Page 68 of Song of the Heart Scale
I nodded approvingly. “VeryMission Impossibleof you.”
“I had to know what he knew,” Damien said somberly.
“And?” I prompted, my heart speeding up.
Damien set his fork down and looked directly at me, his dark eyes reflecting the candlelight like pools of midnight. “Malachar had a vision. A true vision, not the lies Thorne is telling everyone.”
I gripped the edge of the table, my knuckles whitening. “What kind of vision?”
Damien glanced out the darkened window where thunder continued to rumble. “Malachar saw Elaria's future under Thorne's rule. A future where the skies refuse to open.” His voice dropped even lower. “No rain will fall. Not a single drop.”
My stomach plummeted like an elevator with cut cables. “No rain? As in...none? Ever?”
“For as long as Thorne sits on the throne,” Damien confirmed, pushing his plate away with a grimace. “The lands will dry up. Crops will fail. Rivers will shrink to nothing but dusty beds.”
“A famine,” Royal Prince Bai murmured, his face ashen in the candlelight. “The worst Elaria has ever seen.”
I swallowed hard as the implications smacked me like a freight train. My eyes darted to the window again, where the dry thunder mocked me with its empty promise. “No rain means no storm,” I whispered, more to myself than to them. “No storm means...”
“No way home,” Damien finished, his voice heavy with regret. His eyes met mine across the table, full of a sorrow so deep it made my chest ache. “I'm sorry, Cat.”
I dropped my fork with a clatter. The spiced duck suddenly tasted like ash in my mouth. “So I'm stuck here? Permanently?”My voice cracked on the last word. “Because some power-hungry psychopath decided to steal a crown that doesn't want him?”
Royal Prince Bai reached across the table, his weathered hand covering mine. “Not permanently. Nothing is permanent. Thrones can be challenged. Emperors can fall.”
“Great. So all we need is a coup d'état and maybe I can catch the next interdimensional storm home!” My laugh was bitter, even to my ears. “Simple.”
Damien pushed away his untouched wine. “Malachar risked his life to tell me this. He's still there, you know, locked in with the emperor's body. Thorne keeps him there because he knows...”
“Knows what?” I asked, leaning forward.
Damien's voice dropped to a whisper. “That the emperor was poisoned. By Thorne himself.”
Royal Prince Bai closed his eyes, his expression pained but not surprised. “We suspected as much.”
“Wait.” I held up a hand, trying to process everything. “So Thorne poisoned his own father, has a hostage seer locked in a room with daddy's corpse, and now the sky is basically giving us all the middle finger because he's emperor and now I’m trapped here?” I laughed, but it came out hollow. “And I thought my ex ghosting me was the worst thing that could happen.”
Damien frowned. “Ghosting?”
“It's when someone—never mind. Not important.” I rubbed my temples. “So this vision Malachar had—how certain was he? I mean, seers can be wrong, right?”
“Not Malachar,” Royal Prince Bai stated gravely, refilling his wine glass with a steady hand despite the tension crackling in the air. “His visions have never failed. It is why the royal family has kept his bloodline close for generations.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered, pushing away my plate. “So I'm trapped in Elaria until we somehow dethrone the murderous emperor who just seized power today. Cool. Cool cool cool.”
Damien looked at me with confusion. “I don't understand how this situation could be considered 'cool' in any way.”
I couldn't help but smile despite everything. “It's an expression from my world. It means the exact opposite of what it sounds like.”
“Your world has strange ways of communicating,” Royal Prince Bai noted dryly. He took a measured sip of his wine. “Though I must say, I find it refreshing.”
Thunder crashed again, louder this time. I flinched and glanced toward the window. The sky remained clear, stars twinkling mockingly through the glass.
“It's starting already,” Damien said, following my gaze. “The curse.”
I stared at my hands, suddenly feeling very small in this vast, strange world. “So this is it? I'm stuck here while Elaria dries up like a raisin in the sun?”
Damien reached across the table, his fingers brushing mine. “We won't let that happen.”
