Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The trees pressed close, shadows thick and cool as Seraveth stepped fully into the light. Her hood fell back, revealing eyes like split rubies and hair that shimmered with obsidian threads. I raised my sword without thinking.
“Your time is running out,” she said, voice like velvet draped over a dagger. “You must fulfill the prophecy. You must take your place at the Blood King’s side.”
“I would rather die.”
Her lips curved into something that resembled a smile, but there was nothing warm about it. “That can be arranged. But only after your destiny is complete.”
“I’m not going to the Blood Isle,” I snapped, tightening my grip on my blade.
“Oh, but we both know that’s not true.” She stepped closer, her presence crawling over my skin like a sickness. “You need something from there, don’t you? To save your precious king.”
I didn’t answer, but my silence was confirmation enough.
She knelt with eerie grace and pulled a folded piece of old parchment from her sleeve, then placed it on the mossy ground between us. “This,” she said, “will show you the exact location of the ward access hidden inside the isle. You’ll need it.”
“Why would you give me this?” My voice was wary. “What’s the catch?”
Her gaze pierced me like steel. “Without you, we die out. Our magic is fading. We rot from the inside. But with you…”
She leaned closer, her whisper curling through the air like smoke.
“…we rise again.”
The forest held its breath around us. And for the first time, I wasn’t sure if the fire inside me was my own, or something she’d already set alight.
“I’d rather swallow my own sword,” I hissed.
“You will come,” Seraveth said with cool certainty, brushing invisible dust from her dark robe. “But if you don’t…” her eyes gleamed with a blood lit promise, “…I will collect you myself in a week.”
Like hell you will.
I lunged.
Steel hissed as it met hers, faster than I expected.
Our blades clashed with a crack of metal and magic.
She moved like smoke—fluid, ungraspable.
But I fought like fire, raw and volatile.
Sparks flew as I pushed her back, but she turned her body with serpentine grace, flipping around me and striking toward my ribs.
I blocked, barely, and pivoted into a sweep that should’ve dropped her.
But she wasn’t there.
She laughed, the sound sultry and haunting, as her form shimmered—then vanished into the forest mist, like she’d never been there at all.
I stared at the space she’d just occupied, my chest heaving. “How does she do that?” I whispered, blade still trembling in my hand, before I retrieved the map she’d left me.
Kaelith’s voice filled my mind, low and oddly thoughtful. Seraveth is more powerful than you realize.
I noticed.
There was a pause, and then her words struck like a stone to the gut.
You have more in common with her than you want to admit.
My grip tightened on my sword, but the ache in my chest wasn’t from the fight.
What does that mean? I asked Kaelith as I wiped the sweat from my brow, heart still thundering in my chest.
Her response came slower this time, not laced with her usual dry humor or quick retorts. You are not ready for the truth.
I stopped walking. Is it me who isn’t ready? Or you?
There was a silence that pressed against my ribs. Perhaps… both.
That silence sat heavier than the blade in my hand as I trudged back through the woods, stepping over exposed roots and ducking beneath low-hanging branches, the map Seraveth left still folded tight in my fist. Kaelith said nothing else, but I could feel her presence pulsing softly—uneasy, like her mind was circling something neither of us wanted to name.
The Blood Fae shrine came into view again, cold stone and darker power radiating from its core like a heartbeat no longer human. The others had gathered near the perimeter. Zander turned the second I stepped through the tree line, his eyes dropping to the sword still clutched in my hand.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice urgent.
I opened my mouth, but the truth lodged in my throat like a blade turned inward. I didn’t know how to say it yet.
So I gave the smallest shake of my head.
“Just a conversation I wasn’t ready for,” I said.
But Kaelith’s voice lingered in the back of my mind.
Neither of us is.
I held out the map.
Zander took it from my outstretched hand, his fingers brushing mine. I could still feel the lingering heat of Seraveth’s magic on the parchment, like it carried the whisper of her intentions.
“She said I’d come willingly,” I muttered. “But if I don’t, she’ll come for me in a week.”
Zander’s brow furrowed as he scanned the markings. “This shows where the wards are weakest.” He turned the map, angling it toward the light filtering through the trees. “It’s on the opposite side of the isle from where we originally thought the breach would be.”
“I know,” I said. “But she made it clear they’re expecting me.”
Remy stepped closer, his silver gaze flicking from the map to Zander. “Then we have to go. If we delay any longer, your brother will lose the continent.”
Zander didn’t take the bait. Not at first. But his jaw tightened, and I felt the tension roll off him in waves.
“Which brother is that, Saulter?” he asked evenly, though there was venom under the surface. “You’ll have to be more specific. Which royal do you serve?”
Remy’s smile was humorless. “Take your pick. The one with a dragon in chains? Or the one with a crown and a kingdom burning around him?”
I stepped between them, my voice icy. “Enough. We need to save the king. Only one brother actually wants to rule, and his loyalties are questionable at best.”
All around us, the others had gone quiet. Ferrula’s gaze was narrowed, Jax’s fingers twitching near the hilt of his blade. Even Tae had stopped mid-step, lips parted as if caught mid-joke.
The wind shifted.
Kaelith’s wings flexed above the trees.
The air between Zander and Remy could’ve been cut with a blade.
But no one moved.
No one spoke.
Because we all knew—we were going to that isle. Not just for the king. Not just for the continent.
We were going to find out what the Blood King wanted with me. Why he thought he needed me.
And if the crown was still worth saving.