Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

T here was a wild and furious storm battering the keep again tonight. I floated on my back in the highest pool in the Poseidon Spa, the towering stone effigy of Scorpio curling around the basin that held the water I lay in. Above me, a glass roof gave a view out to the dark sky and I worked on casting raindrops with my magic, letting them cascade down over me in a mimicry of the storm. My mind kept slipping back to the memory of that Flamebringer, The Cobra, being so brutally executed in the Heliacal Courtyard. He had killed a Raincarver during the fight he had started at the Astral Sanctuary. Though I hadn't known the girl who had been killed, a bitter kind of hatred had found me at knowing The Cobra had murdered one of my people. But watching the vicious execution hadn't brought me the satisfaction I'd expected.

Instead, I'd felt sickened by the display, and found myself thinking about my own death. If I killed Kaiser Brimtheon between these halls and was found out, a terrible kind of execution awaited me too. But despite knowing that to be the case, I couldn't find it in me to make the sensible choice and halt my pursuit. Who knew when I would be in this close proximity with him again? I may never get such an opportunity again in my lifetime. It might be now or never, so it would be now. Just as soon as I felt trained enough to face him.

The bathhouse was quiet this evening, the conscripts all peeling off to rest after another day of cardinal magic instruction followed by a brutal session of elemental training out in the ocean again. This pool was a favourite of mine in the Poseidon Spa, a place few other Fae ventured to even during busier times.

From what I'd heard of the sleeping quarters in the Vault of Frost, they held grand tubs akin to pools. When that Raincarver girl had died, a room had opened up, but I hadn't been quick enough to seize it. A herd of Pegasuses had spread out their things, claiming it as part of several rooms they shared. Next time, I wouldn't be so slow to act.

Plenty of friendship groups spent time in each other's spaces during downtime. Talking, laughing. I caught snippets of it all whenever I moved through the passages here, catching glimpses of smiles and casual touches.

In the month that I had been at Never Keep, I had not been touched. Actually, I had barely been addressed. Instead, I haunted the keep, a creature that moved among the masses, going unnoticed for the most part. But when I was noticed, it was with disdain, sneering lips and occasional taunts thanks to Ransom's efforts in making me an outcast.

I was used to being solitary anyway. I preferred to walk my own path, but there were tugs in my soul that longed for Harlon; no one else had ever made the cut. Realistically, I was probably half of the problem when it came to making friends. I didn't exactly attempt to talk to other Fae, and my face was often fixed in the kind of scowl that warned people not to approach me. But when your hand had been bitten by the dogs you tried to pet as a kid, it kind of left its mark on you.

"Hiding, Ever?" Harlon's voice from the past drifted through my mind. It was a time when I'd been just a child with scuffed knees, sitting in the warm sand of Undashine Shore.

"I'm not hiding, I'm relaxing."

"Here between the dunes with nothing but geckos for company? You look like you're hiding to me."

"I prefer to be alone."

"Then I guess I'll go."

"No, wait," I breathed, looking to the boy with the sand in his hair and the ocean in his eyes. "Stay. I don't want to go back home."

He stepped closer, that protective look crossing his features. I had never really understood why he aimed it at me.

"A lot of the people in Castelorain have small minds and closed hearts, Ever. The whole world isn't like that. You'll leave this place one day and find somewhere you're seen for what you are."

"But there's nothing to see."

"Not true. Anyway, it doesn't matter where you go, I'll be there. You'll always have me."

"Swear it?"

"I swear."

"You broke your promise, Harl," I sang into the rain I'd cast from magic, though no real anger found me. I just missed him.

I'd asked several Reapers where to find their trainee acolytes, but had been dismissed time and again, told there was no coalescing between battle conscripts and Reaper conscripts. But I'd be damned if I was going to give up on seeking him.

The only place in Never Keep that seemed likely for him to be housed was the Reaper Quarters, and considering I was forbidden from entering that place upon pain of punishment, I was going to have to risk getting in there and being caught or give up on him. And the second choice wasn't an option.

So idle plans formed in my mind while I floated in the embrace of the warm water, feeling a rising swell inside my chest. My magic was recharging. And despite the fact that my Order still hadn't Emerged, I had this single clue about it now. I'd realised it during my very first week here, soaking in a tub in the bathhouse - showers weren't good enough, I had to be submerged at least partially to restore my magic. The trouble was, there were several Orders I knew of that recharged using water, but none I could pinpoint specifically to bathing.

