Page 86 of Scourged

A pounding knock boomed from the entrance to her suites. “Mariah!”

She shoved herself away, racing out of her bedroom and to the door. A wild-eyed Trefor stood there, Drystan and Feran appearing over his shoulder, Sebastian bursting into the hall.

“What’s going on?” Her heart raced in her chest, but her voice was surprisingly … calm. Shrieks echoed off the palace, but her mind was still flooded with life-giving, golden magic.

“I—do you not notice it?”

“Notice what?” Mariah scanned the dark hallway, opening her senses, letting her magic spill from a finger. It blazed around her, too-bright—far brighter than it should’ve been.

Her stomach dropped when the realization hit.

“The lights. Why are the lights off?”

That’s why it was so dark, why her magic was so bright. The sconces on the walls, the ones usually illuminated withallume, had gone dark.

And Mariah had spent so much time recently in the dark, she hadn’t even noticed it.

“The whole city has gone dark,” Feran murmured. Beside him, Drystan nodded. “All the lights are off. And … the wards are gone.”

The wards. They hadn’t meant much to her before—besides a few off-hand comments made by the lords during her early meetings, she’d hardly even acknowledged their presence—but she’d learned how the pirates had wormed their way out of the Kizar Islands, launching great stones of ice at her city. How they’d stormed the docks, just once—as if to make a point—and innocents on the port had lost their lives.

Those wards were the only thing that saved the battlements lining the Bay. Without them, the pirates’ ice would’ve destroyed their defenses in one fell swoop, and the Bay of Nria would’ve turned red with blood.

“Is the Bay secure?” Her words were clipped as she whirled, striding for her room. Feran followed her, waiting outside her bedroom as she pawed through a drawer, pulling out her favored black leggings and a tawny long-sleeve shirt.

“There’s been no sign of the pirate lords, if that’s what you’re asking,” Feran answered from the doorway as she slipped out of her oversized tunic and into the clothes. “The Bay appears to be safe. But withoutallume… I think our most pressing concern is chaos in the city.”

“The screaming, I take it.” Mariah shoved her feet into her boots.

Feran huffed. “Yes. The screaming. The people don’t like it when their reliable magic goes out.”

Mariah paused for a moment, turning slowly to face Feran. “This has happened before, hasn’t it?”

Feran, faintly illuminated by Mariah’s magic, shifted uncomfortably. “A few times. Only once has it gone out completely.” He tilted his head, dark braids falling across his shoulders. “They never flickered in Khento?”

Something inside her shuddered closed, and Feran winced. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have?—”

“I never saw them flicker. But I was kept in the dark most of the time. If it happened, I wouldn’t have known.” Her voice had gone cold. She snatched her grandfather’s dagger from her nightstand, strapping it to her thigh before brushing past Feran.

“Let’s go. I think I know how to fix this.”

Mariah had ultimately convinced mostof her Armature not to follow her, instead sending them into the city to help the City Guard with calming the residents. Sebastian had insisted that one of them remain with her, however, so Feran strode at her side, silent and watchful.

Their hurried steps took them down the winding hallways and arching staircases, emerging into the great, cavernous throne room. Mariah paused in the shadows, tilting her head up to see the stars twinkling above the glass ceiling. It was early morning, in the hour just before dawn, when even the night had gone to sleep.

The starlight hour. The same time of night when she’d met Andrian in that courtyard, so many weeks ago.

She swallowed, eyes still searching the skies. “The Spring Equinox is soon, isn’t it?”

Feran’s arm brushed hers. “In three weeks, yes.”

There.Mariah finally found those twin moons, nothing more than pale crescents in the night sky.

She still could hardly believe the passage of time. She’d gone underground when those moons were bright and blazing amongst the stars and emerged with them quartered, their light dimmed with her own.

No. She was not dimmed. The moons came and went, their natural cycle as eternal as the tides they pulled along the shores of the Mirrored Sea. They would burn bright again.

Just as she would, too.

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