Chapter 21
The horizon had only just begun to pale. Night still cloaked the Ludaryn, and Carnis Noctyra showed no sign of ending.
Jorius lay sprawled across my bed beside me, boots still on, one arm flung over his face as sleep took him in uneven breaths. None of us had truly rested.
I hadn’t meant to tell them. But once I started, the words came anyway—Thanor. Aelia. The balcony. The blow. The humiliation.
When I finished, I felt… empty. But the emptiness was quickly replaced with rage. I wouldn’t sit around and mope. What happened only solidified my intent to escape, never mind that Elion had told me not to.
Jorius hadn’t taken my words well. His anger rose fast, dispelling the fog in my head as he paced the room like something caged, swearing under his breath, making promises he had no power to fulfill.
That one day we would have our due. That Aelia would pay.
That he would tear every strand of her carefully groomed hair from her head with his own hands if he ever got the chance.
I hadn’t stopped him. Some part of me needed to hear that someone else was furious for me.
Livia hadn’t said much. She stayed close instead, dabbing gently at my cheek with a cool cloth, the same way she had the first night I arrived—careful and steady, asking nothing of me. Safe. The feeling was warm and aching all at once. They felt like home in a place built of enemies.
Livia rinsed the cloth again, and the silence stretched long enough to feel fragile—
“Stop him—! Someone halt him!”
The shout tore through the corridor. Heavy footsteps followed.
Jorius was on his feet in an instant, traces of sleep completely gone from his face as Livia and I followed a heartbeat later, whatever fog remained stripped clean away.
He slammed the door open—and a body collided with it from the other side, the impact bursting it with a splintering crack. A man crumpled across the threshold, face-first against the stone.
“Oh goddess—” Livia breathed.
“Move aside!”
Houseguards flooded the hall, their presence swallowing the space as Marcus stood at the far end near the Atrium, his expression carved into something final.
We stepped back as the guards hauled the man upright. Marcus reached forward and tore back his hood. Dark skin. Braided hair. Tavin. My stomach dropped.
“Marcus… what’s happening?” Livia whispered. For a brief moment, his gaze flicked to her—softening—before it hardened again.
“Take him outside,” he ordered. “To the courtyard. Avoid the main halls. I don’t want the guests seeing.”
He turned to us, his voice leaving no room for argument. “Get back to your chambers or the upper halls. All of you. This doesn’t concern you.”
A scream broke through the corridor. A silver goddess followed, surging forward as the guards dragged Tavin past. “Wait—! Tavin—!”
“Restrain her,” Marcus said coldly.
She tore her mask off and lunged after him, but the guards caught her before she could reach him.
Talia fought them, wild and desperate, straining against their grip until they forced her back into her chamber.
The door slammed shut, and the guards took their place outside like they’d always been meant to stand there.
My eyes followed Marcus as he rushed away. Cold spread through me. This couldn’t be happening. The silence that followed tightened, closing in with each passing second until Jorius finally broke it.
“Want to find out what’s happening?” he said.
I nodded. Beside me, Livia didn’t hesitate either. “Follow me.”
We moved quickly, following her into yet another hidden passage. Right. Left. Down. The path twisted through stone and shadow until we reached the storage room near the courtyard. No guard stood watch. We edged closer, peering through the gate. Marcus’s voice carried in the night.
“Bondward Tavin.”
Around him, the sabers stirred within their enclosures, roused from their rest by the disturbance. They paced along the barriers, low growls building in their throats as the unrest carried through the night air. Tavin was on his knees. Blood already marked his face and his breathing came ragged.
“You have been found guilty of the murder of Cassius and Nexra.”
What? My ears started ringing as the beat of the drums from Carnis Noctyra faded away into the distance.
“It wasn’t me—no, wait—!” Tavin’s voice broke in answer. “Please—!”
“Lies. The Praetor has proof,” Marcus snapped. “Silence him. I will not have the guests hearing this.” A cloth was forced between Tavin’s teeth, tied tight behind his head, his protests dissolving into muffled, panicked sounds.
My hands curled into fists. This couldn’t be real. Not Tavin…
“How—” I whispered. “Why did he—”
“Quiet, Tina,” Jorius murmured.
“You are not deserving of a trial,” Marcus said, his voice laced with disgust. “You are filth. You have brought dishonor to my Ludaryn.”
He turned away.
“Kill him.”
The words didn’t land all at once. They sank, tilting the world beneath them. We barely had time to move before Marcus turned toward the shadows where we were crouched, and we hastily slipped back into the storage room just as his footsteps drew near.
