Chapter 8

Raeve stalks a blood-soaked suite, practicing throws with Kaan’s blades at Rekk Zharos’s mutilated corpse. She realizes her Other inflicted the torture she’d planned, leaving Rekk burned, flayed, and eyeless, avenging Líri’s scarring and Essi’s death. A faint silver shimmer coils around Raeve’s wrist, but she sets the oddity aside.

Utris arrives, confirms their arrangement, and helps cut Rekk down. Raeve threatens secrecy and notices Utris’s Moltenmaw-feathered braids that recall Kaan. As they prepare the disposal, a parchment lark slips free; Raeve opens it and reads Kaan’s warning of a coming moonfall predicted within roughly seventeen to twenty cycles. He urges her to take shelter underground—at Mah’s bunker or within fortress burrows—and notes Líri is being escorted to a hidden southern outpost Utris can find. He cautions her to tell no one.

Shaken, Raeve hides the lark and lies to Utris about its contents. Utris produces a heavily runed shroud that renders the corpse unseen, claiming unusual payment for it. They bundle Rekk, and Utris ignites a cleansing inferno in the suite to erase evidence, as planned.

Raeve resists the urge to make a public spectacle with Rekk’s missing heart and instead prioritizes caution. She and Utris carry the shrouded body toward Bothaim’s secret tunnels, intending to feed Rekk to the anthe, which devours flesh and souls, ensuring his permanent oblivion. Raeve resolves to focus on the moonfall warning after the disposal is complete.