(Mateo) I still couldn't believe that Jace was dead. Just thinking about him was making me feel like I had somehow failed as a Prince, failed as his friend. He had been with me for a long time, and... I shook my head, trying hard not to think about how pale and blue he looked. After talking with mom and dad about Tymeria, and everything else, Vera and I walked to my room. She sighed as she sat down on the bed, arching her back. She looked weary and sad, too, and I knew losing Ezra was hard for her, as well. Even though he was a traitor, he was a friend. "He was more..." Shade growled. It was stupid to get jealous of a dead man. Shade shrugged. "Your mom looked so sad," she whispered, and I looked at her with a sigh. Her eyes were closed, and her head was tilted up. "Tymeria was her friend, or so she thought. And you look just as sad," I said as I walked towards her and pulled her towards me. "So many lives lost today. I- I didn't want this to happen. I know Ezra was on Orna's si

(Vera)My dad looked agitated and anxious as he kept telling me to find her, whoever she was.Who was she? And if she was real, why was she in Blackstone Hall?I called for the nurse when my dad kept muttering the same thing. She saw that he was too vexed and gave him a small dose of sedative to calm him down, and soon he fell asleep, but I couldn’t stop my thoughts from running in all the directions.He looked so old and weak. I pulled the blanket up before I walked back to the palace, thinking about the girl. His voice kept ringing inside my head over and over. I couldn't ignore the nagging suspicion in my gut. I had a feeling about who it might be.I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing until I was standing in front of the guards.“Miss. Rhys? What are you doing here?” the guard asked me. “I want to go talk with Tymeria. Let me in.”“But the Prince…”“The Prince won’t mind. I have something important that I need to talk with her. Let me in, please,” I said in my most

(Vera) Caden looked at Blaine and then at Mateo, his face creasing in despair as he ran his finger's through his hair and tugged. "I really don't know anything, trust me. But she will know the answers to your questions."Blaine finally took his hands away, trying to calm down, but I could see the flicker of emotions in his eyes. He looked broken.Caden's words hung heavily in the air for a few minutes as we stood there in silence, contemplating our next move. Blaine and Mateo exchanged a quick glance before turning their attention back to Caden, their eyes, both green, but both so different from each other's narrowing at his face."She isn't going to tell us anything. We have been questioning her, but she barely tells us anything, except goading us," I said with a frown and Caden winced."I can try to talk with her?" Caden's eyes were questioning."It is worth a shot," Mateo said as he placed his hand on Blaine's arms, trying to calm him down, but Blaine was still snarling, his face

(Vera) My fingers trembled as Mateo grabbed the note from my hands.Blood. Lili's blood.Every bone in my body burned in rage. If I saw Orna now, she would die a painful death. I wouldn't spare her, not at all. Mateo growled as he finished reading the note."Monster," he said with a dark rumbling growl. "How can she play with a little girl?"Oh, yes, she would. She didn't have any qualms about using a little girl to succeed in her plans."Lili is another one of her pawns," I hissed. "Lili is the pawn she made to control me."Amyra and Mateo nodded."She is undoubtedly smart," Amyra said with a frown."She is. She has always been."Orna didn't decide to steal the crown out of nowhere. No, it wasn't random. Nothing she had done was random. Everything was moved in such a way that when we came to this place we were in right now, she would have the King, that she would be the one calling check mate.She didn't decide to send Ezra and Lili to me, just for the heck of it. No."She knew Lili

(Orna) "So Estrild said to Sabius, I will come back a million times, even after death. I will destroy everything you have built, and then Draconia will be mine. Her voice rang above the silence of the night. Sabius cut his fingers on the crown's sharp edge and looked at Estrild's vanishing figure. She wasn't really there, but he could feel the ice running through his body, despite the fire that was always burning inside him." I read from the book, and the girl grumbled under her breath, pushing her plate back. I ignored her as I turned the page. "With this blood and the last of my daughter's blood, I bind your daughters' powers to the crown. As long as the magic hums in the crown, as long as Azura's blood runs through the veins of her children, you will never get what you want."Estrild's laughter rang out as she watched her three daughters grabbing on to their stomachs. The pain in their eyes was evident. She felt their pain as if it was hers.""They deserve the pain," Lili said as