Page 100 of Essence of the Throne

People run in all directions, their panic a tangible thing in the air. Sentries try to maintain order, but they’re just as affected as everyone else and are more stumbling around than they are helping. I watch a young noblewoman trip and fall, only to betrampled by those behind her. No one stops to help. I unsheathe a blade and push Caspian toward a wall, where I can watch each direction, lest someone use their hatred for the king and stab his son.

Someone like me.

The shrieking finally subsides, replaced by an eerie silence that feels wrong on a fundamental level. Like the realm itself is holding its breath. Or is that me?

“What the fuck is happening?” Caspian demands, his fingers digging into my arm. I almost laugh at the question—as if I have any idea what’s going on.

But there’s that word again.Chaos.

I suck in deep breaths, watching, horrified, as the sky expands and contracts, the colors beyond settling against the opening. The tear spreads—and I silently thank the Angel that there’s no ear-bleeding sound with it—branching out like lightning frozen in time. “We start finding the artifactstoday.”

Seraphina’s voice rings out, commanding everyone to remain calm. But her words cut off as the ground beneath us trembles. Not like before—this is different. The stones of the courtyard ripples like water, though they remain solid under our feet.

My essence writhes beneath my skin, desperate to break free—more so than I’ve ever felt before. I glance at Caspian and see darkness flickering around him too, though he doesn’t seem to notice as he stares at the anomaly above.

“Let’s get inside,” I instruct, already moving as I grip his wrist strong enough to make him hiss, only squeezing harder in response. “Now.”

He follows without argument or quip, which would be concerning under any other circumstance. We’re halfway across the courtyard when the first scream starts. Not of fear—of agony.

I spin toward the sound and my blood runs cold. A woman near the castle gates clutches her chest, her back arched at an impossible angle. Light pours from her mouth and eyes, so bright it hurts to look at. When it fades, she collapses.

Dead.

Before anyone can react, it happens again. And again. Four more people dropping as their essence literally tears itself from their bodies. The kind of terror swimming through my veins should not exist.

But neither should this fucking mess we’re in.

“Shit.” I lace my fingers through Caspian's and run. We need to get somewhere safe, somewhere I can think and stare at him for any signs of his essence turning on him. The balance is completely shot.

We burst through the castle doors just as another crack appears overhead. This one is massive, stretching from horizon to horizon. Through it, I catch glimpses of…something. A forest, maybe? But the trees look wrong, their branches reaching down instead of up.

Oh, fuck. The Aether realm.

“That fucking bitch,” I blurt, stopping so abruptly that Caspian runs into me. “She had to have known thiswould happen.” The woman didn’t seem surprised by any of this, especially after knowing what Thalion did. Why didn’t she warn anyone?

His face hardens almost defensively. “What are you talking about?” I gesture to everything falling apart around us. “No, that’s ridiculous.” He shakes his head, grasping who I'm speaking of. “She would’ve said something—she would not risk Vespera like that.”

Another tremor cuts him off, this one strong enough to crack the castle walls. Pieces of stone rain down around us as we stumble toward the nearest alcove. I want to scream at the Angel to stop this, but I know it won’t listen.

“We can argue about this later,” I snap. “Right now we need to—”

Movement catches my eye and I shove Caspian behind me, harder than intended, unsheathing my second blade in one fluid motion. But it’s just Gavriel, looking significantly worse than he did during the ceremony. Perhaps he'll grace us by exploding like the others. With my luck, he won't—but a girl can dream.

“What’s happening?” he demands, his usual hatred of me forgotten in light of current events. He’s worried.

Before either of us can answer, the air…shifts. Like reality itself is being pulled in different directions. My essence responds with a surge so forceful that I have to brace myself against the wall.

“Angel fuck,” I gasp as foreign sensations assault me, pressing a hand against my sternum as if that will help keep my insidesin. I canfeelthe realm breaking apart—feel the very fabric of existence straining against whatever holds it together.

Caspian’s hand finds mine, and the contact sends a jolt through my system. His essence calls to mine, and the comfort I find in that connection should worry me, but I have bigger problems right now.

Like how to stop our realm from literally tearing itself apart.

A deafening crack echoes through the castle, and we all look up to where the ceiling is now splitting open. Through the gap, more of the strange forest peaks through. It looks closer now, more real somehow.

“We need to figure out what the artifacts are,” I assert, my voice steady despite the fear clawing at my throat. “Then we need to find them and break into the Aether.” A sentence I never thought I’d utter multiple times in a day.

“How exactly do you plan to do that?” Gavriel asks in his usual, brutish tone. “No one can justwalkinto the Aether realm.”

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