaras Temple. This bedroom was where I lived while training as an acolyte at the temple. I was a promising seer before I died.”