Heptian Toads needed the rain, Merrows needed the turning tides, and Calypsos needed to swim under the moon, so none of those Orders were really lining up for me.

My thoughts turned to stealing a gold cloak from a Reaper to help me sneak into their quarters, then moved to my other plot. Kaiser Brimtheon.

I knew the rules better than ever now; I couldn't kill other neophytes and I was forbidden from entering the other Vaults too. But that assumed I got caught. If I laid a plan well enough, covered all bases, perhaps I could pull it off. I'd been training tirelessly in mental shields and all the cardinal magics the Reapers had imparted to us. The elemental and combat practise that was held in the Vault of Frost was proving I could do this. Perhaps not yet, but soon.

One of my greatest challenges in practise with the other conscripts had been disguising the fact that my left hand did not cast magic. I had to focus hard, but I could weave magic around it from my right hand and make it seem as though I was casting with both. As of yet, it seemed, no one had figured out my dark secret and I didn't plan on them uncovering it either. It would only be more ammunition for ridicule. A one-handed caster making it as a warrior was pretty laughable, but so long as I hid it well enough, none of my comrades would ever learn of my weakness.

A low chirruping sound made me jolt out of my thoughts and I found a small blue lizard crawling between two ferns. It had tiny wings, a flat sort of head and large eyes, like a little dragon. It chirruped again, cocking its head to one side, seeming friendly enough. I didn't recognise it as a Fae Order, but the thought made me hesitant as I moved towards it through the pool.

"Are you Fae?" I asked suspiciously and the creature chirruped again, observing me with dark, reptilian eyes.

"Oh boy, it's good up here. Yes, I like it here, I do."

I turned sharply at the male voice, finding a Raincarver stepping into my pool. He was a huge guy, his skin paler than was usual for the people of Cascada and his hair lightest blonde, just a smooth sheen of it cut short. His eyes were blue and he had freckles across his cheeks, his face round and a smile easily lifting his lips.

I glanced back to find the lizard gone, but before I could wonder where it had gotten to, a wail of utter pain carried through the pipe that curved over the tub and spewed warm water into the pool, making my heart lurch in shock.

"Did you hear that?" I gasped, swimming towards the pipe and listening for it again.

A tingle of magic stirred beneath my skin, something dark and potent writhing through me, but then it was gone, and I didn't know if it had come from me or that pipe.

"I hear the sloshing of the water, swishing and swirling," the newcomer said. "I like that sound."

"No, it was a scream. A man, I think." I rounded on him, finding him leaning back against the pool's stone wall, looking relaxed.

"Water does not scream," he pointed out as if I was a fool.

"I know," I muttered, straining my ears as I listened for it again, but all I could hear now was the rushing of the water.

"Pipes do not scream," he added.

"I know," I hissed. "What did you say your name was?"

"I did not say it."

"Well? What shall I call you?"

"People call me Galomp." He smiled then looked to the pipe. "You could fit inside that pipe and slide down to your screamer, wee, wee, wee all the way into the belly of the Keep. Oh boy, what fun that would be. Pity I would not fit."

"Yeah, except I don't have a death wish," I said, frowning as that scream lingered in my mind. I'd been hearing more and more sounds like that, disturbing me in the night, waking me and setting my blood chilling with the ruckus. Male and female, the different tones to their wails making me wonder if a host of lost souls were lurking in the depths of the isle where Never Keep stood.

The Raincarver servants who worked down in the passages had assured me there were no levels lower than the one where my quarters were, and I was undecided as to whether to bring it up with the Reapers. What if they thought I was losing my mind? What if they dismissed me from the Keep? What if they punished me and locked me in that horrible iron gibbet in the refectory, accusing me of lying or besmirching their names?

"And what shall I call you?" Galomp asked brightly, clearly not disturbed by mention of screams in the pipes. "I have heard people call you lots of things. Runt and freak and sea urchin. Which is your favourite?"

"None of them," I snarled, but at his wounded expression, I softened my features a little. He didn't seem to be aware that those names were insults. Or at least, he didn't seem to think I'd mind being called them.

