Page 127 of Duskbound

"And you," I said to Aether, whose golden eyes had gone sharp with interest. "I saw your eyes in my dreams months before I crossed the rip. Before I even knew this realm existed." The words came out softer than I meant them to, and heat crept up my neck as his gaze locked onto me with an intensity that made my heart stutter. For a moment, the others in the room seemed to fade away.

The silence that followed pressed against my skin, but I pushed forward, before the weight of his stare made me lose my nerve completely.

"Lately, I've been seeing two sisters. Twins, I think. Young girls, born into nobility—maybe even royalty—here in Umbrathia." The memory of the first dream flickered through my mind. "Their father took them to the Void when they were barely more thanchildren. Their mother..." I swallowed hard, remembering her desperate pleas. "She begged him not to."

"But, I've seen glimpses of their life as they grew up. One of them later married a Lord from the Skaldvindr family—that's what made me realize that these people were real, and relevant, perhaps. They had a child together." The words felt heavy as they left my mouth, though I didn't understand why. I could still feel Aether's gaze on me, but I kept my eyes fixed on the floor.

Raven stepped closer, something shifting in his casual demeanor. "The current Queen was married to Lord Skaldvindr before his death."

Slowly, my eyes crawled up to Raven, who was studying me intensely. Vexa and Effie exchanged a look that made my skin prickle.

"She also had a sister," Raven said quietly. "What was her name?"

"Vilda. Her twin." Aether's voice had lost its earlier warmth, replaced by something vacant. "She died not long after Skalvindr. Not long after their father, in fact." He looked towards Raven.

"Some say that was the catalyst. Why the Queen’s mind began to slip into madness," Vexa breathed, clutching the chair beneath her with white knuckles.

“And then her son died of a rare illness, which only made matters worse,” Effie said quietly.

Silence pressed against the walls as I absorbed this. The Queen. I was dreaming of the Queen and her family. But why? How did all of this connect? I could feel in my bones that there was a reason. That it was going to end up being important, but I still couldn't connect the dots.

My heart thundered against my ribs as I forced myself to continue. "There's one more thing."

Their attention snapped back to me.

"In these dreams, sometimes..." I wet my lips, suddenly unsure. "Sometimes I hear a voice. It calls me by a different name." The words caught in my throat. "Fiandrial. I think it might be my real name."

Aether went completely still. Not the practiced stillness of a soldier, but something deeper, as if he'd been frozen in place. Raven and Vexa looked confused, but Aether...

He stood so abruptly his chair scraped against stone. "There's something I have to do." His voice was tight, controlled, but I caught the tremor beneath it. "I'll be back later."

The door closed behind him with a force that stopped my heart for a beat.

I crawled into bed,tugging Aether's shirt closer around me. The fabric still carried his scent—rain and woodsmoke. It should have felt strange wearing it, but instead it felt... Right. Safe. Though safety seemed like a cruel joke now. Just like the night before, every time I closed my eyes, I was back in that horrendous chamber.

Aether still hadn’t returned from wherever he’d run off to. I was going to have to face this alone tonight.

My eyes traced down my skin to the stark white bandages, too clean, too pristine against my flesh. They felt like a lie—like covering the truth of what had happened in that castle, making it seem neat and contained when it was anything but. Before I realized what I was doing, my fingers were already tearing at them, ripping them away until the shallow cuts beneath were exposed. Maybe it was worse, seeing the evidence of what they'd done to me, but something about facing the truth of it felt better than hiding it away.

A knock at the door made me jump, Valkan's face flashingthrough my mind before I could stop it. I had to remind myself that he was dead, that I'd watched him torn apart, that his blood still stained the walls of that chamber. Still, my heart thundered as I approached the door.

When I opened it, Vexa and Effie stood there with pillows and blankets tucked under their arms. The sight of them made something in my chest crack.

"We're staying with you tonight," Vexa said, already pushing past me into the room. Effie followed, both of them dropping their bedding onto the floor as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

It wasn't until they turned back to me that I remembered my state—Aether's shirt hanging loose, the cuts now visible across my arms and legs. I watched understanding dawn in their eyes, watched as Vexa's face transformed with a rage that looked lethal. Shock spread across Effie's features.

"I had no idea..." she breathed, and I'd never seen her look at me like that before—like she might cry. The pity in her eyes made me want to cover myself.

"Any of us would have done what Aether did." Effie's voice was fierce.

My first instinct was to hide the evidence of what they'd done to me. But something in their expressions—the raw honesty there—made me pause.

The tears I'd been holding back all day finally spilled over, and once they started, I couldn't make them stop. It felt like everything I'd been containing since that castle was suddenly breaking free.

Vexa crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. The gesture surprised me. "Tell us what we can do." Her voice was softer than I'd ever heard it, and somehow that gentleness made it harder to keep myself together.

"Thank you for coming," I managed between shaky breaths. "I didn't know how I was going to sleep tonight." The admission wasdifficult, but it felt good to say it aloud. To acknowledge the fear that had been building all day as I thought about laying in my bed, trying to find sleep again. Alone. Without Aether.

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