Then—
A wet sound. A choke. Something collapsing.
Livia’s hand flew to her mouth. We didn’t move. Not until Marcus’s footsteps faded away. When we stepped back out, the guards were moving off, speaking in low voices.
“Get a shovel. I’ll fetch a sack. Don’t want him dug up by animals.”
They disappeared through the gate in the back into the Ludaryn forest and we ran to Tavin.
Blood spread dark and thick beneath him, soaking into the sand. His throat—cut too deep, too clean. Jorius dropped beside him with haste, pressing his hands to the wound out of instinct more than hope.
“There’s nothing we can do,” I whispered.
I knelt on Tavin’s other side, my hands trembling as I brushed the blood-matted strands from his forehead, a strange sensation creeping through my fingers.
I pulled the cloth from his mouth. “Shhh… it’s alright,” I murmured, tears slipping freely down my face. “Soon you’ll be in the fields. You’ll sleep beneath the stars. Everything will be fine.”
His eyes snapped open. He seized my wrist with surprising strength, and I gasped at the sudden force of it. “I didn’t mean—” he choked, blood spilling from his lips. “They made me—”
“It’s alright,” I whispered quickly, though my voice trembled. “You don’t have to—”
“Nexra… she saw—” His breath hitched, uneven and wet. “I couldn’t—”
His hand fumbled weakly toward his satchel, his fingers barely obeying him.
“Notes…” he rasped. “Take them… Talia—”
His grip began to slip.
“Keep her safe…”
The strength drained from his hand and the light left his eyes.
Jorius moved first, reaching for the satchel and pulling free a bundle of parchment. I took them, tucking them into my dress without thinking, as if instinct understood their weight.
“Hey! What are you doing!” one of the guards barked as they returned. “Move!”
We didn’t argue. We ran.
Inside my chamber, the door slammed shut behind us, leaving the room abruptly still. For a moment, none of us spoke. Then we gathered around the notes, sitting too fast, too close, as though they might disappear if we waited.
My hands shook as I unfolded the first.
Tonight, when the moon rises, you will meet me at the market. You will lead me to the Bondward Shrine. Speak of this to no one.
Shock hollowed through me, quickly followed by anger sharp enough to ache.
“Goddess…” Livia whispered. She went rigid beside me, eyes scanning the page. “This one—” Her voice wavered. “It details the poison. For Cassius.”
My fingers tightened around the parchment. “This… this is from the night I was taken from the Lornwild and my uncle struck down.”
I shifted toward Jorius. “What about yours?”
He swallowed before answering. Then, hoarsely, “It’s from Tavin. To Talia.”
I unfolded the parchment and began to read, my eyes moving steadily at first, until the meaning settled in.
If you read this, it means I’ve failed. You’re not safe. They’ve ordered me to kill Vayren Thanor’s Bondwards.
I kept reading, even as something inside me faltered, the words growing heavier with every line, each one cutting deeper than the last.
Please know, I didn’t mean to kill Nexra. She found out. I couldn’t lose you. They’ve threatened to take you. Use you. I couldn’t let it happen. My hands are stained… but please don’t think ill of me. Find a way out. Join the rebellion. Trust no one.
By the time I reached the end, I could barely see the words.
Find me in the afterlife, where we will once more run through the fields, angering Ma and Dad. Love, Tavin.
“He… he did it to protect her…” I whispered.
“We know the Praetor was behind my abduction,” I continued, my thoughts struggling to order.
“But he speaks of them . Who would want Thanor’s Bondwards dead?
Do you think he meant Aelia?” I glanced between them.
They only looked at me, the same confusion mirrored in their expression.
It couldn’t have been Decimus who’d ordered Thanor’s Bondwards dead...
could it? He’d wanted me to live in one of his villas, but that had been after Cassius was murdered.
Maybe he wanted to keep me safe from whoever was targeting Thanor’s Bondwards, while also keeping me close for his own enjoyment.
Or perhaps he believed he held leverage over the person behind the killings, which would point to Aelia.
Unless he didn’t know who was responsible—or lacked the power to stop them.
That only left the Imperator and his wife, yet they seemed to relish Thanor’s victories in the Maw.
Could Lucina or Sevrak wield that kind of power?
Somehow, I didn’t believe it. None of it made sense.
No one spoke. There was nothing to say. My head throbbed, my cheek still burned, and my chest felt hollowed out. Tavin had been the reason Decimus found me that night—the night that changed everything. He’d killed Nexra. Poisoned Cassius. Likely tried to poison me at breakfast as well.