Chapter Twenty-Nine
Elysia
“I apologize, my King,” Adamaris says, her voice composed as ever, like the chaos in this room doesn’t reach her.
Maybe because she’s always at the center of it, controlling it.
“Are my enchanted marks at least working on her maid as we anticipated? It is the first living being I’ve used the magic on. ”
My body stiffens at her words as I take in the glow of Enari’s tattoos once more.
She treated Enari like an object to enchant and have control over. A living, breathing soul.
The horror that grips my body is worse than anything I felt when Sorryn dragged me from my chair. I can’t take my eyes off her, can’t stop the swell of disbelief that thickens in my throat.
Suddenly I remember Rhune’s voice in the library, explaining how those who craft magical items channel power into objects to simulate a strength they don’t truly possess. That even the High Priestess, revered and feared as she is, relies on her creations to amplify her reach.
She’s nothing without them.
Enari isn’t a stone, a weapon, or a piece of jewelry, though. She’s alive. I can’t imagine the kind of energy it must take to continue to bend a living soul into a vessel with the enchantments etched into her skin.
The wheels in my head turn. There are vital differences, given that Enari has her own power, unlike an inanimate object. When the tattoos aren’t glowing, her movements seem to be her own.
So, are there limits to how long Adamaris can control her?
I suddenly wish I had a better understanding of the different magics within this world. Countless questions flow through my mind, but I’m unable to deduce which thought to follow that could actually lead to helping Enari.
Will Adamaris run out of magical energy to control Enari before the High Priestess has a chance to use all of the power within her?
I just don’t know.
Sorryn lifts his hand as she opens her mouth again.
“Stop your apologies,” he says, his tone no longer sharp, but weary. “I grow tired of them.”
Adamaris falters mid-breath, lips parting just slightly as he turns to face her. The change in him is subtle but unmistakable. The rigidity in his posture softens and the sharp angles of his expression dull as he pulls his mask back into position.
“You know I appreciate you,” he says, smoother now with warmth to his tone. “I need you by my side, Ada.”
He says the name softly and reverently, and in the silence that follows, I see the truth unfold.
Her shoulders rise with a breath, and for a single heartbeat, her expression shifts, just enough for me to see it.
She loves him. It isn’t magic that binds her here—it’s devotion.
She’s not just executing her own plan or following the whims of the Goddess. She’s wrapped her will around his, twisting her power into a gift he never even had to ask for.
This wasn’t about guidance or wisdom or divine instruction. This was about pleasing him and ensuring he and his court continued to stay powerful. Choosing queens that would choose him.
A shift runs through the air and the hovering lights flicker faintly.
I feel his presence before I see him, like the charged air of a brewing storm settling into the space around us.
For a single breath, I dare to believe I’m safe.
He’s here.
“Don’t move,” Sorryn says softly into my ear, suddenly at my side, causing me to jerk.
A flicker of light hums to life in his palm raised in front of my chest. A blade made entirely of searing white energy coalesces in his grasp, and he lowers it slowly and deliberately, until the tip hovers just above my heart.
I can feel the heat of it already, hot and terrifying against my chest.
“Come any closer,” Sorryn says, slowly turning us both to the right, “and I’ll split her open before you can blink.”
From the corner of my eye, I see him. There’s no withholding the depth of his powers any longer.
He’s standing in the massive doorway, shadows rippling like smoke pooling around his feet, eyes locked on the weapon Sorryn holds to me. His entire body is drawn tight, as though it takes everything in him not to rip the world in half.
Suddenly it’s clear something or someone stopped him from getting to us earlier. There’s a cut in one of his eyebrows, bleeding down to the tip and down his temple, and ash smeared across his cheek and neck.
He doesn’t speak, but his silence is heavier than any threat.
His shadows draw higher until they wrap around him like armor, leaving his violet eyes piercing through the darkness as they drift up my face.
My heart stutters and my breath catches—not in fear, but in awe.
Adamaris moves closer to us with slow, graceful confidence, like she’s already prepared for Rhune’s arrival.
“I see the shadows brought you finally,” she murmurs, her voice too calm for the tension thickening in the air. “Why’d it take you so long?”
She mockingly asks the question in a giddy, singsong voice, making my skin crawl.
