“What happened?” he growled. “Is she hurt? Get your hands off her—let me see her.”
I was still frozen in my despair, my bloody hand trembling at my side. Aemonn pulled back just slightly and stroked his knuckles on my cheek. “What can I do, honey? How can I help?”
I looked up into his vivid blue eyes, so full of compassion.
“Can you give us a minute?” I managed to force out.
Aemonn frowned. He wiped away the tears on my cheeks and kissed my temple, then rubbed his hands along my arms a few times to warm them.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
At my side, Luther trembled with restraint, his eyes following Aemonn’s every touch.
Aemonn didn’t even acknowledge his cousin’s presence. He took my chin in his fingers and tilted it up slightly. “Diem,” he said softly, “don’t fret. All will be well in the end.”
I gave him a tiny, thankful sliver of a smile. He threw Luther a loaded glance before turning his back and returning to the servants’ passage.
Luther and I stood alone. I felt the burden lift from my heart—just slightly.
He grabbed my hand and began to swipe the blood away with the cuff of his jacket as he inspected my flesh. His voice came out harsh. “Are you wounded?”
Yes, I thought.
“No,” I said. “The blood isn’t mine.”
“Whose is it?”
It took me a few tries to say it: “Henri’s.”
His eyes shot to my face. “What happened?”
I couldn’t bear to look at him. “He got my letter, but he came anyway. He said… he thinks I…” My voice gave way, more tears along with it.
Luther roughly tugged me in and cocooned me in the warm steel of his arms. One hand slid to my nape and cradled my head against his chest as he whispered promises, over and over—we’ll fix this, I’ll help you, you’re not alone.
It was no different than what Aemonn had done—and yet, somehow, everything was different.
A wave of calm cut through my anguish. My tears slowed, then ran dry. My fears grew more distant, my sorrows at bay. Not gone forever, but no longer at my heels with their hooks in my back.
As long as I stayed here, I was safe.
And I never, ever wanted to leave.
But when I closed my eyes, it was Henri I saw, and that final stare, so wrought with betrayal.
Reluctantly, I pushed Luther away, unable to meet his eyes. “The Guardians are outside—two hundred of them. They’re planning to attack the palace tonight.”
“I’ll handle it,” he said without missing a beat.
“I know they came to do a terrible thing and I have no right to ask this of you, but…” I hung my head, whispering. “Don’t hurt them. They’re mortals, Luther. If they die because of me…”
I stared at my palm, still stained with traces of Henri’s blood. Had I really thought I could make it through this war with clean hands?
“I understand. I’ll find a way.”
Finally, I looked up. To my surprise, there was no judgment on Luther’s face, not even reluctance, only steadfast resolve. The swift arm of his Queen, ready to administer her justice—or her mercy.
He thought for a moment, then frowned. “I may have a solution. If you release the Umbros Descended from the Forging spell’s effects, they can use their thought magic to make the mortals go home peacefully.”
My brows rose with burgeoning hope. “They can?”
He nodded. “But you must know, the consequences are significant. They won’t just have access to the mortals’ heads. They’ll be able to read every mind they come across in that ballroom. They’ll know everyone’s secrets.” His expression turned grave. “Including yours.”
My insides twisted. “What will they do with that information?”
“Umbros Descended are fiercely loyal to their Queen. What they learn, they’ll tell her. It will give her immense power over the realm—and over you.” He paused, his chin lowering. “Especially if you have plans you don’t want the other Crowns to know.”
The meaningful look in his eyes, the weight to his voice, reverberated eerily through my head. He looked as if he knew exactly what those plans might be.
I forced down the growing lump in my throat. “Take Alixe and Taran and go. Get far enough away that your minds are out of reach. I’ll find the Umbros Descended myself.”
He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Luther, you have to.” I started to push him away. “If they find out you’ve been smuggling half-mortal children into Umbros—”
He grabbed my hands. “They already know. My contacts there warned me the Umbros Queen read their minds and discovered it all. She’s had years to stop it. For whatever reason, she’s chosen to look the other way.”
“Still… you have other secrets you don’t want her to know. Secrets you don’t even want me to know.”
Luther glanced away, looking torn, then his features hardened. “It doesn’t matter. My place is with you. Wherever that leads.” His fingers curled around mine. “Whatever it costs.”
Why? The word rose to my lips, as it had so many times before. Why will you give your secrets away for me, but not to me?
I stared at him, trying to piece together this puzzle of a man. This had to be about something more than earning my trust, especially when his own family was in danger.
“We should hurry,” he said. “We need to act before the Guardians do.”
“What do I need to do?”
“The Forging magic that enforces the realm borders—each Crown can waive it within their own realm. You’ll need to lift its hold on the Umbros Descended and restore the powers they lost when they crossed into Lumnos.”
I slumped, my hope deflating. “I can’t even use my own magic yet.”
“The Forging magic works in a different way. King Ulther described it to me like his bond with Sorae—a connection between the Crown and the soil. It listens for you. It must obey your call.”
I shook my head in stubborn denial even as I gave in and closed my eyes, reaching my spirit out into the darkness. The Descended magic had never listened to me. It taunted me, made demands of me, took control of me, but never obeyed me. And I’d never felt any kind of attachment with the earth. Surely I would never be able to—
I gasped aloud.
There.
There it was.
It was so tightly woven in the fabric of my soul that I hadn’t even recognized it as something new, something that once hadn’t belonged.
It wasn’t a thinking, breathing creature like Sorae—it was an energy, buzzing and crackling with life. It lived in the ground, but its current ran through every living thing in Lumnos, from the smallest blade of grass to the mightiest beast. I could flow with it to the shores of the Sacred Sea and glide along its edges to the southern flatlands of Fortos and the snowy, lavender mountains of Montios.
In the midst of it, I felt sixteen beings that did not belong, two from each realm. The Forging magic coated them and solidified around them like a hard shell. I somehow understood that one mental tap from me would break them free and release their magic onto Lumnos’s soil.