Chapter 33
NARYA
The scent of blood still clung to me when I left the chamber. My hands and arms were covered in it despite using a towel to scrub my skin. I needed to bathe before the feast.
“You vanished after all.”
I looked up from my hands to where Daigen leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, features pulled into a grimace.
I wiped my hands down the front of my dress. “I just wanted to help.”
His scowl deepened. “èllia was more than capable.”
She really wasn’t.
“As am I,” I said instead. “And I like to be useful.”
“You’re more than useful to me.” His gaze moved down my body and then back up again. “At my side.”
My cheeks flushed as that familiar heat crept into them.
I looked away and cleared my throat.
“What was it that you wanted to show me?”
After a moment, he pushed off the wall. “It’s too late for that. The feast is about to begin, and you need to change.”
He turned sharply and headed back into the hall without looking at me. I shouldn’t have gone to help Ellia, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found out the truth.
I followed in Daigen’s shadow, my feet heavy with dread.
The thought struck me then that this could be the last time I ever walked behind him.
The last time I heard his voice without a crown between us.
If Ultherion rejected peace, if Daigen chose war.
.. would I ever see him again? It hurt to even think.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice breaking as tears threatened to slip from my eyes.
Daigen stopped and looked back at me, his brows furrowing. “For what?”
“For ruining whatever it was you wanted to show me.”
His expression changed. For a moment, I thought he might reach out to touch me, but then he only nodded.
“There will be time for it later.” His voice lowered, not a warning so much as a vow. “Just don’t vanish again. It's not as safe here as it is back home."
Back home. Those two words nearly ripped me open. Home from his mouth sounded like the promise the gods had meant for me.
I swallowed back my tears and nodded, letting the great hall swallow me again.
The room blazed with heat and colour. Laughter spilled over music that flowed beneath the vaulted arches.
Every table glittered with gold goblets and crystal plates piled with food.
The scent of spice clung to the air. Smoke and salt and sweetness burned to caramel. It was wonderful.
Yet none of it felt real.
Everything floated around me as I drifted after Daigen. Torches flickered, the floor swayed underneath me. Every breath still felt borrowed, like I’d been submerged under water.
Surreal. It all felt surreal to me.
Women danced around us with translucent veils and long, flowing dresses that trailed behind them. Laughter rang from the table where nobles quenched their thirst with ruby wine. Some of them bowed as we passed. A few whispered into their goblets. All of them stared.
I cringed, wishing I wasn’t covered in blood. Not that it mattered much anymore.
At the end of the hall, Thràena waited for me. She bowed to Daigen, who stood back and watched us climb the stairs. When I reached the top of them, I looked back at him. He was still watching me with a look on his face that I could not decipher.
“Come,” Thràena said excitedly. “Let us dress you anew!”
She pulled me away with her. I didn’t remember walking, or the scrape of fabric peeled from my skin.
I couldn’t even remember the scrub of the oils that chased away the stench of blood.
I remembered only the heat of water as it ribboned down my wrists, the red ghost of what I now carried refusing to leave my cuticles.
When she finished, I stood wrapped in the softest red velvet dress, a slit carved up my thighs, and gold chains dancing across my back like vines spun from firelight.
A red and gold circlet was placed on my head, then my necklace returned, its lock sealed with magic.
I blinked at my reflection, completely numb.
“You look beautiful, my lady,” Thràena whispered, fastening the last chain. “You’ll be the envy of the gods tonight.”
For once, I couldn’t find it in me to share her enthusiasm. She mistook my silence for nerves again and gently squeezed my arm.
“Hold your head high,” she said, her voice full of quiet pride, “for tonight, you walk like a queen.”
If only she knew I walked more like a traitor, and that the crown would cost a kingdom. But I said nothing. I couldn't find it in me to lie again.
I grabbed the Bloodstone knife and strapped it to my thigh before following her out. I felt safer with the weapon. If things went wrong on the other side, I’d at least have a way out. I just prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
The First Mating Right had stated that all mates must be returned as they were found, untouched by blade or cruelty. Still, I didn’t trust in laws.
Ultherion was hardly a king known for keeping his word.
At the feast hall, Daigen was the first thing I saw.
