Page 11 of Stormvein
A woman’s hand flies to her mouth. A man takes a step backward.
They know. Even without us saying anything, they know we’ve lost him.
Lisandra cuts through the gathering crowd from the far side, but even she falters when she reaches us. She’s too experienced not to read the signs. The way Varam won’t lift his eyes, the grief carved into Mira’s face, the unnatural creature pacing at my side. She glances at me, then to the glow that rises and falls with my heartbeat, to the mist stalker shadowing my steps. But she doesn’t voice the questions that are clearly in her head. Instead, she turns to Varam.
“My quarters.” Her voice carries the tone of command, but there’s a tremor beneath it.
We follow her through the cavern. The mist stalker draws stares and whispers. A few children point at it, wide-eyed, but their parents quickly pull them away before they can get too close.
How do we tell them that he’s dead? How do I explain that I watched it happen and couldn’t stop it?
Lisandra’s quarters are laid out like Sacha’s, but where his held maps and weapons, hers is more austere. A few personal items hint at a life beyond command, but everything else serves a clear purpose. She closes the door behind us and faces Varam.
“Report.”
Varam stiffens, clearly unaccustomed to being commanded by anyone other than Sacha. For a second, I think he’s going to refuse to reply, but then he sighs and straightens.
“We were caught leaving Ashenvale. Sereven was waiting for us. He has a new weapon. A crystal that …” He shakes his head. “I don’t know. When Sach—” He stops, his throat working as he swallows. “When Lord Torran tried to use his shadows, the crystal tore them apart.”
“His familiar … the raven …” Mira takes up the report when Varam falters. “It came to her after he fell.” Her eyes close for a second, her composure almost breaking. When she opens them again, they’re bright with tears. “When it touched her, everything changed. A storm rose from nowhere. Something in her broke open. And then … this …” She turns her head to the mist stalker. “She is prophecy brought to life. The Stormvein Lord.”
“I’m not a prophecy. I’m not a Veinblood. I don’t want that name. I want to find Sacha.”
“Ellie.” Mira says my name sadly. Like I’m a child who’s refusing to accept an obvious truth.
“He’snotdead. There wasn’t a body.” I don’t mean to shout, but the words burst out before I can stop them.
“There wouldn’t be.” Varam’s voice is gentle. “Not after what you saw.”
“You don’t know that.” I clench my fingers to stop them from shaking. “None of us know what that crystal did.”
My throat locks up. There’s not enough air in the room … in my lungs … in the world.
“You don’t know.” I can’t hide the desperation in my voice. “He could be hurt somewhere. He could be trapped. He could be?—”
“Why do you believe he’s alive when those who served him for so much longer don’t?” Lisandra speaks over me.
My hand moves to where his ring rests against my skin. She knows about the tower, how I freed him. But she has no idea how deep that connection goes, how we became something more than ourselves when we touched.
“I just do.” The words sound weak even to me, but they’re all I have. Because if I allow myself to believe he’s dead, then I am truly lost here. More than lost. I’m stranded in a world that was never mine to begin with, surrounded by people who see me as a symbol instead of a person drowning in grief.
Silence falls. The mist stalker shifts. Everyone stares at me with the same expression, as though I’m a wounded animal that might lash out. I can see what they’re thinking. That grief has made me irrational. That I’m clinging to hope because the truth is too painful.
Maybe they’re right. Perhaps I am losing my mind.
Lisandra looks at Varam, then Mira, then fixes her gaze on me with uncomfortable directness. “You say he’s not dead. But no one else with you saw him survive.”
I open my mouth, but she lifts a hand. “I don’t say that to wound you, Ellie. But I can’t make decisions for Stonehavenbased on hope. Only on facts.” She turns toward the door. “We need to call the Veinwarden leaders together. They need to know what happened, and …” She glances at me again, and I see it now. The way she looks at me has changed. I’m no longer the stranger who freed the Shadowvein Lord. I’m something she doesn’t know how to handle. “... and what has changed.”
My lips twist.What has changed. Like I’m a problem to be solved instead of a person falling apart.
“She needs to rest first,” Mira says, the strain in her voice clear. She’s worried about me, and I hate that I don’t know if it’s because she’s my friend or because she’s concerned about what I might be. “Her power is not stable.”
As if summoned by her words, the pressure spikes without warning. Light breaks loose before I can hold it down, silver fire crackling across my skin. My balance falters, and I stumble against the wall, gasping as the energy tears through me. The mist stalker moves, putting its body between me and the others, lips curled back in a silent snarl.
This creature, born from his familiar’s death, is protecting me. While I can’t protect anyone.
“Ellie.” Mira’s voice is cautious.