"Oh no. Oh dear," he said quickly. "I do not want to make you sad. Did I make you sad? Sometimes I say things that are not meant to be bad, but they are bad."

"No, it's fine, Galomp," I said with a sigh. "My name's Everest."

"Oh boy, what a name. I do like it. Miss Everest. Ever. Rest. Ever, ever rest. Never ever rest."

"Stop it," I gasped, my mother's lasting words to me circling in my mind . Never rest, Everest.

He flinched a little. "I've gone and done it now. Really gone and done it." He hit his own forehead with the palm of his large hand.

"Don't worry about it," I muttered, moving to the edge of the pool and climbing out. It wasn't like he could have known what those words meant to me.

My dagger was on the stone surface hidden within my clothes and I guided the water off of my skin. It took a few tries, but when I managed it, I let it fall back into the pool, leaving myself perfectly dry. I left my swimwear in place, my favoured black and gold two-piece sitting snugly against my skin as I pulled on my red cropped shirt and matching red trousers with the blue seashells on the pockets. Then I picked up my dagger, running my thumb over the newly-etched name of Kaiser Brimtheon on its hilt, slipping it into the secret fold I'd sewn onto my trousers to conceal it at my hip.

"Are you going somewhere fun? Can I join you? I do like fun," Galomp said eagerly, standing up in the pool and revealing his full height. He was enormous, well over six feet.

"I-" My words fell still on my lips as I spotted that little blue lizard again.

It was hovering on its wings down at the bottom of the pool house near one of the stone walls. It landed on the stone, slithering away into a crack, then appearing a moment later out of another one a few feet away. The creature did it time and again, appearing from crack after crack and I might have been crazy, but I could have sworn it was painting a shape there. Something just big enough to be a door.

I made my way down the steps and ladders that led to the ground floor, my bare feet hitting the warm flagstones at the bottom. Breaking into a jog, I pushed through the leaves of a giant fern and found myself in the private space behind one of the pools. The lizard was no longer there, but I could see it now, that subtle shape in the wall, following the lines of the grey stones.

I stepped closer, thinking of those screams, knowing I shouldn't follow a path that wasn't meant to be found. But I'd never been one for turning from danger.

I placed my palm to the stones, pressing my weight into it and pushing hard. It didn't move and I pursed my lips, stepping back to assess it as I drew on my magic and thought on how I might unlock it. A rustle of leaves made me twist around, my pulse rising and my right hand ready to cast, but I found only Galomp there in his long blue bathing briefs with water gathering in a puddle at his feet.

"I can help you, yes I can." He strode past me excitedly, throwing his weight into the hidden door, but it didn't move.

A dark, roiling sensation in my chest made me frown as I stepped closer to the door, pushing it while Galomp continued to shove it too. A sense of magic slid over me then fizzled away at once and a grinding of stone sounded before the door crashed open.

"Shit." I glanced back through the ferns, fearing someone had heard that, quickly casting a silencing shield around us, though it was a bit late for that.

Galomp turned to me, gesturing to the open door with pride, but I was fairly certain I'd been the one to unlock the magic securing it, I just had no idea how I'd done it. "This way, Miss Everest."

"Just Everest. And you should stay here. No point in both of us getting punished if this goes to hell."

"Oh bother, but I would like to come. I do like secrets. This can be ours." His shoulders dropped in disappointment, and I stepped past him into the dark passageway, the low chirruping of that little lizard sounding somewhere within the shadows.

"Alright, but if we're shoved in the gibbet for this then don't go blaming me," I whispered.

"Oh boy, oh boy." He raced into the passageway.

"Can you close the door?" I asked, not liking the idea of shutting ourselves in here, but it was a dead giveaway if a Reaper stumbled across that open passage.

Galomp heaved the door shut, the heavy stone slotting back into place and blotting out all light. Thankfully, I had been practising casting Faelights this week and I willed one into existence now, the glowing amber ball of light rising above my head to brighten the passage. The Reapers had instructed us on this illumination magic in the Galaseum, and I'd worked hard to master it quickly.

