Chapter 17 Kai #2
The phrase settled uneasily in my mind in a familiar way that irritated me.
I’d either seen it, read it, or heard it spoken in passing.
Something from the reports from Silver City.
It lingered just out of reach. “The New Night,” I repeated, testing the weight of it.
“What is it? And is it connected to the rupture in the sun?”
Ashren shook his head. “We don’t have enough information. It’s possible whatever Bram is attempting has already begun, or it was being held in place until now.” His gaze flicked toward Keldren. “If Hannah is one of the last, then her survival may have triggered something.”
Something unraveled within me.
Bram hadn’t been consolidating power. He’d been stabilizing something.
And now it was failing.
I released the tendrils of frost from Keldren’s throat, letting them dissipate into the shadows. He sagged forward, gasping for breath, his skin mottled where the cold had burned through flesh and muscle. He’d live long enough to be useful. After that, his fate was no longer in question.
I clenched my jaw. “Ashren, you will oversee the remainder of the interrogations. Extract everything the prisoners know. Troop movements. Strategic positions. Bram’s long-term objectives.
The Night General’s patterns. Any indication of internal division or weakness.
I want every rumor they have ever heard regarding the Aurora Court and these sacrifices. ”
Ashren inclined his head and quirked a brow. “Did something happen?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Where have we heard about the New Night before?”
Ashren’s brow furrowed. “The term has appeared in at least two intelligence reports. I didn’t assign it significance at the time.” He exhaled. “The documents are on your desk.”
I gave a single nod, already turning toward the door. “Gavriel. You remain here.”
Gavriel straightened immediately. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
I paused only long enough to glare at Keldren’s slumped form. “Ensure he doesn’t die before we are finished with him.”
Ashren’s mouth curved, though there was no humor in it. “Of course.”
I stepped into the corridor, and the door closed behind me.
I took the stairs two at a time despite the protest in my shoulder.
Pain flared with each movement, deeper than it should have, slower to fade than it ought.
I had pushed my magic harder than necessary, but that alone didn’t account for it.
My healing was slower than usual, and it might not be due simply to fatigue.
It might be related to the hole in the sun, and if it was… I quickened my pace.
The reports. The New Night. Hannah.
The threads refused to separate, tangling tighter the more I considered them.
At first, I had believed Bram’s actions were rooted in ambition.
Gathering the Aurora Fae, forcing their awakening, binding their power to his will.
It was a ruthless strategy, but one that followed a recognizable logic.
When we’d learned he had begun sacrificing them at the Blood Basin, it had shifted the equation but not the intent.
Power could be harvested. Control could be forced.
Fae magic could be gathered and utilized.
This was something else.
Systematic eradication. All of them must die. Not for dominance. For survival.
My mouth dried.
What had Bram broken that required an entire court to be eliminated to maintain it? Was this why the Day Court had fallen? I’d always blamed it on his betrothed rejecting him. But now…
I reached the upper level with a heavy breath. The wound was draining me more than I wanted to admit, and I needed rest and food. I pushed open the door to my study, then stopped.
Hannah stood at my desk with her back to me.
Golden curls caught the torchlight, and the blue dress Thea had chosen traced the lines of her form.
Even with my exhaustion, the sight of her struck with a force that disrupted my control more effectively than any wound.
That pull in my chest nearly dragged me forward. But she shouldn’t be here.
Thea stood beside her, head bowed, studying something on the desk as though she had every right to be there.
“Hannah.” Her name came out edged with irritation and something far less controlled. “What are you—”
“Kai.” Thea crossed the room and pressed something silver into my hand before I could finish. “Look at this. Now.” There was no teasing in her tone, only urgency that cut through the lingering tension in the room.
I took it from her and examined it, turning it once between my fingers.
Then my breath caught. “This is the formal joined marking emblem of the Night and Day Courts.” The weight of it pressed into my thoughts.
“Bram and Namira were the last royals formally bound between courts. Their union was meant to stabilize power and reinforce alliances that had begun to fracture. This piece would have been part of a ceremonial exchange. It shouldn’t exist in isolation. ”
Hannah folded her arms, watching me. “Meaning?”
