Page 59 of Blood Marked

“Do you know why your mother hated me, Kael?” he asked instead.

Kael’s hands curled at his sides. “Because you killed her freedom.”

“She said I was a man who saw the storm coming and still chose to march into it. That I was always waiting for the thunder and never dancing in the quiet before it.”

Ruarc looked at him now. Hard.

“She was right.”

Kael stared. “What the hell are you?—”

“You are the future of this court. And that girl is thekeystoneto the treaty. The magic flaring off her tonight? That was proof.” He glanced at Kael’s look of momentary surprise. “Ah, yes, I heard about that little show as well. She’s the hinge on which both realms will turn.”

Kael growled. “She isnota tool?—”

“She isthe bridge!” Ruarc roared suddenly, slamming the glass down. “And bridges don’t get to have fear. Or love. Theyhold weight.”

Silence rang between them.

Rurac looked back at his glass before taking a sip. “The ceremony proceeds. Tomorrow.”

“No.” Kael’s voice was a weapon now. Flat. Final.

Ruarc blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I saidno.” Kael took a step closer, and his voice dropped. “You think chaining her down in front of this nest of vipers will unite them? It’ll paint a target on her back so big, even the Veil won’t protect her. That’s your legacy, Father.Weakness wrapped in ceremony.”

Ruarc’s face didn’t change. But his hands clenched. “You’re not ready,” he said. “Younever were.”

Kael stepped forward, pulse pounding, voice low and venomous.

“Then strip my name from the title. But I willnotdrag her into a slaughter disguised as tradition.”

Ruarc didn’t move. Didn’t speak.

Then he nodded. And two guards stepped out of the shadows.

Kael stiffened. “What the fuck is this?”

“You’ll be detained,” Ruarc said coldly. “Until after the ceremony. You’ve proven you’re too compromised to lead.”

The guards advanced. Kael didn’t step back. But he did smile—sharp and slow. “You’re going to regret this,” he said.

Ruarc turned his back.

And Kael let the guards seize him, silent.

He didn’t struggle. Now he wasreallyready for war.

TWENTY-FIVE

SELENE

The bathwater had long gone cold, but Selene didn’t move.

She sat with her knees pulled to her chest, chin resting just above the line of water, eyes half-closed as steam ghosted across the surface in pale ribbons. The tub was carved from stone and sunk into the floor of Nyra’s hidden chambers—her personal retreat, tucked far beneath the central keep.

“I call it the one place in this gods-forsaken mountain where no one is spying on me,” Nyra had said earlier, tossing her a robe and pointing toward the bath like sheknewSelene needed it.

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