Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sylvi
Jack gently set his sword back on its rack, trying to preserve the quiet, the leather of his armor still damp, clinging to his frame like a second skin. Tension coiled through his shoulders, every line of muscle pulled taut. He hadn’t noticed I was awake.
“Jack,” I rasped, voice rough from exhaustion.
His head snapped toward me, and the relief that flickered across his face strummed the chord tethered between us with a gentleness that soothed my soul.
“Hey,” he said softly, reaching up to rake a hand through his hair—a nervous habit he’d never quite shaken—but when he realized the sides were braided, his fingers fell to his perfectly arched pointy ear instead, scratching absently. “How do you feel?”
I pushed myself up against the pillow, the furs rustling as I shifted. “Well, I’m not dead at the bottom of that lake, so…I’m okay, I guess?”
He rolled his eyes. “I hate how you joke about death like it’s no big deal.”
“Well, it did try to take me out twice in the last few days, so… Luckily for me, you were there to save me. Yet again.”
His jaw flexed. That muscle always ticked whenever he was holding something back. He sucked in a deep breath, and those twin lines between his brows deepened.
I sighed as I curled a lock of hair around a finger. “Fine. I’m sorry. Look, I guess I’m just still a little shook, that’s all.”
He didn’t respond at first, just crossed the space between us in a few slow strides, like he wasn’t sure his legs would carry him much farther.
Then he sank to the floor with a heavy exhale, his back braced against the mattress near my head.
He pulled his knees up and rested his forearms on them.
“Don’t mind my foul mood, Syl. I’m just relieved to see you alive and well. ”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you for diving in there and pulling me out. I’m breathing, warm, and I can feel my body again because of you.”
He took my hand from his shoulder and kissed it. “Syl—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” I uttered before he could reproach me, taking my hand back. “That I shouldn’t have defied your orders, that I shouldn’t have gone into the forest by myself, that I shouldn’t have—”
Without looking at me, he lifted a hand over his shoulder and handed me the silver emblem of the captain of the guard.
My breath hitched. “What’s this?”
“You’ve been reinstated effective immediately.”
I stared at it, at the engraved metal surface, gleaming faintly in the low light. “I don’t think I can accept this, Jack.”
He turned around just enough to face me. “Varik abandoned his post. He left Torin, Astrid, Ravin…me. You, on the other hand, stood between us and death. You led. That’s what a captain does.”
I sat up straighter, curling my legs under me, eyes glued to the emblem resting on my palm. “But your mother. She said…”
“Fuck what my mother said,” Jack growled.
He rose and sat beside me on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping under his weight.
He tipped my chin up with his fingers, forcing me to meet his eyes.
“She doesn’t get to decide your worth. You earned this.
And I’ll be damned if I let her strip away what’s rightfully yours.
If you need proof—just look outside. The soldiers saw what you did.
What he didn’t. And they’ve already decided who to follow. ”
“She’s going to be furious,” I murmured.
“Varik’s not going to take this lying down.
And Kaelven, once he finds out…” A cold weight pressed against my chest and anxiety surged up my throat.
I pushed to my feet, extending the emblem back to him.
“I can’t do this, Jack. Your mother could punish you again.
I can’t watch you be torn to shreds in front of your court. Not again. I won’t survive it.”
Jack stood, his hand closing gently over mine, sealing the emblem back into my palm. “I’d take a thousand lashes for you, Sylvi, and then some,” he said. “Gladly. But it won’t come to that.”
I looked up at him, searching for some sign that he wasn’t just saying that to placate me. “How can you be so sure?”
His jaw clenched, muscle ticking as though he were grinding down something bitter. “Because she needs me pliant. She needs me agreeable to this marriage alliance.”
A stone weight fell into the pit of my stomach at the mention of that marriage. I’d not wanted to expose these feelings to him, but my hands curled into fists.
He stepped closer, knuckles cool against my cheek. “If she dares hurt you again by hurting me…” His voice dropped, quieter than a threat, more like a vow. “She knows what I’m capable of. If I truly turned on her, she wouldn’t stand a chance. Her power is no match to mine.”
But she was already hurting me, though. The thought of him marrying another, of bending himself to the will of court politics, shackled in name and body to a stranger…
it was already too much. “You’ve made up your mind, then,” I whispered, throat thick.
