Chapter 33 Violet #2
The hug was fierce and sudden, the kind that stole the breath from my lungs before I could prepare for it.
“You’re doing fine,” she said into my hair. “In case no one’s told you in the last five minutes.”
I laughed weakly and hugged her back. “I feel like I’m about to make ten irreversible mistakes.”
“Good,” she replied, pulling away and giving me a quick once-over. “Means you care.”
She stepped aside again, giving us space, and Sebastian reached for my hand. His fingers closed around mine with quiet certainty, but before he spoke he glanced to Bronwen.
“Try not to kill Adar while I’m gone,” he said dryly.
Bronwen lifted one brow. “No promises.”
Sebastian gave her a look.
She sighed dramatically and waved a hand. “Fine. I’ll keep him alive.”
“Preferably in one piece,” Sebastian added.
“That’s asking a lot.”
He shook his head and looked back at me. “Ready?”
I took a slow breath and closed my eyes, reaching for the pull of the realms. In my mind, I pictured our first spot in the Forest Realm.
The pull caught—
And then the pain came.
It struck like a blade driven straight through my skull.
I cried out as my knees buckled, the image shattering before I could finish the transfer.
Heat exploded under my skin, wild and uncontrolled, and my breath tore out of me as the world tilted violently sideways.
My hands slipped from Sebastian’s as I collapsed, hitting the stone hard enough to rattle my teeth while fire flared through my veins like something inside me had suddenly broken loose.
“Violet!”
Sebastian was beside me instantly. Shadows snapped tight around us as his hands closed firmly on my shoulders. The garden blurred at the edges of my vision, flowers smearing into streaks as pressure built behind my eyes.
“Something is wrong,” I gasped. “Something—”
“Block it out,” he ordered. “Don’t follow it. Stay with me.”
But whatever it was wasn’t asking permission.
It clawed. Someone was in my mind again, only this time it wasn’t peaceful influence. It was meant to bring me down. The sensation tore through my skull again, raw and violent, like it was trying to rip its way through the bond itself.
Adar was already running toward us across the path, his sword drawn. His face was tight with urgency, the usual cold control cracked just enough to show something underneath it that looked dangerously close to fear.
“They’re here,” he said.
Sebastian snapped his head up. “What?”
“Who?” Bronwen asked.
“The Sovereigns,” Adar said, breath sharp from the run. “They’re leading their Guards. They’ve crossed the borders.”
The words didn’t make sense.
Sebastian shook his head once. “No. They couldn’t. The shields—They can’t get through without my permission.”
“Well,” Adar snapped, gesturing sharply toward the distant horizon, “tell that to them.”
Sebastian went very still. “No,” he said. “I would know.”
He eyes went distant. The shadows reacted immediately.
They surged outward across the Night Realm, racing through the land faster than thought.
They scattered through every corridor of the castle, slipping across every border, every hidden ward, every place Sebastian had ever laid claim to with his magic.
Then he looked back at me. “They’re already inside,” he said, disbelief cutting sharp through the words. “Forest. Ice. Mountain.”
“Calum?” I whispered.
He nodded as his gaze lifted toward the horizon again. “Gods. Ocean and Flower, too.”
Betrayal slammed into me so hard it nearly knocked the pain out of my head. “No. We had a deal. We formed alliances.”
“They lied to us, Violet. They’re all here. It’s happening again. Just like the Sun Realm.””
I shook my head. “They said they would support me. This doesn’t make any sense. This—”
Another spike tore through my mind, white and blinding, and this time I screamed. My hands flew to my temples as if I could physically hold my skull together, the pressure inside it building until it felt like something was splitting me open from the inside.
“Shut them out,” Sebastian said urgently. His hands closed around my face. He forced me to look at him, his voice cutting through the chaos. “Whoever this is, they’re trying to take control again. Fight it. Shut it out.”
In an instant, the pain disappeared. I dragged in a breath, barely managing to stay upright.
“The Sovereigns have been behind this the entire time,” he said. “Why couldn’t I see that?”
And then I noticed it.
The way his jaw had clenched too tightly.
The way the shadows at his feet faltered—just for a fraction of a second—before snapping sharply back into place.
My stomach dropped.
“You feel it too,” I whispered.
“No,” he said immediately.
But the denial came too fast.
I lifted a shaking hand and pressed it against his cheek. His skin was burning hot beneath my palm.
“That’s how they did it,” I said hoarsely. “They broke your shield. They got around your shadows without you even realizing it. They are inside you, too. They just didn’t make it known until now.”
The bond between us pulsed unevenly, distorted in a way I had never felt before.
Adar swore viciously under his breath. “It all was planned. For this.”
“Yes,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping. “And they used us to do it.”
Adar turned sharply on his heel, already moving toward the castle. “I’m calling upon the Guard.”
“Go,” Sebastian said without looking away from me. “Get them, and then I will buy us time.”
“I will send the servants to hide,” Bronwen called from the blur of motion she had become.
Sebastian turned fully back to me, his hands settling firmly on my shoulders. His eyes burned with the kind of focus that meant he had already decided how this would end. “We knew it was going to end like this, even if we didn’t want to admit it. Are you ready?”
I nodded.
This was what had been sitting like a stone in my stomach for days. The quiet warning that something was coming whether we were prepared or not.
I closed my eyes—not to escape, but to focus.
I held onto the heat instead of letting it scatter, pulling it inward until it gathered tight beneath my ribs.
Whatever force had been pulling strings behind the scenes had made one mistake.
They had assumed I would break.
They were wrong.