Page 124 of Crown of Wrath

But Cole… I have bad news.

That tone. It’s not just bad news. It’s terrifying news. “What is it?”

I can’t feel Lee any longer. That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s dead. She could be too far away, or she could be unconscious.

Where could she be? I swallow hard. My heart hardens against the desire to hunt her down. I can’t change our plans to save my friend. I can’t… My teeth clench together in anger.

“Thank you.” I know Sia will read everything in my mind. Now that she’s not wearing her collar, it’s instinctual for her. Like smelling food cooking in a kitchen, she’ll be drawn to the intensity of my thoughts and emotions.

This is difficult, Prince Cole. I am having a hard time watching everything.Her violet eyes open and I can see the strain of what she’s trying to do. Watching and listening to so many minds. She’s never been around this many people before, never tried to maintain connections with so many.I’m trying my best. I should have been paying attention to Lee when she disappeared. Then I’d know. She disappeared while the Steel soldiers were attacking.

I shake my head. “No. You’re doing everything you can,” I say. “Keep it up. I have to get back to Maeve.” I pause, recognizing something for the first time. “Wait. Can you see inside Gethin’s mind? Can you read his thoughts?”

Yes. I have tried to focus on him since he drew himself away from the steel-lined rooms. He is… broken. His mind does not flow as it should.

I nod. “Yes, but has he thought of how he can die? Has he focused on any specific things? Weaknesses or fears?”

He only thinks of the Thrones. And Calyr. His mind goes back to a talk he had with Calyr many, many years ago when he was young. He is consumed. Dark hair and a black blade.

I sigh. No, it couldn’t be that simple. “Thank you, Sia,” I say before turning back to the shadow walker. “Bring me back to the void. Echo will know where I came from.”

The man nods to me and takes my wrist before pulling me into the shadows again. That half a moment in the void—where I’m not in control—I feel the pressing weight of the darkness. This time, though, it feels different. I’ve been here a thousand times, no different from the shadow walker ferrying me, and I’ve always felt that oppressive weight.

Now, it feels hungrier. It feels ready to consume me. It feels… like it’s waiting for me.

Is it helplessness that threatens to consume me? Is it the number of times that I’ve gone in and out of the void recently? Are there traces of black in my eyes?

Then Echo’s shadows wrap around me and pull me out of the void and onto the breezeway where Gethin and Maeve should be.

But they’re both gone. I reach out through our bond, and I feel nothing. Just like when she’d talked to The Darkness with Echo. The void has built that barrier in our bond like we’d expected it to, but I hadn’t expected her to leave this place.

Damn it all. Where is she? She can’t be dead. I’d feel that. It wouldn’t be this separation. It’d be a hole in my soul. My bond with her would be intact, but she’d be gone to a place I couldn’t follow. There’d be more pain than I can imagine.

She’s not dead. She’s…missing. Along with Gethin. But why? And where?

Chapter 62

Remember this one truth when fighting Immortals, soldier. An injury does not kill an Immortal. Even things that would incapacitate a human is often rarely even noticeable for an Immortal. Being stabbed through the belly? An inconvenience. Remember, soldier, always make sure they are dead.

~Sir Alistair Hawking, Magical Combat for Humans

Maeve

“Why are you doing this, Gethin? Help me understand. You’re breaking everything that the dragons built. The Conduits. The city. The laws and balance. You’re destroying everything. You’veruled for thousands of years, and now, in the last hundred, you’ve decided it all needs to be destroyed. Why?”

I lean against the railing, just like Gethin is. I don’t let myself get close, and I don’t let my guard down, but I am patient. Time is my friend. The longer he does nothing, the better the chance for Cole to get back before Gethin attacks me.

He lets out a long, low breath. It seems like it’s one he’s been holding back for years. Has anyone asked him this? Has anyone suggested that they want to understand his thoughts instead of immediately reacting with violence?

“It has to happen,” he says. “From one Conduit to another, I will explain myself. Casimir asked this once, but… I couldn’t tell Casimir everything then. He’d have used it against me. I wasn’t prepared to deal with the House of Flames then. But you… you can’t do anything to stop me. Everything has happened as planned, and in only a few hours, you’ll be dead along with the last Conduits.”

My body tenses, surprised at his candor along with the statement. I know he thinks that he’s going to kill me and Cole. Maybe Casimir as well. But Echo? How could he expect to hurt her when she’s safe in the void? Unless…

“Whenever someone claims a Throne, they are given an audience with Calyr. They’re allowed to ask anything they want, and his advice and help are given freely as whoever claims the Throne has already made a sacrifice. Well, about three thousand years ago, I asked for advice. He told me it would be up to me to save everything when the Thrones began to fail.”

Gethin turns to me then, most of the mania hidden behind the intensity in his eyes. “And the Thronesarefailing. The first sign of it was the failure of Nightforged steel. Enchanted torches have begun sputtering out recently, and if they go out, they don’t come back to life like they should.”

Memory of the torch that I smothered in the labyrinth outside of Calyr’s cave flashes through my mind, but I don’t say anything. It seems like the ones who wear the crowns don’t just get to talk to people. Maybe it’s because they feel like no one other than other Conduits can understand the weight on their shoulders or maybe being thousands of years old makes them prone to ramble.

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