“Meaning this was not meant to stand alone.” I scanned the engraving again as if it might reveal something I’d missed.
“There would have been a full set. Multiple items exchanged between courts to signify unity. An inkpot alone makes no sense unless the rest were lost, destroyed, or deliberately separated.”
“Or stolen.” Thea studied the piece from where she stood. “Perhaps the Night General is tied to it somehow, or perhaps he took it. Either way, possession of this inkpot connects him to the royal line in some capacity.”
Hannah let out a breath that sounded like disbelief. “So your mysterious shadow general might be wrapped up in royal drama from decades ago. That tracks. Honestly, I’m not even surprised anymore.”
“You should be.” My attention shifted as I moved toward the desk, rifling through the reports.
“Most of what you have encountered since arriving here should be surprising. The fact that it is no longer so is concerning.” My fingers slid through parchment after parchment until I located the report I had been searching for and spread it open across the surface.
“Hannah, you said the Night General may be the reason you survived. I want every detail. Nothing omitted.”
She shifted her weight, but her voice remained steady as she answered.
“The first time, he stopped them from raping me. He still took me prisoner, but he didn’t let them do what they wanted.
The second time, he had them retie me, which made it easier for me to escape.
While they did it, he kept talking about routes out of the basin, about how I wasn’t strong enough to escape, about where I’d fail.
I know you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but it was weird.
” She paused. “He could just be an arrogant twatwaffle, but it didn’t feel like that.
It felt like he was… giving me information without actually giving it. ”
“Twat…waffle…?” Sometimes this woman used words I didn’t know.
She waved her hand. “Bastard. Whatever. Bad person.” She folded her arms. “Point is, he’s the reason I figured out where to go and how to get out.
And I don’t know if he’s an arrogant asshole or if he was letting me know and doing everything but cutting me free himself.
Even the bonds…they were weak. He said that his men had to make sure my circulation wasn’t cut off for the sacrifice. ”
I didn’t look at her as I responded. “Combined with what you describe, it suggests intent layered beneath obedience.” I turned a page, scanning quickly until the phrase surfaced again. “He is either playing a deeper game, or he is bound to one.”
“Well,” Thea said softly, “that makes me like him more. But if he had this inkpot, either he is connected to the royal family, or he is a thief or a scavenger. Perhaps Bram threw the inkpot away after the betrayal.”
“How long ago did that happen? Was it recent?” Hannah asked.
“No, it was decades ago. I was a little one at the time. My family served Namira’s, but I don’t remember her clearly.” Thea’s voice softened as she looked once more to the window. “What are you looking for, Kai? Can we help?”
“Anything about the New Night.” I hesitated as I found another reference. My focus landed on the line before me. The New Night. The same phrase again, buried in language that suggested instability and something shifting beneath the surface of the realm in ways we didn’t yet understand.
A counselor to the Night King had mentioned it. That was all. I continued sifting through the documents. “This is not about power in the traditional sense. Bram is not consolidating strength. He is maintaining something. Holding it together. And whatever it is… is failing.”
Hannah moved closer to the desk, her hand brushing a specific spot on the wood. My gaze snapped to it.
That was where my uncle’s astrolabe belonged, where it had always rested when not in use, and though it was not there, something about the way her fingers traced the space unsettled me in a way I didn’t understand.
The astrolabe remained in my pocket, and yet she had touched that exact point as though guided by instinct.
I didn’t like that.
Nor did I like the way she had become quieter when speaking of the Night General, or the lingering consideration in her words.
She’d survived because of him, and she’d been wearing his clothing when I found her.
My chest squeezed in a way that had nothing to do with strategy and everything to do with something far more dangerous.
My scowl deepened.
Rapid footsteps approached from the corridor. I lifted my head just as Ashren appeared in the doorway. He braced one hand against the frame, his chest heaving.
“Kai.” His gaze flicked toward Hannah and Thea before returning to me. “We need to speak. Now.” He stepped into the room, the tension in his posture unmistakable. “I know what the New Night is, and it’s worse than I imagined.”