The tunnel was narrow, damp and cold, winding away into the nothingness and promising only bad omens. I unsheathed my dagger, always feeling steady with it in my hand, keeping it tight in my left palm and leaving my other hand ready to cast. I was naturally right-handed, so training my left to work a blade as well as my right was a challenge, but every day the muscles grew stronger from the drills I put myself through. My quarters were now a disarray of roughly-made targets and every evening I worked on my throwing and fighting skills, forcing my left hand to train harder than my right.

That low chirrup sounded again and I hurried down the passage, the floor beginning to slope sharply downwards beneath my bare feet, the rough, cold stone biting into my skin.

A glow appeared up ahead and I realised the lizard's tail was alight with a reddish gleam, curling up and over its body to light the floor in front of it. It glanced back with a clicking sound in its throat and I steeled myself as I followed, the sound of Galomp's heavy footfalls echoing my near-silent ones.

Following strange creatures into dark passages probably wasn't the best idea I'd ever had, and when we rounded into a narrower tunnel, I was even more certain of that as a distant scream echoed out of the dark.

I fell still, glancing back at Galomp, his eyes shining with the reflection of my Faelight as he came to a halt too.

"Tell me you heard the scream this time?" I whispered despite the silencing shield around us.

"No screams, Miss Everest," he said, shaking his head sadly like he was more upset about disappointing me than the potential horrors that awaited us at the end of this passage.

The lizard disappeared around another corner, taking the light of its glowing tail with it and I clenched my teeth, forging on. I had to know what lay down here, what was causing that sound. Maybe it was just the wind entering through a sea cave, the sound distorted, making me think it was something more ominous than it really was. But that thought held little weight, especially when it seemed I was the only one who could hear it.

Maybe my mind really had cracked at last, Galomp and the tiny blue lizard just a figment of my imagination along with those screams. But then I heard another high-pitched wail and I quickened my pace, knowing it was real. Something terrible was happening and I had to find out what it was.

The tunnels sloped ever lower, winding deep underneath Never Keep until I was sure we must be deeper than even my quarters. Just as I had suspected. Either the servants had lied to me, or they didn't know about this place. I had the feeling that whatever lurked down here was the kind of secret that would swiftly see me executed if the Reapers ever discovered I knew it, and I shuddered at the memory of those bolts being driven into The Cobra's body.

I glanced back at Galomp again, finding him smiling around at the place in wonder instead of fear.

"You should go back," I urged. "Nothing good can come of this if we're discovered. I don't think you realise the danger we're in and I don't want to be responsible for walking you to your death."

"I am not afraid, Miss Everest. I like danger. It is quite fun. It makes my heart go ba-bomp."

"It will make your heart go ka-splat if we're caught and skewered on the end of a Reaper's sword," I hissed, trying to get through to him, but he just shrugged his big shoulders and kept walking.

I moved into a jog to stay ahead of him, wanting to at least face whatever was coming first if I was accidentally luring this guy to a grisly end.

We caught up with the lizard and its eyes burned brightly at me before it slipped away into a crack in the floor. I cursed, dropping down and lowering my Faelight to figure out where it had gone, finding a wide iron grate set into the stone floor. I wrapped my fingers around it, pressing my silencing shield over it before tugging and forcing it up. The sound of rushing water reached me from below and I sent my Faelight down into the dark, unable to see the lizard's glowing tail or anything of much at all through the gloom.

My Faelight illuminated a huge underground cavern, a river coiling through its heart and a large wooden boat bobbing on its surface, tethered to a dock. My heart thrashed as I recognised that boat as the one Harlon had taken with the Reapers. He had come this way. He could be close. But then…those screams. Had some of them come from him? The thought made my skin prickle with horror, but I forced the idea away. Why would the Reapers hurt their own? It didn't add up. It had to be something else.

A vague glow disappearing into another tunnel beyond the dock told me where the lizard was heading, and I focused on my water magic. We had been working on casting ice in the past week, shaping it into platforms out on the wild sea, so this should be simple enough. I frowned as I worked to make a slide out of ice, the straight, flat expanse of white shimmering into existence and I smiled as I completed it. It was wide enough for me and Galomp to use, and I glanced back at him to ask whether he was up for this. His big ass grin said he was, so I didn't question him again.

"Close the grate behind you," I instructed, and he nodded.

I sat down and let myself fly down the slide, crashing into the icy river and losing my breath from the shock of it. I kicked for the surface, a huge wave slamming into me as Galomp hit the water crying, "Wa-hay!"

