Chapter 42

Zevander lies awake beside sleeping Maevyth, torn by guilt over the darkness he’s exposed and the growing instability from his lack of vivicantem. He fears the day Maevyth will see only futility in him. While tracing her skin, he finds a raised scar that glows with a familiar sigil—the death glyph—and feels an ancient, watchful power that even his scorpions seem to revere.

Touching the mark unleashes vivid images: cells, mutilation, pleading eyes, cold lips, stars, and screams. The visions crash over him like returning memories—manacles biting, bruises, a pale girl with gray eyes, his hand on her shoulder, and the silvery glow of the sign. The sensations mirror the first time he kissed Maevyth in his office, deepening his unease.

Compelled to touch the sigil again, Zevander is hit by more flashes—black flame, warmth, starshade, hooves, and agony—until he gasps and recoils. Then recognition settles: the girl who once spoke to him in chains, whose voice he clung to in torment, was Maevyth. The mark on her back is the one he put there nearly two centuries ago when he defied the gods and claimed her as his mate.

Reeling, Zevander returns to Maevyth’s side and traces the mark’s edges, memories restoring with painful clarity. He’s horrified he had forgotten the face that once saved him from despair and now realizes their fates have been entwined since that night, the sigil a conduit to buried truth and a test of his fraying sanity.