Laughter softened his features as he spoke freely with Luthrin, and for a moment I almost forgot what I’d come here to do.
The hall could have burned around us and I’d still have watched only him.
He was mesmerising in his power. Even more mesmerising relaxed.
I stepped towards him, unsure if my legs would carry me all the way. Thankfully they did. However, before I could lower myself into the seat beside him, he reached for my waist and pulled me into his lap as though I’d always belonged there.
I froze, startled by the ease of it. By how natural it felt. Then I let myself lean in. My arm draped over his shoulder, and I folded into the warmth of him like it was all I’d ever known. My temple pressed against his cheek, and his scent curled around me.
For a moment, he didn’t move, like he expected me to resist him.
I didn’t want to resist him anymore. I wanted to enjoy what little time we had left.
His hand slid around my hip, anchoring me to him. His other one reached for a goblet and passed it to me whilst still engaging with Luthrin.
I drank, trying to soothe the dryness in my throat. The wine was dark and sweet. It numbed the edges of my tongue, coiling warmly down my spine.
The room shifted again, voices lowered, and the music softened.
A hush rippled through the hall until everyone had fallen silent.
Six dancers entered the space in the center of the hall. Their robes shimmered between silver and bloodred, their faces veiled, bare feet whispering against the stone. Candlelight dimmed around them, leaving only the circle of fire they carried in the crowns upon their heads.
Daigen leaned toward me, his lips brushing my ear. “The Dance of the Sundering.”
I turned slightly to meet his eyes. “The Blood Gods?”
He gave a small nod. “They were the only ones to challenge the way of the gods,” Daigen said quietly.
“Until the stars demanded that one fall for their kingdom to survive. She left to save it. He thought she’d forsaken him.
So he pulled the moon across her sun, and the sky bled red for a thousand nights. The first Blood Moon.”
The dancers moved with aching precision.
One spun in gold, radiant and untamed, a flame trying to escape the wind.
Another circled her, graceful and slow, his hands always just out of reach.
Every time she turned to him, he was already gone.
Every almost-touch made my heart ache. I knew that distance. I was building it with my own hands.
Shadows fell around them, black silk writhing over their heads.
The music darkened as a dancer stepped between them and raised a blade. With one strike, he severed the Sun Sisters’ light, and gold silk drifted to the floor as she fell.
The Moon Brother dropped to his knees and gathered her into his arms. Her crown rolled from her brow and shattered on the floor. Petals scattered; the flames on their crowns guttered and flared. The Moon God’s blue robes turned crimson as blood pooled on the floor around them.
“The Veil cracked that night,” Daigen whispered. “The magic of the Trees wavered. He hadn’t asked for her death, only his mate’s return... but grief doesn’t care what we want.”
The dance shifted. One dancer scattered petals like blood, another poured ash from a broken urn. The last lifted a moon-pale mask from the floor and pressed it to the Moon Brother’s face.
A tear slipped from the corner of my lashes.
Daigen’s fingers found it before I did, calloused thumb tracing the salt to my jaw. His brows drew together.
“Why are you crying, little star?”
Because I was the Sun Sister, and soon he would be the one left kneeling in the ashes.
“It’s just tragic,” I whispered instead. “The dance—it’s beautiful.”
Daigen said nothing. He studied my expression as if he already knew. Then he reached up and caressed my cheek. The touch was soft. Not rough, not hurried. Just soft. It nearly undid everything I’d stitched shut to survive this night.
I took another sip of wine, my hand trembling around the stem.
Across the room, near one of the arched doorways, èllia stood near the shadows. She held my gaze for a moment, and nodded, before turning away.
Time was already narrowing. Every moment felt like it was clawing away from me. It had to be now, or I’d never leave him.
“Thràena asked for me before the final dance,” I lied softly. “Something about a blessing rite. I won’t be long.”
His arm caught me before I could rise, fingers closing around my wrist.
For a heartbeat, the hall blurred. The music thinned, laughter faded, and even the air between his touch and my pulse seemed to tremble.
He said nothing. Only looked at me.
My pulse stumbled. Did he know?
Unless èllia had betrayed me, there was no reason he could have known. Yet something in his eyes made the lie taste like blood on my tongue. He looked at me as though he could already hear the sound of my betrayal.