Page 151 of The Edge of Darkness

“Because you are not the High Lord,” Zofia said. “Nor are you a placeholder any longer.”

The sound of a muffled cry filtered in from the hallway outside the throne room, and Ferhan turned in place to see what was happening.

One of Zofia’s comrades entered, dragging the limp body of a guard who had tried to follow her. He dropped the corpse just past the threshold and inclined his head toward her.

“What is this treason!?” Ferhan snapped.

“Drop your shield,” she repeated, not deigning to indulge his inquiry.

When he snarled, she reached into a pouch at her waist, and quick as a flash, she thrust a handful of red dust at the invisible barrier around him. It ate away at his shield, sizzling like water on hot coals, until the barrier fell away. She was at his throat with her blade in an instant. “You will remain silent until you are spoken to. If you don’t, I will remove little pieces of your body until you obey. Do you understand?”

He nodded, and as I watched through the Aether’s eyes, I couldn’t help but grin to myself.

A sudden tingling sensation prickled against my mind, and before I had time to decipher its place of origin, I lost connection to the Aether.

What the . . .

Panic overcame me. I tried to reach back out for the Aether, but the path was blocked. The scene in the palace faded away, until all I could see in front of me was the temple I stood in, but instead of those that I knew, I was surrounded by keres and other grotesque creatures of Lyceius’s making.

The audience broke into a terrified frenzy, screaming as black claws and teeth lashed out toward them. The creatures bounded into the crowd, killing without discrimination, slashing and gutting innocents as they attempted to flee.

I tried to grasp what was happening.

How could things have gone so terribly wrong when I had just been standing amidst Ramil’s trial and simultaneously watching Ferhan’s apprehension . . .

This didn’t make any sense. Where was everyone else? It was as if I’d been plucked from one reality, and dropped into another.

I spun, and all the breath left my lungs upon seeing a particularly evil looking beast with his talons against Maeson’s neck.

Whatever hell I’d just found myself in, I didn’t know, but Maeson’s whimper of pain was so unbelievably real, and the blood that trickled down her neck was so impossibly crimson, that I didn’t hesitate or think twice.

I ripped my dagger free from its sheath, and launched at my enemy.

Aremis’s brows were pinched as he gritted his teeth and charged at me, blade glinting in the light.

Quick as a flash, I saw it—the slightest tell, a flicker in his eyes—the shift from rage, to confusion, to rage again, that told me he wasn’t in control.

He was upon me within seconds.

My shadows surrounded him, restraining him before he could make contact. “Aremis . . .” I warned.

What the fuck was he doing? What was⁠—

I whirled back to Ramil, but Fallon had already gotten to him. His large hand closed around his father’s throat and pulled him from the commanding daze he’d gone into in order to weave his false realities.

The spell broke, and Aremis stumbled to the side, dropping his dagger when he realized who he had been aiming it at.

Fallon’s stare might have been unseeing, but he glared down at Ramil with so much disdain that for a moment, I swore he could see through the white that coated his eyes, straight into the depths of his father’s soul. “MONSTER!” he bellowed.

Ramil gasped for air, jerking his wrists against Nivelle’s restraints, unable to move or breathe.

“Without your beloved stone, you do not have enough power to weave like you used to,” Fallon said.

“It only takes . . . one mind to . . . create chaos,” Ramil struggled to say.

Morah stalked toward them, garnering her father’s desperate gaze. His bulging eyes tried to follow her as she circled his chair and stopped behind him.

She leaned in, over his shoulder, and spoke calmly into his ear. “You’ve failed. Your court falls as we speak—the palace is being seized at this very moment. Those who are loyal to you are all being slaughtered, and everything you’ve worked for ends now.”