A Queen of Thieves & Chaos (Fate & Flame, #3)

“In Islor?” We’ve passed through the Nulling’s veil?

“Yes, and our path is this way, if I remember correctly.” Elijah disappears around the corner. He was quiet as we walked, singly focused on finding our way. I welcomed the silence, reveling in the feel of his hand, stunned that he and I are finally together again.

“Yes. Come, my love. I have found it!”

I rush toward the sound of his voice.

Elijah stands within a sanctum, stroking engravings on a stone wall.

“How did you say you know about this place?” Malachi once described nymph scripture. I imagined it looking like this. But Elijah has been trapped in the Nulling for three centuries. He has never been to Islor before.

“I will explain later.” Elijah winks. “Unless you’d like to live in a cave, we need your caster powers. All of them, and gently.”

He is acting strange. Too calm and collected for a soul just rescued from the ether. Or maybe it’s that I’m still in shock. I sigh, drawing on my affinities to bond them into silver cord. “Fine, but you will divulge all your secrets.”

Humor flashes in his gaze as he takes my hand, kissing the back of it. “I will, my spitfire.”

Nostalgia washes over me. Another familiar pet name.

I release my affinities into the stone and, in the next moment, the cave is gone and we are standing within another sanctum, this one outside. I look up into the sky and marvel at the magnificent second moon, bathing light over the towering trees and abundant gardens. Malachi told me tales about this special moon when he was preparing me to send Romeria here. It’s far more magnificent than he described. “And where are we now?” The scent of spilled blood and smoke taints the air.

Elijah brings my hand to his lips again. “We are home, my queen.”





CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN




GRACEN


I admire the Hudem moon’s silver glow from my balcony as my three children sleep soundly inside. It bathes the city of Ulysede below—gleaming off the river, kissing the pastures beyond, highlighting the countless empty buildings that wait for inhabitants.

I’ve always thought this moon was beautiful, even if what it represented—more Islorian immortals to enslave us and claim our veins—was not.

But now, according to all the whispers I’ve heard since we arrived in this strange city, our veins will no longer be needed. Definitely not in this magical place, and supposedly not in Islor either. How, or why, no one is saying.

I look down at the emblem on my hand. It’s the same as always. Sabrina’s, though? It stopped glowing the moment we arrived. I have so many questions and no one to answer them.

Did Atticus know about Ulysede? About this place where there is no blood curse, no risk of poison? Did he know this as he was executing all those mortals?

I’m not sure what to think of this new life we’ve found ourselves in so suddenly. When Eden showed us to this grand room high up within the castle, I balked, insisting she’d been given the wrong directions, that there must be a servants’ quarter for us. She smiled and then left us here and told us she’d check on us after she had all of Cirilea’s children settled.

Since then, we’ve been permitted to walk freely about this picturesque castle, no guards to bark at us, no lords and ladies to send us scurrying. And yet no answers to the many questions Corrin and Dagny and I have. I have not even seen Her Highness since she transported us here and vanished into that stone. I heard whispers that she lost someone dear to her in Cirilea, a caster she could not save. I imagine she is mourning her loss in private.

I wish I could talk to her, though. I wish I could ask her about all the things Atticus has told me, so I can truly understand what is truth, and what is fear and anger.

Atticus …

My chest tightens with thoughts of him. What will he say when he returns to Cirilea and finds us gone? Will he be furious? Surely, he will feel betrayed by me. He will think I had been plotting with Romeria against him all along when that is as far from the truth as possible.

I hope I have the chance to explain, but I doubt it will matter.

I mourn the loss of his touch, staring listlessly at Hudem’s moon when it seems to swell, its silver glow intensifying until I have to squint against it. I’ve never seen it do this before, but I’ve also never been in a secret city within a mountain.

A cracking sound cuts into the silent night. It’s followed by countless more. The noise is coming from everywhere—above and below. With trepidation, I venture to the edge of the balcony to get a closer look.

The stone statues … they’re all breaking apart, revealing curled forms within.

My jaw drops as they unfurl, their expansive wings stretching out around them.

With a chorus of unearthly shrieks that paralyzes me, the beings launch into the sky.