Chapter 19 Kai
Kai
Even with the lorn leaf dulling my emotions, my urge to go to Hannah kept rising from someplace deeper than reason.
I set the empty glass aside and braced both hands against the desk, bowing my head while I forced myself to stay still. The bond hummed in my chest, but more distantly, like music echoing through thick stone. I could sense it without being consumed by it, acknowledge it without acting on it.
Three weeks.
I had three weeks to keep Hannah alive, three weeks to find a way into the Aurora Court, and three weeks to stop a ritual older than the courts themselves from consuming the realm.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, I also had to tell her the truth about what bound us together and what she was to me.
The thought of how she’d react to the news threatened to pull me under again, but I pressed it away. The lorn leaf was doing its work. Numbness was better than emotional chaos.
I straightened and turned to the papers spread across the desk and table.
Reports from the border patrols mixed with coded messages from the spy network, correspondence from city leaders within the Dusk Court, trade manifests, supply tallies, and tax records.
It was the dull machinery of rule, but in a court under siege, dull things mattered just as much as blades.
Setting the astrolabe beside the papers, I worked through the reports for the rest of the day and long into the night.
Mentions of the New Night were rare and scattered, just enough to confirm the phrase existed, but not enough to explain it.
What little I found did, however, cast new light on the unrest our spies had reported across the Night Court cities.
The tension, the tightened patrols, the quiet disappearances, and the unease spreading through places that should’ve been secure.
Even the fragments of the ritual I’d uncovered offered more dread than clarity.
They explained pieces of the structure, not the final design.
Meals were brought and went untouched. I slept only in brief stretches at the desk with parchment beneath my hands and the ache in my shoulder serving as a constant reminder that my own healing was not progressing as it should. Ashren and Folge came and went.
Other heads of the court rotated through with updates, supply counts, guard recommendations, and concerns that all led to the same conclusion.
The prisoners had little more to offer. Hannah was the last Aurora Fae anyone knew of, and the Night General disliked the sacrifices but obeyed regardless.
That detail stayed with me longer than it should have.
So did the thought of Hannah in his clothing when I found her.
A dull spasm of jealousy worked through me despite the lorn leaf, which was irritating in its own right. Fatigue wasn’t making me more rational.
The second day blurred into the third. Reports arrived.
Night Court scouts had been seen near the eastern passes.
Strange lights that were not stars nor any known celestial bodies had been spotted in the sky.
The astronomers confirmed the dark rupture at the center of the sun had widened again.
Not enough to trigger full panic, but enough to establish a pattern none of us could ignore.
We had weeks at best before whatever held the world together gave way completely.
By the time the false night of the Dusk Court deepened beyond the windows, I found myself standing there again, staring into the darkening sky.
My reflection in the glass mocked me, gaunt and hollow-eyed, with shadows pooling beneath my eyes and strain written too plainly across my face.
I tried to remember the last proper meal I’d eaten and found that I couldn’t.
Hunger seemed distant, belonging to another version of myself.
A knock at the door pulled me away from the windows. “Enter.”
Thea slipped inside and closed the door behind her. Her gaze swept over me with the same familiar disapproval she had worn when we were young and I’d refused food so there would be more for her and Ashren. Apparently, some things never changed.
“I’ve completed the roster review and corroborated the absences,” she said. “Most have been accounted for and returned. Originally, there were three missing, but one was found sick in his sister’s home. That leaves two.”
I absorbed the information with the detached clarity the lorn leaf afforded me. “And the remaining two?”
“One is a stable hand. He claimed he was leaving to visit family on the night Hannah was taken, but he never arrived, and they were not expecting him.” Thea stepped farther into the room and folded her hands in front of her.
“The other is Maren, one of the kitchen staff. She vanished that same night. No one has seen her since.”
My jaw tightened. Even dulled, the reaction was there. “Have their quarters been searched?”
“Thoroughly. Ashren oversaw the cleansing rituals himself, and Saja is taking extra precautions with all food and drink brought through the kitchens.” Her voice remained steady, but I knew her well enough to hear the tension in it.
“I suspect both were involved. Whatever breach let the Night Court get close enough to take Hannah did not happen by chance. But the castle is secure now. Folge has barely slept, making certain of it.”
“No.” I glanced back at the desk. “I imagine few of us have.”
For a moment, silence hung between us. Then I turned back to her. “What of Olen? Was there anything irregular in his account?”
I’d checked the basics after we returned, and his explanation had held, but these were not ordinary circumstances.
She stepped closer, her expression tightening.
“His story holds. Multiple witnesses confirmed his movements and his purpose before the attack. No one saw him get struck, but the missing stable hand worked in the section near where Olen was found unconscious.” She hesitated.
“He has been wandering more than usual since Hannah was taken. Working late. Keeping to himself. He seems... more distraught than I expected.”
The words settled in my chest.
He cared for her.
Olen was in love with Hannah. Or at least infatuated. I’d seen the way he looked at her when he thought no one was watching, the eagerness in his offers to help, to be near her.
A spark of anger flickered even through the numbness, something possessive and primitive rearing before I forced it back down.
It did not matter what Olen felt. Hannah was mine, whether she knew it yet or not, and I would make that truth undeniable soon enough.
His feelings changed nothing about what united us, except for one inconvenient fact. I didn’t want him anywhere near her.
He’d always been loyal, served my uncle well, sworn himself to the Dusk Court, and given me no reason to distrust him beyond the personal irritation. That wasn’t enough to condemn a man, but it was more than enough for me to keep him at a distance. “He doesn’t need to see her or speak with her.”
“I’ve made that clear. I know you better than you think.
” A smile tugged at Thea’s mouth. “He’s still done good work.
He arranged for the wyvern to be transferred to Silver City so it can be placed with the clutch there, and he has kept the stores and provisioning in proper order.
He also found something useful for the ball. ”
I shook my head and opened my mouth, already knowing what I intended to say.
Thea lifted a hand and cut me off. “I know what you’re thinking. You want to cancel it. I’m telling you not to.”
Something that might have been amusement stirred beneath the lorn leaf’s haze.
Of course she knew. Thea read me too easily.
She and Ashren were the only two who ever truly had, and Thea especially had long since given up pretending not to.
She was the closest thing I had to a sister, which meant she was also uniquely qualified to be infuriating.
“We’re perhaps within three weeks from potential annihilation.
The Night Court infiltrated this castle and struck twice.
Hannah was abducted from within our walls.
And you want me to proceed with a celebration for the court.
A ball. A feast. Music and dancing while the realm begins to come apart. ”
Thea lifted her chin in a way that reminded me so much of Hannah, it made my teeth grind.
“I want you to give your people something to hold on to. They’re afraid, Kai.
They hear the rumors about the sun, and they can see with their own eyes that something is wrong.
The air feels wrong. The light feels wrong.
People know disaster is circling, even if they do not understand its name.
” She took a step closer. “We cannot tell them the full truth. But we can show them strength. We can remind them that the Dusk Court is still standing. We can give them one night where fear does not dictate every breath.”
I remained quiet, and she pressed on.
“It has been too long since we held one. Let the towns and cities celebrate in their squares and gathering halls. Let the court leaders come here. Let them see their king standing before them with confidence instead of retreating into shadows and silence.” Her hands spread at her sides.
“The invitations have already gone out. If you cancel now, you confirm their worst fears. If you hold it, you remind them why they follow you. Ashren has reviewed the wards. Folge agrees they are stronger now than they were before. The wyvern magic has been studied and countered. We are no longer blind to those weaknesses.”