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To say I was captivated would have been an understatement—I was spellbound, bewitched, mesmerized beyond the ability to breathe. My heart pounded with the rhythm of a thousand beating wings, my chest fluttering with unbridled anticipation. This was everything I’d wanted. The assurance of a dream, the confirmation of a future, and the validation of a love that was stronger and more profound than any pain.
“Astonishing, is it not? I had the servants lay it all out for me today so I may see what it will look like on the day of the wedding.” Captain Asker stepped up beside me, folding his black-braced arms behind his back as his gaze drifted to the high table, where an opulent wooden chair had been added to the one beside Malyr’s. “His father spoke his oaths to his mother under the elegance of a very similar ensemble. It cast us into war then. I ordered all this as closely to my memory as I could, hoping that, this time, it will bring us out of it.”
My thoughts drifted to the fantasy of that little boy sitting on my lap, my half-blood son born with the shadowy gifts of a Raven who, gods willing, might sit on the throne one day. “I hope so.”
“You will depart for Tidestone on the morrow. Will you give this to Marla?” From the black scales ofaerymelthat shifted over his hips, he removed a small satchel of shadowcloth, which had somethingclankinside as he reached it out to me. “The salted spells of deathweavers. After months in the Tidestone dungeons, we cannot be certain of her condition. If she has grown too weak, her only chance at consciously forcing a shift is by throwing herself off a high place, such as the bell tower or the cliffs. These will help her get there, should trouble arise.” The moment I took the satchel, his trembling fingers clasped around my wrist, causing me to look up into his brown eyes. “I beg of you, my lady, return my mate to me. Myanoais growing weaker by the day, eaten from the inside by the sheer agony and pain this separation is causing us. I have lost my daughter… Icannotlose my mate.”
My heart sank at the desperate plea in his voice, the glistening in the eyes of a man who’d always seemed so stoic. “I didn’t know you had a daughter…”
“The sweetest soul among the stars. Ravenna was gifted with visions of the here and now, able to gaze across realms and through the eyes of every Raven.” Dark hollows formed in his cheeks as he sucked them in for a moment. “She died five years ago. Marla is all that I have left. Please… bring her back.”
“It’ll be the first thing I do, right after my arrival, when it still has the entire stronghold in commotion,” I said and tied the satchel to the belt on my dress of shadowcloth. “I’ll push her from the tower myself, if I must.”
Something akin to a smile tugged the corners of his mouth, quickly hidden by the way he bowed. “Like I said before, not all treasures sparkle at first glance, but I am more convinced than ever that the goddess had our paths intertwine for a reason. To rectify the past. This alliance will—”
“There is no damn alliance,” Sebian ground out through barred teeth as he hurriedly strode up beside us, his cheeks webbed with red vessels from the cold, the fur poking from his cuirass matted with ice. “Malyr fooled all of us, plotting with Lord Taradur behind our backs.”
Captain Asker exchanged a confused look with me before he narrowed his eyes at Sebian. “What are you talking about?”
“Those carts Malyr sent to Tidestone under the protection of Taradur’s soldiers…? There isn’t a single fucking piece of grain on them.” Sebian’s eyes found mine, their emerald glint holding none of their usual softness, driving an ominous chill into my bones. “They’re disassembled siege weapons, Galantia. Taradur is marching on Tidestone as we speak.”
My marrow chilled.
No, that… that made no sense.
Asker shook his head slowly. “Impossible.”
“My guess is that Malyr will send Ravens there shortly before the attack, not leaving them nearly enough time to prepare for such an unexpected force,” Sebian said. “Asker, call me a reckless fool all you want, but I’m telling you… Malyr is taking Tidestone.”
Malyr is taking Tidestone.
My home.
Coldness shuddered through me, piercing deeper than the whitest winter, only to clash with that radiant brightness I’d carried in my chest all day. No, this couldn’t be. Could not be. Surely, this was some sort of mistake. A wrong report or… or…
“He is not taking Tidestone.” Strange, how that mumble barely sounded like my own when I turned around, my senses somehow dulled as I all but levitated toward one of the corridors.
“Why would he scheme behind our backs?” Asker’s voice sounded behind me. “No. No, Sebian. I will go and speak to Malyr this instant. He would never betray me like this.”
Precisely. Malyr would never betray me like this. This was all a mistake. A stupid—
I can’t help but wonder if I am about to make a grave mistake,Malyr’s voice echoed in the back of my mind, putting a falter into my next step.
I pushed through it.
He hadn’t lied to me.
He loved me.
Sebian trotted after me. “Where the fuck are you going?”
“To Cici,” I said and quickened my pace along the many doors that lined this particular corridor until my eyes itched. Nothing but the breeze of my speed irritating them. “It’s her father who is escorting the food, after all. She’ll shed light on all this and prove that you’re wrong.”
Yes, yes, she would.
“You and your damn stubborn foolishness,” he hissed, grabbing for my arm. “Galantia, don’t you understand? He always planned to—”
“No.” I pulled my arm away before he managed to clasp it and braced it against the door to Cici’s chamber, hand pushing down on the unlocked handle. Hinges groaned a mournful symphony, the sound scraping my skin with eerie foreboding. “You don’t understand. He loves—”