“You’re definitely going to marry Princess Isolde. ”
Jack exhaled hard, eyes averting mine as he paced toward the brazier.
His leather armor creaked, boots soft on the ground.
“Trust me, Syl. Marrying someone I don’t love, someone I don’t even know, is the last thing I want.
But I may not have a choice. Skadgard needs the unseelie army if the Isogrim attack.
But that’s not all…” He hesitated, his eyes flicking toward the corners of the tent as if someone might be listening.
“What is it, Jack?”
He stormed forward and reached for my hand, guiding me back toward the bed.
“There’s more at stake here than anyone can fathom, Syl,” Jack murmured, his voice a harsh whisper.
“Based on intel Ravin’s gathered, my mother’s attempted attack on Yulreth wasn’t about reclaiming the power of the solstice—that was only the veil.
By poisoning the Winterbloom Woods, she didn’t just desecrate sacred ground, she weakened the protective shields guarding the seven realms. You heard it at the counsel debrief.
In doing so, she cracked the seal suppressing the darkness buried in the Wildlands, too…
A darkness that has slept for fifteen thousand years. ”
The air grew heavy inside his tent, and I swore the candlelight flickered as if a phantom wind had blown through Jack’s pavilion. The skin on my arms pimpled as I thought back to what I’d seen in that forest, what I’d felt.
Heard.
The darkness that lived there wasn’t just the absence of light and warmth; it was an ancient, sentient evil that had been dormant for too damn long. I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “And you think your mother awoke that darkness on purpose? Why would she do that?”
He nodded grimly. “That’s the thing. Ravin believes she didn’t act alone.
He suspects King Maelthar may be involved, that he’s actually the one pulling the strings.
This marriage…it’s not just an alliance in exchange for troops, but one thread in a far larger, intricate weave.
It’s about combining the royal bloodlines of the two most powerful kingdoms in Nordveld.
A consolidation of magic, of power. All in preparation for something bigger, something involving Dokkvíor. ”
The mattress seemed to sink deeper. “That’s a dangerous claim, Jack.”
“Think about it, Syl. King Maelthar has been a power-hungry monarch for centuries. He’s meddled in foreign courts, sowing sedition and stirring rebellions.
It can’t be a coincidence that, just as my mother poisons the sacred trees to supposedly reclaim the lost power of the solstice, in essence weakening all seven realms, the Unseelie King shows up, offering us a lifeline? ”
“You think she never truly wanted to reclaim the power of winter?”
“That was merely the bait. She needed an excuse to weaken the ancient shields without arousing too much suspicion from the other kingdoms. Her vendetta against Claus for stealing the magic of the solstice was the perfect cover. And what better way to keep the courts blind than through a brokered marriage in exchange for protection against the Ice Giants? It’s a skillfully crafted distraction.
Symbolic. Political. While beneath the surface… ”
He paused, eyes narrowing. “The real aim is far more sinister. I mean, it can’t be pure fortuity that in our hour of need, when our realm now festers with discontent and threats of war from the east, that the Unseelie King conveniently presents our kingdom with a marriage deal.
No. This whole thing was staged. Planned for weeks, maybe months, even years. ”
My mind raced. “But to what end? Aside from petty feuds amongst the borderland clans, your mother’s attack on Yulreth was the biggest conflict the continent has faced in centuries. Why would the king want to disturb that peace?”
“Isn’t it obvious? His bloodline can be traced back to the ancient ruling houses of the continent, including the Shadow Court. I fear he aims to reclaim the power of the lost eighth realm. To finish what Nykraveld couldn’t.”
I wrapped my arms around myself as a shiver ran down the length of my body. “But when the Shadow Court became too powerful, the Unseelie Court fought against Dokkvíor. Why, after fifteen thousand years, would he want to unbind what his ancestors died to imprison?”
Jack’s mouth twisted, unconvinced. “The unseelie may have fought alongside the rest of the continent, but they’ve never been a true ally to any of the kingdoms. Power calls to power.
The unseelie have always been driven by it.
Can you even fathom what would happen once he’s managed to combine the magic of his court with ours?
If the king can reclaim the darkness of Dokkvíor, manipulate it, he won’t just be the most powerful king in all seven realms. He’ll be something far more dangerous… ”