Drenched and shivering, I climbed up on the rocky bank by the dock, quickly gathering the water from my body with my control over the element and sending it back into the river. Galomp did the same for himself as he came stomping out of the water, and I melted my ice slide so there was no sign of our passage.

"Come on," I urged, falling into a run as I chased after the lizard, thinking of Harlon and wondering if I might just get to see him at long last.

Galomp jogged after me as we entered a fine passage with paintings of the zodiac constellations on the golden walls. There were statues of each sign set into alcoves, little shrines to each one lit with everflames at their bases.

The stone floor changed to white marble tiles and I slowed my pace as we reached a tall metal gate in the wall ahead. I gazed through the gaps into a dark tunnel beyond, resting my hand on it and pushing, already knowing it would be locked, sensing a magical barrier holding it in place. I cursed, resting my forehead to the gate and gripping the iron bars, trying to see into the gloom beyond, the faintest flicker of the lizard's tail telling of where it was. But I couldn't follow.

The magic that hummed through the iron was powerful, far stronger than the magic that had been sealing the door shut in the Poseidon Spa. Despite having managed to shatter that somehow, I had no idea how to do so again. It had probably been a fluke.

"Our game is over," Galomp sighed in disappointment.

"Yeah," I whispered, thinking of Harlon and hating how much it felt like I was letting him down. If only I could reach him, to see he was okay, then-

A shuddering wave of power echoed through the gate and it clunked, swinging forward with such suddenness that I went stumbling through it.

"By the ocean," I gasped, turning to look at Galomp in case he'd had anything to do with that, but he just stepped through, looking around keenly.

"The game continues," he said eagerly. "Oh boy. What a day."

"Was that you?" I demanded.

"Was what me? Oh bother, did I do something wrong? Did I make you mad, Miss Everest?" He flinched like he thought I might strike him.

"No, the gate. Did you open the gate?" I pushed.

He shook his head quickly.

"Perhaps the magic permits neophytes," I murmured, unsure why that would be true but unable to come up with a better explanation.

I forged on down the dark tunnel, no daylight finding its way here, and the fire sconces were unlit. But there was a light growing up ahead, a dim blue glow that flashed intermittently. I extinguished my Faelight, not wanting to draw attention if anyone came this way and darkness fell over us.

A terrible, blood-curdling scream came from ahead and fear ripped through my chest before I starting running, toward it instead of away. Because I had to know, I had to see what was happening.

I rounded into a chamber where a group of gold-cloaked Reapers stood with their backs to us and Galomp's arms closed around me from behind. I grabbed my dagger, alarm racing through me and magic flaring in my veins before he placed me down again beside the arching entranceway out of sight.

"Hide and seek," he whispered in my ear, though our voices were still hidden within my silencing shield and I was thankful I hadn't stabbed him. He'd just saved my ass from being seen. "But I hope they will not seek."

I shifted closer to the archway, peering into the chamber where a huge glass altar stood at its centre. A man was lying on it, completely naked with runes carved into his skin, blood dripping from them and some potent power making him writhe within its command. My heart juddered as I recognised him. He was a Stonebreaker, one who had been declared dead, his body found in a passage in the heart of the Keep and the murderer still being hunted. But here he was, alive and…not well.

The Reapers began chanting, a low rumble rising to a crescendo and making the man writhe harder still. A scream pitched from his lungs and he reached for something above him that I couldn't perceive, like he was seeing something beyond this plane of existence, or perhaps he was just fucking hallucinating because of whatever power they had imbued in his skin with those runes. Why had the Reapers lied about his death? Had they been keeping him here ever since his murder had been announced? And what the fuck were they even doing to him?

As I watched, the nothingness above him shifted and writhed. It was just a thickening of darkness in the air, but as it coiled towards the man, he screamed like never before and horror rocked through me as I watched, having no idea what I was seeing, and before I could figure it out, Galomp tugged me back.

I turned to look at him, finding him pressed to the wall. "We should not look in there. I have a bad feeling. I do not want to look."

The sound of the Reapers' chanting came this way and I grabbed Galomp's arm as my heart lurched, dragging him back the way we had come, running as fast as possible.

