Mag-log inAURELIA'S POVI woke to the smell of damp stone and the weight of iron around my wrists.My head hurt. My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt thick. I tried to sit up and heard a chain scrape across the floor. It took me a moment to understand that the sound was mine."Do not rush," a voice said. "The herb takes time to leave."I turned my head. A lamp stood on a small wooden table a few steps away. Beside it, in a straight-backed chair, sat Malrik. He wore a plain grey coat with no crest. His legs were crossed, and his hands rested in his lap."Where am I?""Somewhere quiet.""Where?""A cellar beneath a lodge. You would not know the name." He tilted his head. "I am glad you are awake. I did not like the idea of talking to someone who could not answer."I looked down. Iron cuffs circled both my wrists, joined by a short chain that ran to a ring set in the wall. The floor was cold. My gown was dirty and torn at the hem."Let me go.""I cannot do that.""Kael will find you.""He will try
KAEL'S POVWe rode without stopping for the first two hours. No one spoke. The only sounds were hooves on frozen ground and the creak of saddles.I reached for the bond every few minutes. I could not stop myself. Each time I found nothing, and each time the nothing felt heavier."Your Majesty." Garrick rode up beside me. "You are gripping the reins hard enough to tear them."I loosened my hands. "It is the bond. Or the lack of it.""I thought so.""I keep expecting it to come back. Even a little. Even for a moment.""It may.""It did once. When I was fighting at the western gate." I stared at the road ahead. "For one breath, I felt her. She was terrified. Then it was gone.""That means she is alive, Your Majesty.""It means she was alive at that moment.""She was strong enough to break through for even that long." Garrick spoke gently. "That says something.""Yes." I looked at him. "It does."We came to a fork in the road before dawn. A scout named Pell was already crouched near the e
KAEL'S POVHe said nothing for a long moment. The guards shifted at the door. Roderic waited, his hands folded."I will not ask a fourth time," I said."He said he would kill my sister." Halric's voice broke. "He said if I ever spoke his name, she would be found in the river.""Who?""The Prince." The words came out in a rush. "Prince Malrik. He came to my rooms himself, months ago. He told me the King's household would soon change and I could be on the right side of it."I felt Roderic go still beside me. I did not move."Malrik came to you himself.""Yes, Your Majesty.""And told you to take the seal.""He told me to open the drawer and let the woman in. I did not know what she would take.""Where is my brother now?""He left the palace this afternoon, Your Majesty." Halric's voice was barely above a whisper. "Before the fighting began at the western gate. He said he was riding to inspect the eastern estates.""Alone?""There was a carriage waiting for him at the back gate. Grey, wi
KAEL'S POVI did not sleep that night, and I did not sit down until Roderic put a chair behind me."Your Majesty, you have been standing for eleven hours.""I do not care.""Your hands are still bleeding."I looked at them. There was a long cut across my left palm that I did not remember getting. It had stopped bleeding on its own."It is nothing," I said."Let the healer see it.""After I have heard from the riders."Roderic sighed and stepped back. He had a stack of papers under one arm. He looked older than he had that morning.The palace was in chaos. Servants ran along the corridors with lamps. Soldiers carried wounded men down to the healers. In the western courtyard, guards were dragging the last of the enemy bodies out through the broken gate. Somewhere in the distance, a woman was crying."Report," I said to Garrick, who had just come through the door."The riders have returned, Your Majesty.""All of them?""All but two." He kept his eyes steady. "They followed the carriage
AURELIA'S POVThe carriage door was locked from the outside, and the windows had been covered with black cloth.I knew this because I had already tried both."Sit down, my lady," said the soldier across from me. He was the one who had led them into the room. "You will only hurt yourself.""Where are you taking me?""North. As the decree says.""The decree is false.""I only follow the orders I was given."There were four of them inside the carriage, two on each bench. I sat between two of them on the rear bench with my hands tied in front of me. The rope was tight, and my wrists had already begun to hurt. The carriage moved fast over uneven road. Every time we hit a hole, my shoulder knocked against the man on my left."Who gave you those orders?" I asked."I do not know his name.""You wear a crest under your cloak."The soldier on my right looked at the man across from him. "She saw it.""I told you to cover it better," the leader said."I did cover it.""Not well enough.""Does it
KAEL'S POVI saw the crest the same instant Aurelia did, and I understood exactly what was happening a heartbeat too late."Guards!" I shouted. "Seize these men, they are not—"The soldier nearest the door moved fast, faster than any northern escort had reason to move. He struck the clerk aside and grabbed Aurelia's arm before I could reach her."Let her go," I said, drawing my sword."Forgive us, Your Majesty," the lead soldier said, though his eyes held no apology at all. "Our orders are clear. The lady comes with us, willingly or otherwise.""Kael!" Aurelia struggled against the man's grip, and for a moment I thought the silver light might answer her, but it did not rise. Whatever had muted the bond seemed to have dulled her power as well, or perhaps it was simply the shock and speed of the ambush that kept it from her reach.I lunged toward the soldier holding her. He was ready for it, blocking my strike with a blade drawn from beneath his cloak, and in the space of that single ex







