The light shifted and deepened as another figure stepped from the glow—a man formed of shifting shadow, his edges blurred and restless. His presence seemed to leech the warmth from the room. I felt his coldness against my skin.
“Xylos convinced her he could provide for her what an Elarthai could not. That they could be more.”
When Thora turned to face him, something inside me clenched. The figures drew closer, their hands nearly touching. When their palms finally met, light burst across the study, blinding and perfect for one suspended heartbeat.
“And it killed her.”
The silver bled to a sickly green, then darkened to a void of black. The light fractured. Darkness bled inward from the edges of the page, twisting into faces that were not quite faces, forms that slithered and grew teeth. The forest crumbled into ruin.
The light in the book flickered with the echo of Thora’s silent scream before the page went still, the last of the dust falling in a thin, glittering trail.
“You see, Kaelia,” she said simply. “If you submit to this pull, you will follow her path.”
I shook my head, a tense laugh escaping me. “Keeper, I understand your worries, but there is no trickery happening here.”
She slammed the book closed and strode around the desk.
I instinctively tried to pull my legs back, but the stool was pinned against the desk, trapping me. Sora did not seem tonotice—or perhaps she did not care. She crouched between my knees, and for the first time in days, her presence felt suffocating.
When she rested her wrinkled hands on my muddied dress, I stilled.
“Kaelia,” she started. “If it is not true, then why do you not become bound?”
My heart faltered, my lips parting around words I did not have.
“I have not found the one,” I settled for.
She tapped my knee once before standing. “Well, you no longer have the time to find them.”
I stood abruptly, my chair flying back and clattering against the wood. “What are you saying?”
Sora’s lips thinned into a hard line. “You need to find an Elarthai, suitable or not. Because no matter what image you have conjured up in your head about him, the Veythar master will not allow you to pass solstice unbound.”
“What if he did?” I challenged.
“You foolish girl.” She shook her head, returning the book to the shelf. “If what you are proposing is what I am thinking, then the matter of urgency only increases.”
I wiped my clammy hands on my dress and swallowed hard. “How does it?”
She whipped around to face me, her eyes blazing. “You will lose your soul either way. You remains boundless? They will come for you. You bind with him? The High Court comes for you both. There is no version of this story where the shadow leaves you standing.”
My vision tunneled as the reality of her words settled over me like a shroud. I was being hunted by the very people who were supposed to protect me, and my only crime was a reflection in a lake. I felt small, trapped between a city that demanded my lightand a man who offered me the dark. Both paths felt like a slow walk toward a cliffside.
“So you propose a safe bond then?” I croaked, my voice sounding like it belonged to someone else.
“Yes,” she said simply. “Tonight. Before the sun rises. Choose the light, Kaelia. Choose an Elarthai. Choose to live.”
Choose anything but him.
13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Keeper Sora stood near the long central table, her thin brows lifted like two silver blades.
“I will meet you in the Garden of Thrynn no later than the moon’s peak, Kaelia,” she said. “Do not be late.”
I swallowed, the movement tight and abrasive in my throat. I glanced toward the tapestries lining the far wall, depicting the noble history of the Elarthai in careful thread and muted color. Pairs stood bathed in golden light, hands clasped, silver threads of magic weaving between them in clean, radiant lines.