I reached the iron gate which had swung shut, gabbing hold of it, but it was locked once more. And this time, it wouldn't shift. Panic rose in me as I rattled it hard, glancing back and hearing that chanting coming toward us. We were fucked. So fucking fucked.

A chirrup made me look around and I found the blue lizard lighting a path with its tail down a passage to our left which I hadn't even noticed in the shadows. I raced after it and Galomp followed, placing my faith in the strange creature and chasing it up to a stone sculpture of the Libra scales set into the wall. The lizard jumped into one of the scales with a clicking sound in its throat and the scales tilted, a hidden door suddenly opening in the wall to the right.

I grabbed the lizard, running into the passage with Galomp in tow, and shoving the door shut behind us, keeping the noise within my silencing shield.

We were in a narrow spiral staircase and I ran up the steep stone steps at speed, up, up, up in a never-ending whirl that had me dizzy and panting hard by the time we reached their summit. There was nothing but a wall in the darkened space at their peak, the space here so narrow that Galomp was pressed right up beside me as he reached the top of the stairs huffing and puffing.

I held the lizard towards the wall hopefully, its tail igniting with that red glow and its wings spreading as it launched from my palm. It landed on the wall, moving up it and slipping through a crack, proving another door lay there.

I pressed my palm to it, that same potent magic rising then falling away at my touch and I shoved hard, trying to budge the door, and it swung wide. We went stumbling out into a storage cupboard, rows of wooden shelves filled with dusty crystal balls, scrying bowls and decks of tarot cards filling the space around me.

Galomp screamed and I wheeled around in terror, thinking of that horrible nothingness above the man on that altar, but finding him batting away a cobweb along with the spider inside.

"Fucking hell, Galomp." I held my heart, laughing uneasily as he flicked his hand to get the last of the spiderweb off it.

"I do not like things with eight legs," he said, shuddering.

"You went down there in those stars-forsaken tunnels and a spider is what you're worried about?" I said breathlessly.

He shoved the stone door shut and shrugged his big shoulders. "It was not so bad."

"You saw the Reapers, right? And what they were doing?"

"I did not look."

"You didn't see the altar, or that man on it? That Stonebreaker? The one they said was dead just a few days ago?" I pushed in desperation, trying to remember the man's name, but I couldn't recall it.

"I did not look," he repeated, then glanced around the storage space and I dropped the silencing shield around us as disappointment rattled through me. "It is nice in here. I like it a lot. Except for the spiders."

"We have to tell someone," I said, marching for the wooden door that surely led back into Never Keep. But I had no idea where.

I glanced around for the lizard before exiting, but there was no sign of it, so I slipped through the door, recognising the bright passage as part of the heart of the Keep.

Galomp followed me out of the room, and of all the Fae to be discover me here with Galomp in his bathers, why did it have to be them? Alina shrieked and pointed us out, slapping Ransom on the shoulder while their friends looked between us eagerly. "Look, the freak and Galomp! They were fucking in that cupboard!"

"Shut up, Alina," I snarled, turning and heading away from them, needing to find someone to tell about what we'd discovered. But who? How was I going to tell anyone about this? The Reapers had been down there. They were involved in whatever I'd witnessed. They were covering up that Stonebreaker's death so they could strap him to an altar and do…fuck even knew what to him.

"What did she just say to me?" Alina snapped, but I didn't turn back.

I made it into the Heliacal Courtyard where groups of Fae were milling around in their separate elemental groups, glares passing between them.

I looked between them, trying to find a face I could trust, someone to confide in. But even the Raincarvers shrank from me and Galomp, clearly wanting nothing to do with us.

A blast of ice crashed into me from behind, sending me flying and I hit the flagstones hard, skidding across them and landing in the centre of the courtyard.

Laughter echoed out from the those around me and I shoved myself upright in anger, raising my hands and sending shards of ice flying back at Alina. Ransom threw up a shield of water that was warm enough to melt them on impact then dropped it with a vicious look twisting his features.

I was just that odd girl again, being hunted throughout Castelorain, forced to face the wrath of him and his friends time and again. They grouped around me now and Galomp looked from me to them, scurrying forward to stand at my side.

"Don't make enemies out of these assholes, Galomp," I muttered, readying for their next attack. "Go back to the Vault."

