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CHAPTER 1 - NORIVUN
My mate, guards, and I mistphased to the castle’s courtyard and landed back in Solisarium by nightfall. Our refuge on the Nolus continent was now behind us—the safety of the inn a distant memory. We would be staying on our northern continent from here on, and we could only pray to the gods and goddesses that our home land would be kind to us.
Moonlight penetrated the pastel-colored clouds in the night sky, the three moons’ light like rays of falling snow. The glittering light flickered off the eternal mark that swirled across my finger. A mark I’d received only hours before.
Since we’d reappeared in an area south of the castle’s front entrance, one not heavily patrolled during the castle guard’s night watch, we were alone. The sparkling ward that encompassed the entire grounds in a dome was thickest here, and the soaring wall at myback was as high as the second floor. Nobody could magically travel to this part of the yard—not unless one was a member of the royal family.
I stared at the huge monstrosity rising above me. Sometimes, I hated this palace. Hated its wealth and decadence. Hated its prestige and pretentiousness. There wasn’t one part of this castle that my father hadn’t tainted with his brutal hands and malicious intent.
I knew to some, the castle was a residence to aspire to. To me, it had always been a prison I couldn’t escape from—nor could my mother.
When the mistphase calmed around the six of us, and our bodies solidified into whole fae once more, I immediately cast an illusion over all of us. My affinity fell like a gentle mist, cloaking us entirely.
“We’re fully hidden?” Ryder asked, his sharp cheekbones looking like a razor’s edge in the moonlight.
“We are. I’ll keep us cloaked until Drachu’s necklace and the looking glass are safely stowed.”
Ilara glanced up at me with worried violet-colored eyes. Her beautiful white feathered wings stayed tucked between her shoulder blades. “Are you sure your father won’t find them?”
The mate bond inside me hummed, and I placed a hand on her lower back, stroking her through her tunic. “He hasn’t found anything within my safe before. I’m sure.”
She gave a curt nod, and some of her pulsing anxiety through our bond calmed.
Before coming here, we’d all agreed that it was best to stay undetected until the looking glass and Drachu’s necklace were hidden. Since the pendant held a stone with the ability to harness Ilara’s affinities, she was vulnerable if it fell into the wrong hands. And given that the looking glass proved what the warlock had done in Isalee—a warlock my father had hired—we all knew what the king would do if he got his hands on it.
Until those items were secured within my safe, which was tucked deep in my closet and sealed by my blood and magic, we wouldn’t rest easy.
After that, we would find my father, King Novakin, and present Ilara to him as he’d demanded we do after she’d fled following the Rising Queen Trial. But the king didn’t know what else we had planned. To him, we were simply returning with my mate. Yet now, Ilara and I were united in an eternal marriage—a bond that not even the king could break.
And our vengeance was coming.
Of course, all of us would know—my father included—that my guards, Ilara, the Fire Wolf, and I had destroyed the veil of death in Isalee’s field. Four days had passed since the incident, plenty of time for the warlock to report back to my father, but King Novakin lived under a ruse, his true nature hidden from the council and public. He couldn’t accuse us of anything without also implicating himself, so right now, we would do the same. We would pretend we’d done nothing in Isalee until we were able to sway the king’s council to our side.
My nostrils flared as my thoughts soared to what we needed to accomplish. The looking glass wasn’t proof that my father had hired the warlock who’d created the veil, but perhaps it, along with Lord Crimsonale’s testimony stating the king had met with the warlock a full season prior, would be enough to vote my father off the throne, which meant we needed to track down the Osaravee archon as soon as we were able.
Nish scowled at the dark castle. “Let’s get on with it then.”
We strode across the dim courtyard as snow flew. Footprints were left in our wake, but my illusion covered them as quickly as they formed.
A gust of wind lifted the cape billowing at my back while my silver hair tangled in front of my face.
Stones encrusted with snow and ice felt slick beneath my boots when we climbed the steps toward the door. My gaze shifted upward to the towering castle, and my wings splayed out. Power radiated along my limbs, stirring my magic as my mate and guards kept pace at my sides.
Three weeks had passed since I’d left these walls. Three weeks in which I’d been hunting for my mate and trying to undo all of the damage my father had inflicted on our fae and my wife. And three weeks in which my father had been waiting for my return.
Ilara also tilted her head up, gazing at the castle’s opulent spires, turrets, and towers. Inside lay the throne room of the Court of Winter—the room my father was likely occupying at this very moment.
Worry strummed from her along our mate bond again, and the dragon within me stirred.
“What do you think he’s going to do to me?” she asked as the door neared.
My nostrils flared. “Most likely, he’ll send you off to your chambers. Since we’re eternally bound, he can no longer insist that you marry Lord Arcane Woodsbury.” Just saying the words tasted like acid on my tongue. “He’ll be forced to accept you as the true Rising Queen.”
Her throat rolled in a swallow. “He’s going to be so angry.” Midnight locks trailed down her back, curling and swaying in the breeze, gathering around her magnificent wings. “And your mother? Will he punish her in my stead?” She turned her violet eyes upon me again, and I wanted to crush the growing alarm swirling within them.
“I’ll do my best to keep her safe.”
Ilara nodded, but her shoulders remained stiff, and I hated that my words rang hollow. Because there had been so many times that I hadn’t been able to keep my mother from the king’s rage. So many times that my mother had been abused because I hadn’t stopped it.
