Chapter 27 #2
The bruised male—Cormac, Araya realized with a shiver—snorted but sank back into his chair, scowling down at the table. Loren’s jaw flexed, but after a moment he looked away, the light returning to the edges of the room.
“Go ahead, Lady Starwind,” Eloria said, taking her own seat. “We’re listening.”
Araya squared her shoulders, sucking in a deep breath.
She could do this. She had to. Yet the words she’d rehearsed turned to ash on her tongue beneath the weight of their stares.
What right did she have to stand here, begging them to hear her?
She was no one—a halfblood who had bargained her freedom to a monster.
Then something cool brushed her ankle—one of Loren’s shadows, coiling gently around her boot. She hadn’t seen it slip from his side, but its quiet touch steadied her frayed nerves.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me,” she said, her voice quieter than she intended, but steady. “I know most of you don’t trust me, and I don’t blame you for that. But I think I have a solution to the difficulties you’ve faced with the Shadowed Veil.”
Araya paused, but no one spoke. Eloria arched a brow, while Cormac leaned back in his chair, a sneer already twisting his face.
“I understand that your beliefs say the shadows only bind themselves to one person in each generation,” Araya forced herself to continue. “I believe I can give you another way to control them—one that doesn’t rely on a living host.”
“And what credentials do you have to speak on such matters? Your time in the New Dominion?” Cormac leaned forward, his eyes glittering with malice. “I didn’t realize bonded females received any sort of education there.”
Araya flushed, heat flooding her cheeks. But she refused to look away. “I had…a unique role due to my relationship with Jaxon Shaw.”
“Convenient for you,” Cormac said idly, his lip curling. “Normally, we have every sympathy for the horrors faced by bonded females—but this relationship with the younger Shaw far preceded your bonding, didn’t it?”
A murmur of agreement rolled down the table.
A silver-haired female wearing the pale robes of a devotee to the Absent Goddess leaned forward, the silver embroidery marking her as the High Luminary shining in the light of the aetherlamps.
“He was your teacher—your sponsor. And you repaid his patronage by warming his bed.” She shook her head, her voice cold.
“Forgive me, Lady Starwind, but you don’t sound like the prisoner Prince Loren painted you to be. ”
“Did you have a question for her, Myna?” Loren growled. “She did what she had to do to survive—”
“I think Miss Starwind should get to speak for herself,” Eryn cut in. His dark eyes flicked to her, unreadable. “After all, she is the one with the petition.”
Araya’s throat tightened. She wanted to vanish, to sink through the stone floor, but she forced herself to stand straighter, almost tripping over her words in her haste to get them out.
“The Shadowed Veil was a project assigned to Jaxon Shaw,” she said. “I worked with him under special permission from the Arcanum. In that time, I created a test amulet by mixing my blood with Loren’s—one that granted the wearer some degree of control over the shadows.”
Several councilors recoiled as if she’d spat poison at them, horrified murmurs rising around the table.
“An amulet made out of what?” Myna demanded. “Because it sounds like you’re describing an amplifier.”
“I am.” Araya’s stomach twisted. She’d gone over this a hundred times in her head, but speaking it aloud felt colder. Crueler. “The one I created used a fragment of bone—what the Arcanum calls a blank. But Jaxon intended to continue testing with whole bone.”
Murmurs turned to exclamations of disgust, the words sacrilege and desecration hissed like curses.
But Eloria just leaned back in her chair, her expression giving away nothing of her true thoughts. “Where do you expect to source the bone? We burn our dead here.”
“I did have an idea about that.” Araya sucked in a deep breath, bracing herself.
They would hate this part—she hadn’t even told Loren what she intended.
“From our conversations and my own research, I believe dara’el remains anchored to the previous king’s remains.
It’s the only explanation for how it has endured and even grown in the decades after his death. If we can retrieve his bones—”
“Absolutely not.” The priestess shot to her feet, her pale eyes blazing with fury. “We are not turning the remains of our late king into an amplifier. Have you no shame?”
Araya flushed but stood her ground, refusing to cower. “Anchoring the magic to something that already holds a significant connection with the shadows is the best answer here,” she said. “It’s powerful magic. To bind it to someone else’s command—it’s not an easy thing to do.”
“It’s sacrilege,” the priestess snapped. “We cannot condone—”
“We cannot afford not to consider all the options, Myna,” Eloria said quietly. She turned back to Araya, her brow furrowing. “You do understand that no one has been able to retrieve my father’s remains? What you’re proposing will not be simple.”
“Loren and I both survived the Shadowed Veil,” Araya said. She didn’t dare look at him, even though she could feel his eyes burning into her. “I have to believe there’s a way for us to do it again.”
“And if we agree to your…proposal,” another of the advisors said, her lips twisting around the word. “What is it you want in exchange?”
“Safe passage back to the New Dominion,” Araya said. “The deaths of the innocent are not a price I would pay for my freedom. If I return to them willingly—”
“You’re the mate of the crown prince,” an older male cut in sharply. “Whatever fondness Jaxon Shaw has for you won’t save you. They’ll use you against him—against all of us.”
“I understand your concern.” Araya’s fingers twisted in the fabric of her skirt. “That’s why I would like your help in finding a way to sever the mate bond.”
A ripple of shock ran through room as the councilors exchanged wide-eyed glances.
Even Eloria sat back in her chair, the color draining from her face.
And Loren—he stared at her like she’d struck him, his hurt blazing so hot through the bond between them that it felt like she’d set her own heart on fire.
“I won’t allow Jaxon to use me as a blade against him,” she said, her voice wavering. “This is the only way I have to protect him.”
The High Luminary found her voice first. “The mate bond is a divine gift,” she said, her voice rising. “What you propose is not only profane—it is impossible.”
“Not necessarily.” Eryn tapped a finger against his goblet, considering. “They aren’t fully bonded, are they? I think there is precedent for that. Ysella, don’t you have a book on it?”
The tall, willowy female beside the priestess cleared her throat, shifting in her seat. “I could consult the records,” she said. “There are…fragments of some accounts that might shed light on the issue—but nothing I would call reliable.”
“But not impossible,” Eryn mused.
The priestess scoffed. “Your Majesty,” she implored, turning toward Loren. “The bond is a gift from the Goddess herself. Surely you have something to say—”
“If severing the bond is what Lady Starwind wants,” Loren said, every word landing like a knife through her chest. “Then I see no reason to deny her.”
Voices rose, everyone speaking over each other. Araya’s throat tightened, her palms damp with sweat. Even Loren’s shadow abandoned her, melting away into the cracks between the stones.
“Enough,” Eloria said finally. She rose to her feet, glancing around at her assembled advisors. “Lady Starwind, thank you for bringing your proposal before us. We will consider it and return to you with our answer. For now, you are dismissed.”
Araya dipped her head stiffly before turning to Loren—but he didn’t move to stand.
He didn’t even look at her. His hurt filled her chest, making it hard to breathe.
But she forced herself to move anyway, holding her head high and hoping none of them could see how hard she had to blink to hold back the tears.
She wouldn’t break down here, not with all of them watching.
The guards stood at attention in the hallway, neither one of them willing to meet her eyes as the doors closed behind her, sealing out the rising voices behind her. Araya stood there, panic rising in her chest. What was she even supposed to do while they voted? Did she just stand here—
“Lady Starwind?”
Araya turned, hesitating as she met the gaze of a male wearing white robes, adorned with a single band of silver thread. Another devotee of the Absent Goddess—though Araya couldn’t have said what his rank was. He inclined his head to her, his expression peaceful.
“The Princess Regent asked that I show you to a quiet place to wait,” he said. “If you could follow me?”