Chapter 6
GARRICK
I considered all manner of subterfuge to enter the palace. But in the end, I returned the same way I had left almost twenty years before—through the front door.
Four soaring cylindrical obelisks reached skyward, supporting a domed roof some fifty feet above my head.
Red stone stood at the base and apex of the white beams, each carved from a single piece of unblemished granite.
I glanced up as I passed underneath the dome, just long enough to register the familiar constellation painted onto the mock sky.
I’d seen it hundreds of times in the years I dwelt here.
To my knowledge, no one had yet discovered its origin.
It had never appeared in the skies above Velora.
Ice clung to the red and white pillars, dripping down the sides in icicle adornments that might have been beautiful in a world where they actually melted away in the spring.
Snow was piled on the waist-high stone walls that buttressed the stairs, creating a tunnel-like effect as I climbed.
Every person who entered Balar Shan had to climb these stairs.
There was no life beyond these walls; no city sprung up to support the palace.
There was a reason that most of the continent believed that the fae had abandoned these shores.
And another for why no one had ever come to verify for themselves—not even the witches.
Until now.
I took each stair with careful purpose, tracking my surroundings for any clues to what awaited me inside.
The Dark God… the damned Dark God… had implied that I might not be welcome. But coming back was exactly what the king wanted. He’d never state that goal aloud. But every move he made was meant to control me.
He’d summoned my mother and me to Velora from across the Southern Fate when his wife passed yet another decade unable to produce a male heir.
I’d been feted as the heir presumptive. When that wife died, he’d taken another.
She’d failed in her duty, as well. The king beheaded her for it, leaving Alize an orphan and me the lone male heir, once again.
But his third wife had done the job.
My mother and I were finally free.
Except… what if the child did not thrive? What if Alize succeeded in her attempts to murder our brother in the cradle?
Best to keep the halfling prince close, just in case.
I did not learn about my mother’s bargain until much later. And it took me another two decades after that before I figured out how to break it.
I reached the courtyard. If the king was going to deny me entrance, this was where he would do it.
The presence chamber was for verbal sparring.
The courtyard was for bloodshed. If he let me over the threshold into the Court of Lies, the battle would be one of wills and wits.
It was why the Seven Gates never scared me.
I’d been living in emotional hell my entire life.
Had not scared me, I amended. Until I had some reason to worry beyond myself.
I stopped short of stepping into the courtyard, keeping my feet on the white granite stairs. The red bricks were difficult to discern through the thick snow and ice, but I knew they were there.
I tugged the sleeve of my surcoat up, exposing my wrist and the tattoo inked there.
It disappeared in my raven form, obscured by thick black feathers.
Every time I shifted back, my first instinct was to check my wrist, to ensure the Lifebind was still there.
Koryn might hate me, but she could not escape me. I would not allow it.
The Dark God was on our side. I did not trust his motives, but I believed he wanted Koryn free. That had to count for something in this dangerous game I was about to join.
I lifted my wrist to my mouth and pressed my lips against it.
Koryn could not feel it. But if the Dark God was watching, if any of the other gods were…
let Ramkael observe my devotion. Let Seraxa see how I honored the bond she’d gifted to us.
Make the Dark God see that he was not the only one who understood and saw Koryn for all that she was.
I loved her. And I would not leave this palace without her, whatever awaited.
I stepped into the courtyard.