Page 64 of City of Snakes
“Keep your ears open for rumblings of Caym’s influence, and mark my words, Fen—he will destroy any power he deems a threat.”
Ryn’s brows lifted. It wasn’t common for me to confide in anyone, but with the stakes so high, I was left with no choice.
“And you have a plan to stop him?” Fen asked.
I shrugged. “More or less.”
You must listen, Fifth Heir of Desidero. Find the Last Daughter of my dearest Isleen. The heir you bear together will be both Origin and Reverist. Your child is the key to ending Death’s reign—the key to setting us all free.
That excerpt fromTheBook of Isoldehad haunted my life since it had been read to me as a child.
Fen snorted a laugh. “And it has something to do with Queen Sybilla? You’ve actually convinced the most headstrong royal I’ve ever met tomarryyou? What exactly does being the ‘last Reverist’ mean for her?”
“It means she is stronger than any power this realm has seen in centuries.” Half of the truth.
Ryn thankfully interrupted. “Speaking of which, we should go check and make sure she and Asterie haven’t drunk us dry of wine.”
Fenris looked at me with that glint of mischief I remembered so well from when we’d been younger immortals and said, “You’re not going to tell me the real answer are you?”
We headed back into Umber House and I grumbled, “Not before I tell her.”
The moment I stepped inside, I was met with a high-pitched screech.
No, not a screech—a shriek. I couldn’t tell where it came from.
Sybilla.
Thinking she would be safe with the Star-wielding enchantress suddenly felt like the most foolish choice.
Following the screams, I burst through the Shadows and up to the sitting room. Asterie knelt beside Sybilla, trying and failing to calm her. Sybilla writhed against the sofa, letting out agonized sounds between screams that barely sounded human.
“What have you done?” I shouted.
A moonstone rested on the floor beside them.
My Shadows wrapped around the Star-wielder and pulled her away, knocking her backward onto the ground.
She squeaked out in protest. “Nothing—we tried to conjure a prophecy about her attackers. It-it was as though she was ripped from me.”
That wolf-beast of hers snarled at me with raised hackles, but Asterie called him to her arm and the ink reappeared there.
Panic seized me.
Sybilla stopped screaming as Fen, Ryn and El burst into the room behind us.
“What the fuck?” Ryn said and moved to help Fenris pick up Asterie off the ground. Fenris then put himself between my Shadows and Asterie. Elsedora lingered by the door, wide-eyed.
“Wake up, come on,” I commanded Sybilla as my knees sank down on the sofa beside her. Gripping her shoulders, I pulled her into an upright position. Sybilla’s eyelids popped open to reveal dark irises where striking green should’ve been—like the murky water at the depths of a lake.
Sybilla leveled a dark glare at me. “She will be mine in the end. I will take everything from you again, Desidero,” she said, but her voice was gargled and strained.
I didn’t balk. Instead, I barked back, “Over my dead body, Caym.”
Sybilla’s expression turned predatory. “I’m counting on that.”
Her eyes fluttered closed again, and I cradled her neck with my palm, tapping her cheek as gently as my panic would allow. “Sybilla, wake up.”
A hand grasped my shoulder. “Krait,” Elsedora warned.
