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Everything wasn’t right in the world, but this was what I’d wanted more than anything, and now it had come true.
All this time I spent turning plans over, trying to figure out how we could make this work with the fewest sacrifices possible…and Noctus does this.
A small part of me felt like I was being unbearably greedy and selfish—this was going to change Calor Villa and those living in it forever.
But I’d do everything I could to help them and—probably more helpfully given their positions—if I asked Pat and Joy, they would too.
I wanted to tell Noctus this, but I couldn’t find the words. Not that it mattered—Noctus seemed fascinated by something on my neck, he kept rubbing his thumb against my throat.
“Amalourne indeed,” the Paragon said, his voice cold enough to make me let go of Noctus and step back. “Well done. The spell is destroyed. How amazing. Now, explain what is going on!” He stalked back over to us, his body stiff. “How many elves are you hiding in that house of yours?”
Noctus adjusted his grip on his rapier. “Don’t you want to know what happened here first?”
“No,” the Paragon said. “Because right now you’re the greater threat. I’m not asking anything the Curia Cloisters won’t ask when they arrive.”
“I stopped a supernatural who was attacking humans,” Noctus said. “That hardly constitutes a threat.”
The Paragon curled his bony hands into fists. “Don’t try to paint yourself as a hero. You killed the biggest lead I found this year!”
I fidgeted, burning to defend Noctus, but my words were meaningless—I didn’t even have the pull in the Cloisters that Pat had! I sneezed—the Paragon’s stupid glamour was still affecting me.
“I gave the Cloistersmonthsto handle him, and they didn’t. If you wanted to question him so badly, you should have helped Chloe sooner,” Noctus said, his already steely voice growing darker.
“It was our failing,” the Paragon agreed. “We should have reacted faster—if I’d learned sooner what she said she was, I would have. But you—you’ve been lying this entire time! You’re not the last of your kind, and your willingness to wear any kind of shackle on your magic is obviously a farce. You’d best prepare yourself, Noctus, because everything you’ve been trying to hide is going to come into the light.”
Anger flickered in the Paragon’s eyes, but Noctus accepted it unflinchingly.
This is just the start, I realized.
Everything I’d seen since returning home had proven to mewhyNoctus hadn’t wanted to come forward. Queen Leila and King Rigel’s suspicions, the assumption that elves were inherently evil—it was going to be horrific.
And yet, he’d done it. For me.
Something wild flickered in me—the same kind of deadly calm that settled on me when the tracker had threatened my siblings, prodding me into stabbing him.
The Paragon and the Cloisters together would try to force Noctus’s hand.
And I was going to stop them.
No matter what I do, the elves will have to come forward as part of this—it’s unavoidable since the Paragon knows as much as he does. But. I can make sure they do it on their terms, and aren’t coerced. And I know just how to do it.
“Do you understand, Noctus?” the Paragon asked. “The time for bargaining is over.”
“No,” I said.
The Paragon and Noctus turned toward me.
The scowl that had settled on the Paragon’s lips tweaked in his confusion. “What?”
I lifted my chin, and whatever it was inside of me that had stirred the embers of strength ignited into a forest fire. “The Curia Cloisters won’t be asking anything, becauseyou’renot going to tell them about this.”
The Paragon laughed—his voice a lot younger than his appearance. “You seem to be under a mistaken impression, Chloe. I didn’t trust Noctus before, but I thought I knew his situation. Turns out, I was a fool. That makes him dangerous—and you’re just as suspicious to me if you really are Ama.”
“It doesn’t matter how suspicious you think he is.” I gripped the belt of my harness with my left hand, using it to put some steel in my spine. “You’re not going to say a word about him, Oleander, or Prydwen.”
“Oh? Who is going to stop me?” The Paragon leaned in, his voice dark.
I can do this.
