Page 14 of Ecliptic

“That’s not possible,” I choked out, clutching the sheet tighter. “I went with Erovos yesterday.”

Rowen released a ragged breath.

“It has been a season’s turn, star-touched. Rowen speaks the truth,” Takoda said, resting his hands on his knees.

I was going to be sick. My existence as the Alcreon Light had only felt like moments, not a robbery of time. “Is Ven alright?”

“Ven is well. He is the one who told us you left with Erovos to save him and Sabra,” Rowen said, his features twisting. “I searched for you every night in the Hymma. I thought I found you many times, but then you would slip through my fingers like liquid starlight.”

During my time as the Light, I’d felt Rowen’s touch ripple through me, and I’d turned away. “Erovos changed me, deconstructed me down to the purest form of the Alcreon Light. It took me a while to remember what—who I was. I’m sorry I couldn’t remember sooner.”

Rowen’s face paled. “Don’t apologize, my flame. You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

I gathered my legs beneath me, keeping the blanket wrapped around my body. My hair was somehow longer, thicker, and billowed around me like an underwater forest. Even my nails, normally bitten down to the quick, had grown long, healthy, andstrong. The Light’s influence had changed me from the inside out.

When I came to my feet, I remembered I hadn’t fallen at all. I’d been caught. Someone had come up behind me and wrapped me in their arms. But they hadn’t been affected the way Rowen had. “Who stopped me?” I asked, remembering that the stranger had a power like mine, and he’d used it against me.

“It is difficult to understand . . .” Takoda began as Rowen wrapped an overcoat around my shoulders without touching me. His welcoming scent enveloped me in a cloud of charcoal, musk, and sandalwood.

“One of our prisoners,” Nepta, the Elven-head of the Wyn answered, her commanding voice strong yet tinged with grief.

What happened since I’d been gone?

“We don’t know how the prisoner escaped to get to you. To lay his hands on you,” Rowen seethed as his temples pulsed with fury. “There was no damage done to his cell. He may have used a dark portal to get to you.”

“Who?” I asked, utterly perplexed.

“A man who claims to know you personally. He won’t tell us any more than that. He says he will only speak with you,” Takoda replied.

I wracked my brain. “I don’t know anyone here. Unless it’s someone who escaped the Crystal Crypts.”

“Possibly,” Rowen said as his fingers itched toward me. “It’s quite a coincidence he showed up the exact morning you left.”

My mind reeled. “The day I left? I don’t understand.”

“It could be a trap from Erovos, or the false queen. Her body was never recovered,” Alvar, the captain of the Wyn warriors chimed in, his prominent brow furrowing over dark brown eyes. “The interloper refuses to tell us anything. His lack of cooperation does not bode well. We have no idea what his intentions are. He is not to be trusted.”

Curiosity clawed at me. The Wyn village had been imprisoning a man for months. One they feared enough to detain yet somehow knew me. “Take me to him,” I said, brushing the long, unruly strands of hair from my face.

“The prisoner can wait. No one is to see him until the best course of action is decided,” Nepta said, her quartz headdress displaying the authority of her decision. “He is well guarded. It is more urgent that we know what happened with the Dark Spirit?”

“Oh. Of course,” I said as I relayed how Erovos rid me down until I was nothing but Light, intending to use me as a gateway to other worlds. I recounted how I’d trapped him in the crevice, buying whatever time I could. How I’d been the everything and nothing of the Light for the last three months. And how the Dark Spirit had been using the Sylvan Mother Tree to drain Luneth dry.

“I should have suspected Erovos would use the sacred Mother Tree. It is a great and unforgivable sadness,” Nepta said, the creases around her marble eyes deepening.

“The crevice won’t hold him forever,” Alvar remarked, managing to sound somewhat impressed.

“No,” I agreed. “It won’t.”

The war captain traced the scar on his chin with a weathered finger. “Much has changed since your disappearance: the earth trembles and quakes. And now we know why. The Dark Spirit is fighting for release.”

I stiffened in dread. Even though I already knew it wouldn’t hold him forever, guilt swarmed me. I should have thought of a better prison.

“You did well, child. Had Erovos escaped to other realms, there would be no stopping him. At least now we have a chance,” Nepta said, somehow sensing the remorse that engulfed me. The crystals from her headdress swayed aroundher neck. “Did you learn of any weaknesses?”

I pulled Rowen’s coat closer. “No.”

“And Demil? Where is that coward?” Rowen snarled.

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