Trulian had been the first to believe in her. His resistance meant that maybe even she had crossed the line.

“Can you even do it?”

She bit her lip and ran her hands back through her nearly black hair. “I don’t know, but what other choice is there? You know what they’re going to do if we don’t stop them. You were in the meeting, Tru.”

He glanced off to the mountains beyond her head. “This can’t be the answer. They’re monsters, but …”

“It’s the only way. I’ve seen it.”

“Seen it?” He frowned. “Again? You didn’t tell me.”

“Oh, Tru,” she whispered, all the secrets that lay between them clogging her throat. All the visions she never dared to tell him about as her mind shattered day after day along the campaign.

“Please,” he pleaded.

“Step back. I must work,” she said. “To save our very souls.”

And then, before Trulian could talk her out of it, Mei lifted her brown arms toward the tri peaks of the House of Shadows. A bright, blinding light built between her palms, and she unleashed.

“Kerrigan,” Fordham said, cradling her head in his lap.

He must have made it across the barrier after it disgorged her. Her eyes fluttered open. Everything hurt. Her magic was barely a flicker within her. She’d never had a vision like that before. Never known that she could glimpse the past and not the future.

“Ford,” she croaked.

“I’m here.”

“You did it!” Wynter cried. “You made the crack bigger. I can stick my entire hand through.”

And for the first time in a thousand years, someone other than Fordham Ollivier stuck their hand through the barrier wall.

“Let’s keep trying!”

Fordham ignored Wynter. “We’re going to get you to a healer.”

“Ford,” she repeated uncertainly.

How were they going to get back to the other side of the barrier and through the mountain tunnels? No one would let them pass. Just thinking of it hurt her head.

She heard a sound that was all too familiar. Wings beating on the wind. She turned her head and found Netta flying toward them. Fordham lifted her into his arms and carried her to his dragon, taking off without a backward glance.

13

The Plot

ARBOR

Arbor stepped forward out of the gloom of the chamber. Her bright blue eyes cast toward the dragon flying away from their home. Her cousin and their salvation strapped on its back. She dropped her hood, revealing the quintessential raven hair braided back out of her face.

“He stole her from us!” Wynter screamed, seething.

Aisling put a hand on her shoulder, the closest she would come to revealing the true nature of their relationship. But Arbor knew the thing that Wynter could not reveal to her court. How her heart longed for her bodyguard and attendant. Such things were not allowed in this court. Especially not of a royal.