"I will stay here, Miss Everest," he insisted.

I noticed the Sky Witch standing with her two demonic looking friends near a stone fountain that was set into the wall, her gaze trailing over me then to my opponents before falling back on her companions, our fight clearly of no interest to her.

Alina's two eyes slid together into one bulbous orb, her Cyclops Order awakening and my pulse quickened at the sight. She stepped forward, her psychic power slamming into my mental shields and I worked to keep her out of my head, but Ransom began casting at me alongside his friends to jolt my focus.

Blasts of ice and shots of water pummelled me and I fought to shield, hardening my skin with ice as a protective layer, but their strikes only grew more harsh.

Galomp engaged some of their friends, blasts of power tearing between them and I worked to defend myself from the furious blasts of four Fae as they combined their power against me.

I knocked two of Ransom's friends flying with blasts of water, their cries of pain echoing through the courtyard as they hit a wall. Ransom used the distraction to cast a whip of water around my ankle and I wasn't fast enough to break it, slamming down onto my back.

Alina pounced, coming down on top of me with a victorious smile. I threw my fist into her kidney over and over as I fought to get her off, but her palm slapped against my head and her Cyclops power drove into me so furiously that my mental shields cracked and splintered.

I battled to keep them up, desperate to shove her out of my head as lashes of water snared my arms and forced me to lay still beneath her. Ice snaked across my chest and I didn't know who was casting it but that terrible power slithered into my chest and coiled around my heart. My entire focus was honed on melting it away and freeing myself from its threat, my pulse rioting as I tried to escape. With my attention on my mental shields wavering, Alina got in my mind, her big eye all I could see as she dominated my thoughts and demanded truths from my lips.

"Why were you and Galomp in that cupboard? Were you fucking each other? Were you Galomping with Galomp?" she laughed loudly, all eyes in the courtyard on me now as the truth came out of my lips. I struggled to keep it back but she urged it on, her power thick and terrible inside my head, and I couldn't find a way to force her from my thoughts.

"The Reapers are doing something terrible beneath the Keep. They had a Stonebreaker down there – he was marked with runes and some awful nothingness was creeping closer to him," I cried and silence fell as everyone heard me.

Alina stared at me in shock then whipped her hand back from my head, her mental power snatched away from me in the same moment. "She's crazy – her mind is addled. Ergh, it's disgusting ." She reared away from me, moving back to Ransom's side and my half-brother laughed openly at me.

Plenty of others joined in and I shoved myself upright, sending a blast of ice shards at Alina's head. They would have hit had Ransom not moved quickly enough, throwing up a shield, but several of my shards scored down his arm and made him snarl.

Galomp was still fighting with Ransom's friends, huge blasts of water tearing away from him and as I watched, he charged at them, slamming into them full force and sending them flying with the strike of his body alone.

Everyone around me was laughing, muttering or sniggering and my eyes met those of the Sky Witch for a moment, the only one in the courtyard who seemed moved by what I'd said. In the depths of those storm grey eyes, I saw a river of belief, like perhaps for some unknown reason she accepted my truth.

Heat rose in my veins as the laughter grew and a burning sensation poured through my veins, rage mixed with embarrassment. It coursed through me like an inferno, and suddenly my body was shifting, a ripple of energy rushing down my spine and my form changed at once.

I landed on four large white paws, my clothes hanging loose around my new form, and a hiss of surprise left my lips. I'd Emerged, my Order was here and it looked like I was some kind of large cat. And in the puddle of water over the flagstones, I saw my reflection staring back at me. A leopard of some sort, a Relic Leopard perhaps, though their fur was tanned, not white like mine with these dark black spots, and I was smaller than one of them too. They could grow as big as horses, but I was closer to Fae-sized.

"What is she?" Alina muttered to Ransom.

"A fleabag cat by the looks of it," Ransom sneered.

Galomp came lumbering over to me, leaving his opponents nursing their wounds on the floor then scooped me into his arms and carried me away with impossible ease despite my size, petting my head. My claws dug into his shoulders a little as shock bound my limbs and I simply let Galomp carry me away towards the Vault of Frost, finding myself in a brand new body with no real knowledge of what my Order was, or if it would be something powerful enough to gild my name with my father's pride.