Page 80 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

Candles burned until dawn. Lords drank to my future. Women I do not know smiled at me like they were already measuring a crown for their own heads. And all the while, my brother lay upstairs too weak to lift his own goblet.

I endured the feast because duty demanded it, but I spent the entire evening thinking of your cabin. It shames me how desperately I miss a life that was never truly mine to keep.

If I were a stronger man, I would stop writing these letters.

If I were a better one, I would send them.

But I’m neither. So I will sit in the dark, destroying myself with memories of you, because even the agony of your absence is better than a world where I never met you.

- Owain

Chapter 24

Owain

The flames dancing in the hearth of Camrick’s office softened his appearance enough that he almost didn’t look like an idiot—almost. The fool held the enchanted ring I’d taken off the mercenary’s corpse in his bare palm.

“I don’t feel anything,” he said mildly, brown eyes peering through narrowed lids at the gold threaded with rubies.

Before I could get a word in edgewise, he plucked it up with two fingers and slid it onto a finger. Everything in my body stilled, waiting. To help, to hinder, to protect. Whatever it took.

He shuddered violently, like a dog ridding itself of water.

My heart stopped beating. A second passed. Then two. I couldn’t lose my best friend. Not like this. My hands itched to act. I could conjure a blade and slice the finger cleanly off. Maybe that would save him.

“What?” I asked, voice tight with the anxiety churning in my stomach.

He made that shuddering sound again, sending shivers of panic outward from my spine. I was already reaching for my magic, calculating where to cut, when he drew a sharp breath and said, “Just felt weird when I first put it on is all.”

“You crazy, half-witted…gahh.” I rasped in a much-needed breath, the irritation and fear raw in my voice. He had the audacity to look pleased with himself. “Twenty years and you still do stupid shit like this.”

“I doubt this thing is actually that strong,” he muttered.

I made a swirling gesture at my temple. “You don’t feel…?”

“Not at all. I mean, it makes sense. Those money-grubbing mages wouldn’t give ordinary mercenaries anything valuable.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

“But it does work,” he assured. “It’s tugging my hand toward you right now.”

“It also tugged toward Lunette,” I said, thinking. “The sellsword suggested it pointed toward ‘corrupted’ magic, but maybe it actually detects Fae blood.”

The ring slipped off Cam’s finger easily, leaving only a faint indent on his skin. I was relieved until his hand flexed again, fingers twitching as if they hadn’t quite remembered how to obey him.

I told myself that this muted reaction proved it was harmless.

He held it up gingerly between thumb and forefinger. “I can test it the next time I’m near Reina.”

I didn’t like it, but he was right. “Fine,” I said grudgingly, “but do not tell her about this. She’ll start drafting contracts to lure Assembly mages into our service to weaken them. We can’t let them know we’re onto them yet.”

His tone grew as chill as the wind outside. “What does the Assembly hope to achieve with this? Trying to kill you is madness!”

“They weren’t,” I said. “They wanted me ‘back in their custody.’”

Cam’s words became clipped. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

“Me either, brother,” I said, because in all the ways that counted, Cam was my family. “They probably think they can manipulate Berian. That should keep him safe at least.”