Rhune’s eyes don’t leave mine as he answers in a low, menacing tone that makes his words seem to rumble. “You should have left more than the royal guard to stop me, if you wanted to keep me from her. But I suppose I have let you all think of me as weak, so I won’t let it wound my pride.”
The hair on my arms stands on end and it’s like my heart sings a song meant only for him to hear.
“I suspected your intervention, Ada,” he says as he takes one step forward. “Thank you for confirming it, so that I am free of the Goddess’s judgment for what needs to be done now.”
“Don’t sound so perturbed,” Sorryn says, smiling like he’s savoring this. “It’s not like any of this impacts your life. You are a king with no court. You aren’t a choice. You don’t belong, no matter the strength of powers you think you have.”
I can’t keep silent as Sorryn hurls insults at Rhune’s deepest insecurities, in spite of the dagger of light at my chest.
“He’s always been my choice!” I snap at Sorryn, “and he will always belong wherever I am.”
Sorryn snarls at me and lowers the dagger an inch closer to my heart, the heat from the weapon of light beginning to sear bits of my dress away with its proximity. The burning smell wafts up between us and I stare Rhune down, unafraid of speaking my truth.
“As I said before,” Sorryn purrs, leaning down to nuzzle his nose against my cheek. I grimace at his touch and breath on my skin. “We will be taking your choice away from you.”
I see how Rhune’s hands twitch at his sides and how his shadows stir around him with restraint.
I know he wants to fight, but he won’t. Not while that weapon is pointed at me and not while Serenath is caught in the middle.
The elder elf stirs from the floor. A low groan, hoarse and broken, slips from her bloodied lips. Her one good eye finds Rhune, dazed but sharp with purpose.
“Take her,” she breathes. “Leave me.”
“No!” I counter, “we’re not leaving you.”
She shakes her head slowly.
“Go,” she rasps. “Get her out. This court needs to burn.”
Adamaris steps toward Serenath, slowly lifting her boot to rest atop her cheek. She presses down against her face, hissing, “I think that’s enough out of you.”
Rhune takes another step forward as my breaths come out in shallow gasps.
The light blade pulses brighter in front of me and the heat begins to make my exposed skin burn. “Don’t tempt me, brother.”
Brother.
He says it like a joke now, as if it’s something that can be unmade with a single breath.
“Let her go,” he says, voice quiet and deadly. “Or I will burn this palace to ash.”
The air fractures with tension too thick to breathe before Sorryn answers, “So be it. Let us see this magic of yours, brother.”
Rhune’s shadows rush toward us along the floor and Sorryn doesn’t move, as if he’s anticipating this.
Then the air around me crackles just before the dagger at my chest is flung directly in Rhune’s direction as he rushes toward us.
There’s a crack of sound like lightning and I barely register the sound before Rhune is at my side, wrenching me backward with one hand while the other slams a wall of shadow between us and the searing light rushing at us from Sorryn’s palm.
We crash to the ground as it scorches past, so close I feel the heat graze my shoulder.
I’m left blinking rapidly and trying to comprehend how he got to me so quickly. It has to be connected to the same powers Sorryn holds, with the way he seemed to appear next to me out of nowhere earlier.
The chamber erupts around us with light and shadow tearing through the air and clashing.
Rhune launches to his feet to stand in front of me, summoning a wall of shadows that seems to consume Sorryn’s beams of light.
At the same time, a jolt of light is hurled directly at Adamaris, sending her flying into the air and crashing to the ground with a satisfying crunch.
I can’t stay down and do nothing as Rhune fights them both.
As soon as I find my footing again, I stagger toward Serenath, who remains slumped just feet away.
“Hold on,” I whisper, dropping to my knees beside her, trying to keep my voice calm despite the firestorm crashing around us. “I’ve got you. I’m here.”
The magic above cracks again, casting the room into flickering hues of gold and black.
A flash of light explodes across the ceiling, and the heat from a missed blast rolls over us in a searing wave.
I press closer to Serenath, shielding her body with my own, but before I can speak again, something shifts around me.
Darkness presses in like a comforting blanket.
I glance up, and the world beyond blurs beneath a veil of shadow. We’re enclosed now, Rhune’s magic curling around us like a living barrier, weaving tendrils of darkness into a dome that shimmers faintly with silver strands. The chaos of the battle is still visible beyond its edge.
He’s shielding us, encasing us in a pocket of safety, and I have to guess that it takes immense focus and energy to keep this going while fighting elsewhere.