Page 58 of Gua rdian of Blood and Shadow

I shifted my focus from the box back up to Reiji’s face, furrowing my brows dramatically. “Why would he do that? Why would he trap her here, then suppress her into near oblivion?”

Uncertainty crept into Reiji’s expression. “I don’t know,” he admitted reluctantly. “The wards were Veris’s idea. He claimed they were standard protection against interference. She must—” He shook his head, struggling to voice the truth. “She must know something that would destroy him.”

“Something worse than the world knowing he committed genocide upon vampires?” I asked. “Because he certainly doesn’t try to hide that, does he?”

Again, Reiji shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, sounding truly lost.

“Lower the suppression wards,” I demanded. “Now, here, and I’ll make my mom visible so you can hear what she has to say. No more secrets, Reiji. No moreillusions. Unless you really do want to be my enemy.”

Reiji hesitated, calculation flickering behind his eyes.

Gavin moved closer to my side, his hand brushing mine in silent support.

After a long moment, Reiji nodded. “Very well.” He raised his hands, power gathering around his fingertips like crystallized starlight. With a series of fluid gestures, he traced complex patterns in the air. The antechamber shuddered as the wards began to dissolve, ancient magic unraveling like threads pulled from a tapestry.

The effect was immediate. My mother’s ghost materialized fully beside us, her form more substantial than I’d ever seen it. Her eyes—just like mine—blazed with urgency.

“Daughter,” she said, her voice carrying that peculiar echo of the dead. “At last.”

“Mom,” I whispered, emotion closing my throat. I reached for her, and she curled her fingers around mine, the contact pulling her partially into the physical world, making her visible to Reiji and Gavin.

Gavin dropped to one knee and bowed his head in deference.

My mom smiled down at him approvingly but quickly returned her attention to me. “Listen carefully, daughter,” she said, her form flickering as she struggled to maintain her manifestation even with the suppression wards down. “Veris isn’t just the Sun King. He’s an agent of the Shadow King—has been for centuries.”

I sucked in a breath.

“I maintained a relationship with him to justify frequent trips here so I could identify the shadow-bound among the shifters,” my mother continued, her gaze never leaving mine. “But I never imagined he was the lead culprit. I learned the truth only after he killed me.”

“Is this why he kept a piece of you?” I asked, grief and anger tangling in my chest at the thought of him possessing even a lock of her hair after what he’d done. “To prevent you from revealing the truth?”

She nodded, her form wavering. “He thought burning my body would silence me forever, but he kept my hair, just in case. He couldn’t risk that I would attach to an object in the absence of my remains.”

Reiji had grown pale as he listened, suspicion crystallizing into horror. “The Shadow King,” he whispered, like he was testing the weight of those words. “Is this true?” He directed the question to my mother’s ghost, apparently forgetting I was in the room.

“You’ve been played, Star Prince,” she replied, her voice carrying a trace of pity. “Your ambition made you an easy target—just as my pride made me one.”

Reiji staggered back, hand braced against the altar. “I didn’t know,” he insisted, his eyes finding mine. “Sophie, you have to believe me. I wouldn’t align with that.”

“The curse,” I said, turning back to my mom’s ghost. “Is it even safe to break it now? Won’t that just make the Shadow King’s hold over the shifters stronger?”

She nodded, her form growing more translucent. “Yes, but now it must be broken.”

I frowned, confusion swirling. “But if it shields them—”

“The cursewasmeant as a shield—from the shadow taint corrupting their magic, not from the Shadow King directly,” she explained. “But it’s hamstringing their magic now, making them more vulnerable to direct influence. With it broken, the shadow taint will be obvious to all immortals.” Her gaze shifted to the chamber door, beyond which Veris waited. “His power comes from secrecy, from slow corruption that goes undetected.”

She looked from me to Reiji and back. “Work together. Break the curse, and he’ll be exposed.”

34

Ireleasedmymom’shand,letting her fade away, and squared off against Reiji. I studied the internal struggle evident in his features—ambition warring with fear, calculation with horror at the huge mistake he had made in trusting Veris.

But Reiji was a manipulator. A self-proclaimed master of illusion. How could I trust a single thing he said or did?

There was only one way…

“Did you know?” I asked him directly, the faintest thread of mywillresonating through my words. “About Veris and the Shadow King?”

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