“They took the other half of me,” Talon said. “They tore her from my side and chained her beneath their halls for a bond they themselves abandoned long ago.”
A murmur rippled through the guards and one of them shifted uneasily.
“Blasphemy,” he muttered, though the word lacked conviction.
“They believed that if they hid her deep enough, if they buried the truth beneath enough stone and silence, I would accept their rule.”
Talon stepped forward then, the image shifting closer until the fire in his eyes burned through the reflection.
“They believed I would kneel,” he growled. “I will not.”
My eyes were beginning to sting and I realized that I was so fixated on his display, that I had not blinked.
“They have imprisoned an innocent soul for generations,” Talon continued, his gaze sweeping across the unseen multitude watching through water and glass.
Xylos stepped forward beside him, fury blazing across his face.
“And the wandering souls you were told had been lost to the wind? They were never lost,” he admitted. “They were taken tothe Thrynn Chambers. Their souls devoured—so the High Court could maintain a balance they never had the right to wield.”
A gasp echoed the space, but I was not sure where it came from.
“No longer,” Talon declared. “The Sayel is the truth and you all deserve to know it.”
My grip on the iron tightened until the metal bit into my palms.
For a single suspended heartbeat, the world seemed to hold its breath.
Talon’s gaze lifted again.
“This is no longer a warning.”
The wind howled around him as his eyes narrowed.
“This is war.”
The image shattered.
The reflections vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving the world dull and silent once more.
For several seconds no one moved.
The guards stared at the empty window as if the sky itself had betrayed them.
Across the gap in the wall, Meliory let out a broken laugh that turned quickly into a sob.
I stared at the empty space where he had been, a slow, incredulous smile spreading across my lips.
One of the guards finally turned toward me, his face pale.
“You think this is amusing?” he snarled.
I ignored him, my smile widening until the cracks in my lips bled fresh.
The war had begun, and I was at the heart of it.
41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE