Page 96 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

The king turned around, sorrow and pain evident in his glistening eyes. His face was ashen, and his jaw tight. "I think this is something you need to see for yourself," he replied.

Gray ground his teeth, pushing down the warning bells that were so loud in his mind they almost drowned out the ringing that still made his ears hurt. He took slow steps forward, moving as if sudden motion could cause the portal to reach out and grab him. As he approached the liquid-like substance, shapes began to appear behind it, warped and distorted. It was more like water than Gray had first realized, and it looked like he was peering through a shallow stream. He could make out shapes and colors, but they were misshapen. Concentrating, he forced his eyes to absorb what he was seeing.

"I know exactly where this is." Gray's voice shook despite his determination to remain calm. Beyond the shimmering veil of the portal were bodies, stacked haphazardly with little care or regard to the fact that they’d once been living, breathing beings. But it wasn’t just bodies he recognized—men, women, and children, all dressed in the clothing style of Calir. This was the damp, waterlogged dungeon of his father’s wing of the castle, the lowest point, where he had been forced to watch as his father stole the magic of the innocent.

"Your father?" King Tanad asked, his face draped in despair.

Gray nodded, his fingernails cutting into his palms as he squeezed his hands into fists. "Yes. This is his work. The missing villagers… This must be how he removed their bodies." He could barely stand to speak as bile creeped up his throat, but Gray forced the words from his mouth, anyway. "Can you tell without entering if he has already taken their magic?"

Tanad raised his hands, his palms hovering only a centimeter above the portal. After several moments, as if he was searching within the soul of every single body in that room, King Tanad hung his head. "It is already done."

Gray wished desperately to retrieve the bodies, to give them a proper burial at sea, as was the custom in Calir. But it was too dangerous. Not to mention that it would tip off his father of their location. But still, the Black King could not have access to the kingdom. "We can’t leave the portal here," Gray stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you suggest?" Tanad stepped back, analyzing the doorway.

It had to look like an accident. An act of nature. Gray let his shadows float from his hands, wrapping around the sharp rocks jutting out from the cave wall and holding tight. He let them spread outside of the cave, sneaking into small cracks and pockets, while firmly encircling the large rocks that supported the bottom of the bluff.

"We return to our horses, and we bring the cliff side to the ground."

It took immense concentration for Gray to maintain his hold on the dozens of jagged bits of stone as he walked back to where Obsidian waited, and yet it was as if his shadows were just as angry as he was, helping him maintain control.

Once Gray and the king were safely on top of their horses, Gray tore his shadows back with every bit of force he could muster, clenching his jaw as sweat trickled from his hairline. He kicked Obsidian’s sides, directing the horse to Tanad’s side and racing away as the caves and cliffs containing the portal disappeared into the ocean with an ear-shattering rumble.

The horses stumbled as the ground shook; the sand shifting as an earthquake more immense than anything Gray had ever felt before rocked the earth. As their horses jumped over the cracks forming in the ground and they shielded their eyes from the sand blowing wildly through the air, Gray hoped that his father felt it all the way in Auropera, and that he took it as a warning.

A warning that even the very earth was against him, and the gods would bring the mountains and sky crashing down to destroy everything he loved just as violently as the cliffs they raced away from.

Chapter 64

Lea

Lea’sfingerstrailedthethick, irregularly shaped stones of the circular tower as she climbed what had to be her hundredth stair. She’d stopped counting at fifty and had begun cursing whoever had designed the stairwell for not including a handrail instead. Her legsburned. Almost as much as her lungs.

Eudora kept a steady pace, diligently putting one foot in front of the other in a continuous rhythm.Did her limp disappear?Lea thought as she pushed on her thighs with her palms. The witch’s strides looked too fluid, too easy. But the moment the thought passed through Lea’s mind, the limp returned, a shuffling sound scraping from the stone floor with every step of her left foot.

If Lea had to guess, she would say that Eudora was intentionally misleading her about how much difficulty she had walking. Paying closer attention as they continued to climb, Lea watched Eudora’s movement.There!Three more easy steps!Why would she lie about something like that?

They didn’t speak as they came to the top of the tower. Not that Lea would’ve been able to with how out of breath she was. With a flick of Eudora’s fingers, the door swung open with a groan. The witch led her to a chair inside a massive domed room, the walls covered in a violet, textured fabric that billowed loosely from ceiling to floor. The material bunched oddly in places, giving Lea the eerie feeling that someone could be hiding somewhere within them and she would be none the wiser.

One wall was filled to the top with bottles and vessels of every shape, size, and color. A tall, slender vial held a bubbling navy liquid, and next to it, a squat, square bottle swirled black and green. There were jars with feathers and jugs with different animal furs. Lea stopped examining them when, on the bottom shelf, she observed a large clear jug containing something that resembled human ears.

Rough, unpolished crystals in various shades of green, purple, and pink hung from the ceiling, and books were thrown haphazardly around the sitting area—which was simply two plush midnight blue chairs on either side of a scuffed wooden table atop a shaggy maroon rug. In the very back of the room was another winding staircase.A bedroom?The space gave every indication that Eudora lived within these walls.

Lea sank down into the chair in front of the window overlooking the moonlit ocean and a breathtaking display of stars. Her heart skipped a beat. There were thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them! The tower was so high Lea felt as if she couldalmostreach out and pluck one to keep in her pocket.

The suspicion settling in the back of Lea’s mind grew. Without a doubt, Eudora was playing her. It was impossible for her to live this far up in the sky, to take those stairs day in and day out, at her age.Somethingwasn’t adding up.

"You don’t trust me," the witch said, taking a long sip of her tea. She set her cup down, then deftly rotated her fingers in the air. A second cup appeared on the table along with a shiny silver kettle, and Eudora poured the steaming water over the loose tea leaves, placing the intricate blue china in front of Lea.

Lea pondered her answer, not quite sure what to say. "I haven’t decided yet," she said honestly, sniffing the tea and finding nothing amiss before taking a small sip herself. It was bitter, and Lea wished desperately for some honey or sugar to mix in to make it more palatable.

"Good. You shouldn’t trust anyone. My kind are tricky, you know." She settled back into her chair, her piercing eyes sharp and alert. "As I’m sure your mate told you, we do not give information without receiving something we want in return."

"Is saving thousands of lives and overthrowing a murderous, evil dictator not something you want?" Lea took another sip of tea.

Eudora waved her hand in the air. "It’s not a matter of caring about those lives. War will also take lives. Just as many, if not more."

"Then whatisit you care about?" Lea’s heart continued to flutter.No, she decided,I most definitely do not trust this woman.

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