Prologue
ROARK
“She knows now.” Emi whispered, securing a knot over the bandage around the tip of my finger. “Might as well tell her everything.”
I cast a wary glance at the sleeping figure against the fallen log. It had been a handful of bells since we made our escape from Stonegate. Lyra saw the truth; she saw the darker edge of my soul split free.
She was still here.
All I could think now was how I planned to get her to the Night Ledges. The Realms of Stìgandr were no longer safe for her, for any of us.
“Roark.” My cousin placed a hand on my shoulder. “She deserves to hear your side.”
I lifted one hand and gestured my reply slowly, She despises me.
As would Thane. A truth I’d known all along was I would lose the few who mattered most to me if the truth of my soul were ever revealed.
Days as a boy, befriending an enemy prince, left me hopeful if ever Thane knew I was divided in two, that I was being raised to be the killer of his people, he would understand the predicament.
I’d foolishly hoped the Jorvan prince would believe me when I told him I still saw him as my brother.
After what happened at the royal keep, I had few doubts I would ever be able to stand in front of Thane Oleg without one of us falling to Salur.
“Never took you for a fool, cousin.” Emi’s mouth tightened.
I narrowed my gaze, but did not respond.
“If Lyra despised you so ardently, why, I wonder, did she fight so desperately to save you?”
My jaw pulsed. Lyra was here. She’d not fled, even aided Emi in severing the fealty bone from my finger. I dropped my chin and kept my gesture low, but Emi understood me well enough she hardly needed to follow my hands. Lyra does not know everything about me.
“True.” My cousin stood, brushing soil from her gown. “But she can, she deserves to know who Roark Ashwood really is.” With a smirk, Emi leaned forward and whispered, “My Prince.”
I waved her off.
“Tell her, Roark.” Emi’s smile grew soft. “No lies. No secrets. Only then will you be able to move forward. Together.”
Then, she left me alone.
I studied my palms.
Lyra remained near us, and I suspected it came from a place of desiring answers more than loyalty. But would she understand the other half of my tale? Would she be able to forgive the twisted lies I kept about my dark soul…and that I was the heir of Dravenmoor?
New memories had snapped free the more my soul became my own, the longer I was near Lyra. She’d freed me in ways she did not even understand. Moments of a past I’d been unable to recall now flooded my mind in endless waves. Joy. Sorrow. Death. All of it collided within my skull.
I could not help but relive those horrid final days that led to my exile and forced me to become a creature in the shadows. The steps I’d taken as a boy, the recollection Lyra had shared from her side, and even Thane.
The enemy who should’ve let me die, but instead let me live. Three paths of fate that converged in such cruel, vicious ways.