Chapter 30

Lily excitedly recounts the ball to Teller while Diem wrestles with the place of her mortal family in her new life. Talk of a secret canal with a royal bloodlock reveals Teller can open it, confirming he shares Auralie’s blood—reassurance that steadies Diem’s shaken identity.

Alixe arrives in a panic and ushers Diem away, masking Teller with illusion and directing him to remain in the palace. Sorae’s distress mirrors Diem’s dread as they fly to Andrei’s marsh cottage. Outside, Luther stands blood-soaked amid decapitated Royal Guards and begs Diem not to enter.

Inside, Diem finds the cottage drenched in blood, slurs scrawled on the walls, and Andrei’s body in the kitchen. Her healer’s mind notes signs of a struggle, a fatal throat cut, and postmortem stabbing. A jeweled Fortosian dagger marks the murderer as Descended. Diem’s grief hardens into a vow of merciless retribution, urged on by the inner command to fight.

When Luther refuses to leave her, Diem orders Sorae to take him away, then succumbs to her grief. Her magic erupts—an annihilating sphere that evaporates blood, melts weapons and jewelry, vaporizes the house, and even consumes Andrei’s body, leaving a smoking crater and Diem bare amid the ruins.

Luther returns, unharmed by her power, and holds Diem through hours of burning anguish until her magic exhausts itself. As night falls, he carries her to Sorae. Diem insists on returning to tell Teller herself, and they fly from the scar where her home—and father—once stood, her grief forged into a promise of vengeance.